Floating It All Away, Lessons Learned Through A Float Therapy Session
Produced in Collaboration With Inspired by Iceland
Words by Alison Engstrom
I hang my warm quilted robe on the hook, swing open the door, knowing that a gust of Arctic air would greet me, and swiftly scurry down the ramp and submerge myself in the milky blue water. Steam blows off the lagoon creating a foggy haze making it hard to see to the other side of the pool. As I move through the water and the misty air, which is tinged with a cotton candy hue, a clearing opens up and I see my therapist slowly walking towards me. She is going to take me through my very first floating session at the Blue Lagoon.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to experience an array of beauty treatments where either my muscles have been coaxed into submission with an intense massage or every speck of dirt was lifted from my complexion with a facial, but this form of wellness was new to me. This unique therapy at the Blue Lagoon is guided by Flothetta, an Icelandic company, which focuses on the all-encompassing health benefits of being and feeling weightless while suspended in water. The treatment, which can be experienced individually or as a couple, works to release tension from the joints and the spine.
Not knowing what to expect I follow the therapist’s instructions. I click in my flotation helmet and then she helps to secure the floating devices onto my ankles and under my knees. Standing in the balmy geothermal waters, enveloped by volcanic rock as far as the eye can see, she asks me to close my eyes and take a deep breath. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Next she lifts my legs and then picks me up and relaxes me onto the water letting go once I reach a floating pose. She places a soaked wet blanket, using the geothermal water from the lagoon, over my body and a mask over my eyes and then sways me back and forth like a ballerina. My arms and legs undulate creating ripples and then she gently pushes me away, like a raft on a still lake. If you bump into someone else, I’ll just guide you back, she assures me.
As a lover of lying idle in water and daydreaming, usually as I look at the clouds, this was going to be a supportive floating session where I could really sink into myself. I didn’t have to worry about waves, or anything mysterious lurking beneath the surface. The month is November 2021, nearly two years into a pandemic where so many of us have carried so much, some things we don’t even realize. It feels like so much time has passed but on the other hand, like the days, months, and years have been frozen in time. This session could be the catalyst for everything to start to melt and to begin to release deep-rooted stress—both emotional and physical—and get reacquainted with a new gentle support system, water. When I am overcome with worry or stress—or when I have to deal with my multiple sclerosis symptoms—my body feels heavy, like it’s being weighed down by bricks. Initially, I was fearing that the weight of it all would pull me underwater, which made my mind race and my breath stifle. So then I tap into my meditation practice and tune into the inhales and exhales to help quiet my mind. I whisper to myself, give in; let go; feel weightless; be weightless; be in the moment. You’ve been drowning; let it all go. Release it.
So often, we don’t know where we are going or where life is leading us. Our answer is to hold it all in, sometimes we don’t even realize we are clinching tension in our jaw, our shoulders, our back, let alone our emotional well-being. If there was ever a time to feel the instability of the moment, it would be living through a pandemic, where so much seemed taken away from us. We have been rocked by grief, isolation, loneliness, disappointment, and uncertainty. We had to adjust, we had to pivot, and perhaps reevaluate where we thought we were headed. But where could that new, unexpected road lead, we might ask ourselves? Many times throughout my visit, as I chatted with different locals, a phrase kept coming up, þetta reddast, which roughly translates to, “it will eventually work out”. They referred to this adage to describe the economic crash they endured to simple troubles that arise in life or at work. Everything will work out. I began to think of this. Maybe this was the secret, letting everything go so the right things can come together? I was starting to feel myself enter into a dream-like state, as if I could hold my weight in this buoyant pose for a long time. It wasn’t long until my therapist moves me towards the edge of the lagoon and with a loofah begins to buff my back, legs, and feet and after, my session is nearly complete. She removes the weights and lifts off my blanket and eye covering. She props me up and says, did you enjoy that? I let out a sigh, yes, and a smile. I softly place my feet on the bottom of the water and I cannot help but feel lighter. As I walk through the water, leaving ripples behind me, I think of what I want to leave behind, here in this water. I close my eyes, repeat to myself one last time, let it go. I slowly walk back indoors, wrap a warm, fluffy towel around me and exhale.
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An individual session is $195 for 45 minutes; for a couple it’s $310
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