Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Float
I've been fascinated by the idea of sensory deprivation tanks since literally before I remember. I was reading an article about them last week and it cited all these excerpts from Richard Feynman's memoir, which was one of my favorite books in high school. I had totally forgotten that he had written about them, as I have a terrible memory for details in books I read a month ago let alone a lifetime ago. But I'm guessing this was the first seed of interest planted into my ever-thinking-scatterbrained-mind-brain. More on that guy later.
But first, another guy. Float tanks are a pretty hip/hippie thing, something that's good for the mind and body, fitting right in with the whole health conscious trend that everyone who is cool is totally into these days. I dabble rather deeply in the waters of health conscious trendiness, and everywhere from the yoga studios to the trader joes, I'm met with the same confident and enthused persona of someone cool enough to get a job at a trendy place like this, i.e. too cool for school. School being me.
When the elevator door opened to office-building basement that had become Float Lab, I was expecting the same young go-getter-behind-the-counter to be waiting for me, but at first there was no one. Adrian and I chilled on the couch, and eventually a tall gangly man in his early fifties came out from the back rooms. He had a thin pair of wire frame sunglasses on and wore an old gray t-shirt. His hair was short, a bit sparse, and unkempt.
"You guys don't have phones or anything?"
He spoke in a voice who's box had surely witnessed many a drug pass by. Adrian and I were like "yeah we have phones" and kinda showed them to him.
"Ah," said this wise hippie elder, "so you guys are already into it. Normally everyone's playing on their phone. They need something to play with."
I play on my phone plenty. I'm gazing into the abyss of an iPhone screen at this very goddamn moment. But having this man think that I don't do that felt like I'd just proven to an alien that not all humans are worthless. The man was in and out of the waiting room as the rest of the clientele filed in. Once the other four floaters had all arrived he came out to do his little spiel, but not before shooting Adrian and I a look and nodding towards the other couch. We look over and see all four people staring down at their phones. They were two couples too, not even like they were just awkward loners. Classic teacher's pet moment. Also this guy looked so natural in sunglasses that I forgot we were in a windowless basement.
Anywho I guess I should also cover the float since I already decided to title this post 'float'. Similar to mushrooms it was just a good check-in. Even though I feel like I'm perpetually checking in with my mental health, I always have so much going on and this and that obligation that I never really have enough time to reflect on my reflecting, and so on. So having two hours where that was literally the only thing I could do was good. Using last year's mushroom as a checkpoint, I'm still not where I'd like to be mind-wise but my nervous anxieties and self-attacking thought tendencies seem to have chilled out significantly. But still my mind is a bit further from my control than I'd like it to be, so once again I'm learning that I want to meditate more. So fuck. I really have to actually stick to that or else this blog is just gonna make me look more and more like an idiot. And there's already enough idiots on this blog.
So it's to the meditation chair for me. Peace out, idiots.
<3
But first, another guy. Float tanks are a pretty hip/hippie thing, something that's good for the mind and body, fitting right in with the whole health conscious trend that everyone who is cool is totally into these days. I dabble rather deeply in the waters of health conscious trendiness, and everywhere from the yoga studios to the trader joes, I'm met with the same confident and enthused persona of someone cool enough to get a job at a trendy place like this, i.e. too cool for school. School being me.
When the elevator door opened to office-building basement that had become Float Lab, I was expecting the same young go-getter-behind-the-counter to be waiting for me, but at first there was no one. Adrian and I chilled on the couch, and eventually a tall gangly man in his early fifties came out from the back rooms. He had a thin pair of wire frame sunglasses on and wore an old gray t-shirt. His hair was short, a bit sparse, and unkempt.
"You guys don't have phones or anything?"
He spoke in a voice who's box had surely witnessed many a drug pass by. Adrian and I were like "yeah we have phones" and kinda showed them to him.
"Ah," said this wise hippie elder, "so you guys are already into it. Normally everyone's playing on their phone. They need something to play with."
I play on my phone plenty. I'm gazing into the abyss of an iPhone screen at this very goddamn moment. But having this man think that I don't do that felt like I'd just proven to an alien that not all humans are worthless. The man was in and out of the waiting room as the rest of the clientele filed in. Once the other four floaters had all arrived he came out to do his little spiel, but not before shooting Adrian and I a look and nodding towards the other couch. We look over and see all four people staring down at their phones. They were two couples too, not even like they were just awkward loners. Classic teacher's pet moment. Also this guy looked so natural in sunglasses that I forgot we were in a windowless basement.
Anywho I guess I should also cover the float since I already decided to title this post 'float'. Similar to mushrooms it was just a good check-in. Even though I feel like I'm perpetually checking in with my mental health, I always have so much going on and this and that obligation that I never really have enough time to reflect on my reflecting, and so on. So having two hours where that was literally the only thing I could do was good. Using last year's mushroom as a checkpoint, I'm still not where I'd like to be mind-wise but my nervous anxieties and self-attacking thought tendencies seem to have chilled out significantly. But still my mind is a bit further from my control than I'd like it to be, so once again I'm learning that I want to meditate more. So fuck. I really have to actually stick to that or else this blog is just gonna make me look more and more like an idiot. And there's already enough idiots on this blog.
So it's to the meditation chair for me. Peace out, idiots.
<3
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
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