Photo Credit: Steven Pisano on Flickr

I floated again yesterday, this time for an hour. One reason I love to float is that I get to lose my pain. Not only for the length of the float, but for days after.

As you get older, one of the things you notice is that things start to hurt. The hurt can be nothing big, just a series of small aches and pains. It’s most noticeable when you first get up in the morning, or the day after you’ve done something athletic that you haven’t done in a long time.

I used to run marathons, and although I didn’t have pain while I was training, in the week after I ran a marathon I couldn’t walk down a flight of stairs without holding on. My thighs were that tight from the accumulation of lactic acid in my muscles. Now when I get up in the morning, I feel pain when I bend over to tie my shoes.

If you do any kind of physical labor, the pain begins even earlier than if you’re a desk worker. My son is 33, has worked in warehouses lifting boxes, and his back has begun to hurt. My daughter is an attorney. She carried around a baby.

We don’t really notice the onset of these minor aches and pains; we just carry on our lives. However, they take a toll on us, and when you add up the physical pain and the anxiety of everyday life, sooner or later we reach a point where we could use some relief. It seems as if we never feel really good anymore. There are pain pills and massage, but they have downsides.

That’s why I float. When I close the top of the float pod and lower myself into the water on my back, I know I’m going to feel better. Although the first time I didn’t know quite what to expect, by the second time I was looking forward to shutting that door on the world.

The lights are low, and the music soft. No one can bother you for an hour. That’s great right there, but then there is the added benefit of losing the pain.

I have an injury in my right shoulder. By the end of every day, I feel the pain. When I lower myself onto my back at first I feel it, too, but after a period of time, the pain goes away. I don’t have to do anything but lay there and let the water float me.

I looked up the reason. It’s the Epsom Salts. The float pod contains a thousand pounds of Epsom Salt, which is made up of magnesium and sulfate. According to the National Academy of Sciences, most Americans are deficient in magnesium, and raising your magnesium levels can improve circulation, improve the body’s ability to use insulin, ease muscle pain, regulate electrolytes, and decrease stress.

And although you can take pills to get your magnesium, the skin is a more efficient delivery mechanism for nutrients than the digestive tract. Soaking in a bath of Epsom Salt is one of the most effective ways to make magnesium available to your body quickly.

You might want to try it if you’re an athlete. Or if you were.

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