Tim W.

Why I Float

The wonderful aspect of floating is that it benefits different people in different ways, including both physical and psychological. For me, it’s the creative energy I derive from my hour of darkness and silence that helps both my writing and my teaching. After my first float, I was so impressed that, for the next week or so, I was able to organize my teaching assignments and develop my writing projects and move forward with them. In fact, at this time I wrote an article on floating for Richmond Magazine so I could share the experience and learn why others floated, and how it benefitted them. Since that first float, I have benefitted greatly every time I have returned to the pod. As a result, my creative productivity has flourished, including editing an anthology of Irish literature, writing short stories, poems, magazine articles, and a host of ideas for other projects that will carry well into the future.

Floating has helped to clarify each of these projects, and when I am unsure of where I am going with any of my ideas, I hop into the pod, turn off the lights, and let the floating take over. This is now an activity embedded into my lifestyle.

Bio

Dr. Tim Wenzell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at Virginia Union University, where he has taught since 2011; he also teaches courses in the English Department at VCU. Tim is published widely, including a novel, many short stories and poems, literary analysis, and the books Emerald Green: An Ecocritical Study of Irish Literature and Woven Shades of Green: An Anthology of Irish Nature Literature, as well as a dozen articles in Richmond Magazine.