Song of the Open Road

Jul 8

Song of the Open Road is a poem in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. It’s a long poem that describes the multitude of experiences in humanity with a gesture to be the best of yourself on the grand road of the universe.

When I read his work, it is like opening a catalog of human experiences but instead of photos, it’s in concepts, declarations, and observations.

There is magic in his writing, a stream of consciousness that shows a keen eye for the wealth of humanity. Whitman has this love and acceptance for everything around him, and the beautiful slices of everyday life, it feels very wabi-sabi Americana.

I now look around my space and I notice the breeze, the lighting, the colors, the stories within the object, the people in the next room, the cars on my block, the city that is alive around me. My mind expands outward instead of crumbling inward.

If you tap into that stream, it has an eraser quality to it. Before a float appointment, I would open up Leaves of Grass and read randomly, and it felt like every line I was reading was erasing tension. I was shifted to openness, grace, and praise for the natural beauty around me.

Find your Leaves of Grass to prime your float. This is a nice way to erase stress, relax even faster, and begin to access your Default Mode Network.

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a group of interacting regions in the brain that form our subconscious decision-making.

When the mind is wondering, the DMN defaults the mind to self-referential processing.

When under stress, the DMN creates a self-enclosed loop of problems to fix within ourselves, replaying past conversations, inner critics, and worst-case scenarios. This can limit our ideas of ourselves and our potential.

When within a peaceful mind, the default stays there. Practicing mindfulness strengthens our DMN and cultivates the wisdom of our whole self.

Compared to relaxing, a float strengthens even more of this network. Along with the magnesium to relax the muscles and soften the skin, a float heightens the senses and builds a path to be the best of ourselves. Wisdom is of the soul and something of the float provokes it out of me.

The silence from the float blends into the music therapy of the open road, a white noise machine humming a lullaby and drifting me to a good night’s rest.

Book a float in the evening, bring a book to reset your DMN, and then take the road less traveled.