about salt float center
We get a lot of questions about why we chose the name Salt for our float center.
The quick answer is that we wanted a name that was representative of our business in some respect (we use 7000+ pounds of it per year), but also a name that had minimal connotations. Reason being, we have a firm belief that floating can benefit people from all walks of life. The name needed to be all-inclusive. “Salt” seemed to have a bit of mystery to it while remaining familiar and accessible to all.
Since naming the business, we have found that its meaning, like all that we see and experience, has evolved. As anyone who has floated regularly will likely tell you, floating could easily be considered an essential component of a healthy life. Floating can address many physical, mental and emotional needs in a supremely comfortable environment. However, it also allows for a distraction-free gift of alone time and self-reflection. Whether we know it or not, we all truly need some “nothing” now and then. Floating offers this uniquely, naturally, and on a personal level only you yourself could construct. The meaning behind our brand has evolved to become a namesake for salt itself; an important, if not fundamental, staple of a balanced and healthy life.
our story
the founding of salt float center
I first heard about floating early in 2007. A good friend of mine told me that one of our Muay Thai instructors had been going and loved it. I was intrigued, but couldn’t fathom adding one more “thing” to what I already perceived as a “cumbersome” life.
I was commuting 3-5 hours a day, had recently had the first of my two children. I trained early mornings and evenings and was working a stressful full-time office job. Not that uncommon of a lifestyle in the tristate area I would imagine.
Thankfully, that October I booked my first float. I will never forget the excitement and anticipation leading up to it. It was so foreign to me that it held the same magical prospect of traveling to a distant land. I documented the entire experience afterwards and love going back and reading it even to this day. It had not only lived up to my expectations, but far exceeded anything I could have imagined it would be. I had chanced upon something that let me put aside my entire life for a precious window of relaxation, rejuvenation and exploration. As I drifted around the streets afterward, in that sweet, sweet, post-float state of mind, I knew that my life path had shifted. I was ready to rejoin my “maybe not so cumbersome life” with a renewed outlook in the form of acceptance and appreciation.
Over the years, life didn’t get less complicated. The birth of a second child, house, career, injury, age. But every time things got too heavy or my body just needed to recover, I had a refuge. Floating carried me through it all. Allowing me to take the sort of break that a walk in the woods or even a vacation can’t offer. A timeless space of nothing, and at the same time eternity and infinity wrapped into one. I can’t overstate the solace I found in those float sessions. My only regret being that I couldn’t go more frequently due to the amount of travel involved and having to book so far in advance.
Years later and after 17 years in technology and finance (for which I am forever grateful) I began to consider what it would be like to not only make floating more accessible to me, but to all of the people I knew who would love and benefit from it. I daydreamed of providing a service which helped people live better. They would smile when they saw me and smile even bigger after they floated. Two years of keeping an eye on the ever-increasing popularity and scientific research in floating showed me that the audience who would benefit was even larger than I thought. Athletes, veterans, seniors, pregnant women, creatives, new parents, and certainly overworked people who had a ton on their plate and tended to vent through short stints at the gym or long stints at the bar.
And here we are today, realizing a dream that began with one enchanting float, a practice that centered me throughout a decade of trials and tribulations, and left me with the desire to share with the world the immeasurably deep smile that comes from floating.
