The Float Spa are this year’s main Brighton Yoga Festival sponsors. As a newly opened venture in Brighton & Hove, they already look like they’re very much at home and have made quite an impression on everyone who has visited them so far. Read on to find out more about their unique therapies, Yoga classes and other complementary treatments, and then make your way down there to experience it for yourself before everyone else does!
If you’ve not already heard – The Float Spa is Brighton & Hove’s new hub for health and wellbeing. With awhole range of Yoga classes on offer, as well as Pilates, and other complementary therapies such as massage, eating psychology, homeopathy, hypnobirthing, hypnotherapy and so much more; it’s also the only place in Brighton & Hove to offer floatation therapy.
Floatation “is a practice where you float effortlessly in a special pod of Epsom Salt water. Without the constant noise of analysing the world around you, your body lowers its levels of cortisol (which is the main chemical component of stress). Your brain releases elevated levels of dopamine and endorphins” The Float Spa says. While floatation does indeed offer all of this (and I can attest to
this now), it also offers a whole lot more. I took a trip to Hove to visit Camille and The Float spa, and here’s what happened….
As a first-time-‘floater’, I wasn’t sure what to expect when on the way to meet Camille, the proud and passionate owner of this new venture. Upon approaching, it’s obvious that every little detail of the spa is thought of; The Float Spa is set back off the main road, on the quieter Third Avenue in Hove, which ensures you’re eased into a calmer state of mind before even arriving at the door!
This is also an important aspect to acknowledge when leaving too – the difference between stepping out of deep relaxation into a crowded street is entirely different than stepping back onto a leafy avenue and gradually easing into the ‘real world’ again.
Entering The Float Spa will instantly put anyone at ease; and you’ll immediately be welcomed and offered water upon arrival.
Camille’s shining eyes and expressive way of talking about floatation therapy makes it obvious that this is a labour of love, and her passion for wanting others to realise and receive the benefits of this type of therapy means she’s put a huge amount of effort into every aspect of The Float Spa. “I wanted to give others what I had found – the most perfect treatment; after I found floating I was able to take a whole new perspective on life, think more positively, I was able to look inside and find the things that bothered me and learn how to change them, the result is I am happier than ever”, Camille says.
If you’re looking for a sense of real, deep relaxation, then this is the place to come. Once you allow yourself to fully let go, the salts (23 bags of Epsom salts weighing 25kg each are poured into each pod) really start to get to work. After just a few minutes in the ‘pod’, the effortless-ness of floating actually made me forget my body, and there’s not much else that can take effect so quickly. “Even the most stressed people come out calm and relaxed” She tells me while showing me around, and I can definitely
agree she’s right about that.
While I could feel the muscles in my back releasing tension, and my spine literally lengthening and decompressing, others who suffer from chronic pain, tension or injury are also likely to receive huge benefits from the therapy, as it works to deeply relax bodily tissue. The body is allowed to rest and rejuvenate when in a floatation pod – even more so than when lying on a mattress.
Floatation therapy doesn’t just have physical benefits though – if you’re into meditation or you’re interested in starting a practice, then this could be just the opportunity to dive in. Each session is 60 minutes long, which means – yes – you’ll be spending 60 minutes on your own, with no company other than the voices in your head. This is the perfect way to bring yourself into meditation, and many people have actually reported having a deeper and more profound meditation experience while floating.
“About 40 minutes into your float your brain stops producing its normal Alpha waves and starts churning out Theta waves. The Theta state is typically associated with advanced meditative techniques and provides an immense clarity of thought and an experience of the pure essence of being. Floatation is a tool that makes this state easily accessible to anyone.” Says Camille
Here’s just a few benefits The Float Spa promises:
- Encourages creativity.
- Aids meditation .
- Stimulates endorphins in the brain.
- Helps to reduce stress, anxiety and depression.
- Promotes skin and hair health
Healthy Body
- Improves athletic performance and eliminates fatigue .
- Aids weight loss and reduces bloating.
- Speeds rehabilitation from injury.
- Has a painkilling effect.
- Relaxes muscles and joints
Healthy You
- Improves sleep and encourages deep rest .
- Enhances learning.
- Changes ingrained behavior, such as addictions, phobias and fears .
- Reduces stress
After a 60 minute session, pop on your free pair of flip-flops (the salts dry white, and The Float Spa are so kind as to not want to ruin your shoes!), there’s a shower to wash off the magnesium salts, and a special vanity room and bathrooms to use – complete with everything you might need to leave looking refreshed.
So, after the therapy, hot shower, and sporting a new pair of flip flops, The Float Spa offer one more treat in the way of a specially made sorbet and relaxing herbal tea. There really is no end to the attention to detail here, right down to the calming music played while relaxing after a session.
The staff are all big fans of floatation therapy too; with the receptionist on the day telling me she first heard about it through word of mouth, and then found that floating helped to get her ‘in the meditation zone without so much mental effort’. It’s so popular now that books have been written about it, including ‘The Deep Self’ by John C. Lily, and ‘The Book Of Floating’ by Michael Hutchinson.
A real alternative to other studios and therapy rooms – The Float Spa isn’t about shaping your eyebrows, lazering cellulite or painting your nails – it’s about improving your whole state of being; mind, body and soul. Whether it’s a Yoga class you’re looking for, another complementary therapy, or a chance to try the wonderful and unique floatation therapy sessions, The Float Spa is definitely the place to visit for all your wellbeing needs.
Upcoming events at The Float Spa:
6th June: Acro Yoga Flying Therapeutics Course Starts with BYF’s very own Chetana Thornton!
7th June: Money Mapping Meditation Workshop
15th June: Eating Psychology Course
17th June: 4-Week Hypnobirthing Course Starts
Visit The Float Spa at www.thefloatspa.co.uk
Find out more about this year’s Brighton Yoga Festival at: www.BrightonYogaFestival.org
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