Salty Confessionals: Peter on Floating for Creativity
Summary:
Peter is a musician, composer, student and teacher. Listen how be uses floating as a way to enhance his creativity and “untangle the mind”.
What is Salty Confessionals?
This project was a bit of an accident, but a wonderful surprise. Initially we simply wanted to create short video testimonials with some of our guests sharing their own personal float experiences. It was important to us that these be authentic and capture the good and not-so-good as not every float is spectacular however every float has something to teach us. What we ended up capturing provided a much deeper insight into the power and possibilities that a float tank can provide and how we all use this tool for our own very personal reasons. Distilling these down to short testimonials would have disrupted the amazing insights we were able to capture. With very little editing, here are the full length versions… Please enjoy
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Transcript
My name is Peter James Oliver. I’m 22 years old. I’m currently studying music and education at the University of Manitoba. I’m a football coach for my high school at that I used to go to and I love floating!
Q. What brought you in to float?
A. I’m really introspective. I’m always trying to, like, why do I think this way, why do I feel this way, and when you float it’s like, there’s nothing else to distract you, you can really unfold your thoughts and figure out why, things like exactly why you feel and think the ways you do and it really helps you learn a lot about yourself.
Q. How has floating impacted your life?
A. It’s taken all the stress away from daily activities. I used to be pretty self-conscious when it comes to just talking to people and interacting with people and I wanted to be a teacher so it was not a good combination. And I guess, when I started floating it just makes you present. It helps, as I said before, untangle the mind that is so tangled and it just helps you to feel more natural in everything you do, the way you act, talk to people, the whole way you present yourself I guess.
Q. How did you feel going in to your first float?
A. The feelings I had the first time I went floating, excitement. When I got here, the environment in this place is really relaxing and inviting so I was nervous until I walked in the door. And when I walked in I was like, this is awesome! So, excitement I think.
Q. Have you had any challenging floats?
A. One time I struggled, I was just really anxious. I think I was having family issues and I came in to float and the whole time I just felt like I was avoiding the situation. I was coming here to escape it all and I couldn’t get over it and I even shed a few tears when I was in there. You have to face it, so you can’t ignore it. You’re in there, but you can’t shut off your mind, right? So you have to sit there and as you’re facing it the time just kind of dulls it, it’s not a sharp. You don’t feel it as hard anymore. So, if you’re hurting, the hurt just slowly floats away. And then when you leave, it’s not as intense, the feelings aren’t as intense when you get out and you can deal with it more because it’s not as, pressing, I guess is what it feels like.
Q. Why do you think floating is so important, especially now?
A. I think it’s kind of just like the only thing that really takes you back to what natural thought process and existence actually is. I feel like the way society is run today is like an unnatural stimulus to existence. Its making everybody do unnatural things and push their bodies in unnatural limits and floating kind of resets you physically and mentally. And I think everybody needs to reset because there’s a lot of people I know who are struggling with mental diseases and stuff and I feel like it’s all just a product of the world as it is now. So I feel like a lot of people would be healthier in the mind and body if they floated more.
Q. How has floating impacted your creativity?
A. So, over the summer I started composing music, because I’m a musician, and I would often run into mental blockades where I’d just be, I don’t know what I’m going to do next. And some of the most progress I’ve made was after floating because your mind is just open. It just opens up all of these doors to creativity and expression and stuff like that. It takes away all the other stressors that can dampen your personal expression.
Q. What are some of your most memorable float experiences?
A. I have a very good imagination. Over the summer I went through a tragic breakup and I came in here and I was just pretty sad and so I was just kind of running through all of the good times and it was very vivid and clear. It was like watching a movie of my life basically and that happened in the past 9 months when that happened. Actually, oh man, I’ve floated so many times that I could just pull memories back. I saw colours one time. I think I was really tired and I came in and I was just like watching colours fly by. I was like wow. I could literally just track them with my eyes and they were just flying by. It was cool.
Q. What you tell your friends about floating…
A. I’m a huge advocate. I’ve taken, every single time I go floating I try to take a new person here. And usually I say, try it once, you’re going to love it, and if you don’t love it, you’re going to be happy you tried it. Because it’s just, everybody has to try it, it’s so good for you. There’s no downfall to floating. Most of the hesitancy I’ve faced with people I invite to come floating is the price. And it’s because they’re like, I’m paying this amount of money just to sit in a tank. I’m like, it’s not just sitting in a tank, its literally changing your life. You’re going to benefit. There’s no way you can’t benefit from this. So I’d say don’t knock it till you try it.