Continuing on our series of mindfulness, we now have some great options to practice mindfulness in Shanghai. One of them that I’ll be sharing with you about is floating.
Floating is the act of letting your body float on a saline solution in a float tank that can either be enclosed or open.
How is this related to mindfulness you ask? Good question!
We’ve talked about meditation and how that can help train up your mindfulness. And the beauty of meditation is that it can be done anywhere. The drawbacks; however, are your environmental distractions, like room temperature, noise, lighting, smells, body positioning.
Floating takes care of all those distractions as you float inside a temperature-controlled tank. You can turn off all the lights and sounds and just be left with just your thoughts – or lack thereof!
It’s a great tool to help people start off on their mindfulness journey, or to elevate them to the next level of comfort and experience!
Luckily for you, living in such a dynamic and fast-paced city such as Shanghai, you now have multiple floating venues.
I have met up with the owners of Floatasian; 2 brothers: Theodor and Andreas Martin, and picked their brains on floating and their facility.
Theo first heard about floating from a Joe Rogan podcast and wanted to try it; but there weren’t any around Shanghai at the time. So he went back to Sweden (where he’s from) and researched it, worked as an intern in a floating facility, created a business plan and found partners to begin his new business venture.
Andreas started floating because he had lower back pain and it went away when he started floating. The pain would come back whenever he stopped floating.
Together, they founded Floatasian, a beautiful space of tranquility and luxury. Once you step in to Floatasian, you are quickly put at ease as the friendly receptionist guides you towards the beautiful seating area. They engage in pleasant conversation with you on what to expect and you are then led to the changing rooms and then to the private tank room where you have your own personal rain shower.
Once you’re all showered up, you merely step to the other side of the shower and into the tank where you will spend 1 hour floating in a surreal capsule of saline solution.
After you shower off all the saline from your body, you are then further rewarded with the use of their personal care products partner Aesop brand which alone is already worth the visit!
You then return back to the seating area, almost in a zen-like state, where you discuss your experience with Theo and/or Andreas as they serve you the most delicious kale chips and ginger juice; that I’ve ever tasted at least!
There actually have been numerous documented studies on floating and how deep relaxation can help revitalize the body. When I wrote about the fight-or-flight response, I also mentioned that prolonged exposure to the fight-or-flight response can cause inflammation through out the body. Well, rest & relaxation is the yin to the yang. It is the soothing parasympathetic nervous system response to the wired-up, intense sympathetic nervous system response.
You need to allow the body to return to equilibrium and not be in a constant state of stress.
As mentioned above, Shanghai is fast-paced. It’s “New York City on steroids!” as one friend puts it. And it’s hitting you with all sorts of environmental stresses, from strangers bumping into you in the metro, to doors slamming in your face, to avoiding all the spit on the road. If you don’t give your body and mind a chance to recover, then your immune system will be compromised and then you get sick.
So why not give Floatasian a try!
They have generously offered you Olive Branchers a special 30% discount off your first time session – from ¥480 down to ¥342.
What better way to rejuvenate and reward yourself after an intense ACT session!
You can find them here.
www.floatasian.cn
To make a reservation, add Theo to your WeChat:
Follow their official WeChat account:
