Break the Twitch Articles

Sixty Minutes In A Sensory Deprivation Tank

I often write about the harmful effects of overstimulation due to the insane amount of information we receive daily. Putting away our digital devices for a weekend is one thing, but what would happen if this was taken to an extreme? What if we removed not just digital inputs, but sight, sound and touch all together?

I had heard of sensory deprivation tanks years ago, but due to a deal in a local coupon book I decided to finally try one. A health and wellness center about 10 minutes away from our house had one available. Some will know them as ‘float tanks’, because inside this human-sized chest freezer is about 8-10 inches of water, 35% saturated with over 800 pounds of epsom salt. As a friend of mine mentioned, “It’s like the Dead Sea in a box”. The epsom salt increases the density of the water allowing a person to float effortlessly inside the tank. From The Wellness Center website:

The tank is an enclosed shallow pool of warm water (93.5° skin temperature). Free from gravity’s pull, the body can release tension, easing pains and stress – often relieving long-held pain.

When I arrived to the facility I signed in and was given some specific instructions about the process. Using the float tank requires extensive showering before and after to prevent any oils from getting into the water. Total water replacement is not necessary, as the salt is a natural disinfectant, and the tank water is both filtered and passed through a UV light to complete the cleaning cycle between patrons.

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Our Intentional Saturday Morning

Written by Anthony Ongaro

This morning I woke up around eleven o’clock and was a bit shocked. It was the first morning in a few weeks where I didn’t set an alarm to wake myself because I didn’t have anything scheduled in particular. Amy had gotten up earlier and went off to a workout session, came back and started preparing breakfast. Based on the way I felt rolling out of bed I must have been pretty well behind on sleep. During the week, I often get around six hours of sleep per night and sometimes less. I’ve found that about seven and a half hours seems to be the amount of sleep that works best for me, yet somehow struggle to get that much during most weeks.

After readying myself for the day I cleaned off the glass table in our backyard while Amy brought out our breakfast and coffees. As we sat there eating, we began to discuss our various projects and things that we wanted to accomplish this weekend. We watched a few monarch butterflies floating around the flowers and at times just sat in silence enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful late-morning air. As the Minnesota summer begins to fade into fall, we know that we’ll have less and less of these warm mornings to enjoy outside.

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Exercise 1: Intentional Observation

Written by Anthony Ongaro

It’s amazing how small details of our environments can fade into the blur of everyday life. When Amy and I bought our home a little over two years ago, it was pretty overwhelming. Being in a new environment, everything was fresh and all the aspects both good and bad stood out like a sore thumb. I easily noticed the things that looked particularly good and that which looked especially bad. Whether it was a tile project in the entryway or paint on the walls that needed an update, it all stood out. As new homeowners, we began to work on various projects to make the house more comfortable for us. We didn’t buy new furniture and kept spending to a minimum, but painted the entire first floor of the house and did quite a bit of work. It was wonderful to customize our space, but two years later things have changed a bit.

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5 Simple Ways To Make Life Less Convenient

Written by Anthony Ongaro

Last week, I pressed a single button on my iPhone and a few minutes later a black Lincoln Town Car pulled up in front of me. A friendly gentleman rolled down the passenger window and said, “Hi! Anthony?” I got into the back of his car and he took me to dinner. Well, at least he took me to where I was going to be having dinner. It was only several years ago when getting to the restaurant would’ve been less convenient.

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Musings On The Real Currency

Written by Anthony Ongaro

Imagine when you were born, a divine being placed a secret amount of money into an account. Every day, you are given a disbursement from this account. Spend all the money given to you that day or lose it forever.

As life continues, the available money may fluctuate. For some, usable money each day begins to diminish, until one day, expectedly, no money is left. Others may lose their money suddenly and unexpectedly.

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Entering a Creative Flow State Using Minimalism

Written by Anthony Ongaro

Often we discuss minimalism as a philosophy relating to the physical world, but that’s just one of the areas the concepts of minimalism can be applied.

In a broad sense, eliminating as much clutter as possible makes our lives better in many ways. With less clutter, we have less to organize and less to clean. Ideally we find ourselves spending time only with the things that we truly value. By eliminating the rest, we have more time to appreciate and fully utilize those things as well.

When applied to relationships, minimalism refers to toxic ones as clutter that must be removed as well. Relationships with people who are chronically negative, unsupportive or abusive distract us and from reaching our potential. It is often said that we become the average of the five closest people around us, and I find it to be true.

As a general philosophy, these concepts can be applied to almost every area of life. From preventing the over-scheduling of our time, to embracing a simple life without needless physical things cluttering our homes.

Where I’ve found minimalism to be particularly relevant and helpful is during the creative flow process.

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