 You are here. I have perhaps one of the shortest commutes. I just drove up from South Denver, took me about, well actually I went to a Rockies game, and then I came on a pedicab, probably the best dressed person writing a pedicab over here, and to be with you this afternoon. My name is Ken and just a little bit about me so you kind of understand my experience with floating and why I believe it's very valuable, very important. I am a pastor of a non-denominational Christian church, South of Denver. Normally when I meet brand new people like I've done today and over this weekend, I normally don't say that right up front because I'm accustomed to just different reactions that sometimes that brings up, sometimes that causes. One of those is I often get lumped in with a group of people that honestly don't represent who I am, and so maybe there's some assumptions made about me that isn't necessarily who I am or who I'm trying to be. And then there's always that awkward time when people say well how do I, how do I refer to you? You know do I, do I call you father so some people call me father Ken or father Hensley? I'm like well first of all I'm not Catholic, I am married and I have children, so, so I'm not a father, you know, not a priest in that sense, or sometimes they'll say do I call you Reverend, and I had a person one time actually call me most holy Reverend Ken Hensley, and I said, I said first of all my wife would never describe me that way so, so that does not fit, fit at all. And so sometimes people are just awkward with that title. If I'm on an airplane, here's one things I've learned when I sit down next to somebody and, and that little chit chat at the very beginning, you know, you're going home, are you traveling somewhere, what do you do for a living? And, and I will say well I'm a, a pastor, and there's either just that immediate dead silence that sometimes happens, or more likely than not the rest of the flight becomes a flying confession booth, and so it's kind of like I'm trapped, you know, and I'm buckled in, you know, I can't unbuckle, I can't get up, can't leave, and it turns out about 50-50 on how those, those sometimes turn out. So when people ask me, and the reason I often don't say up front that I'm a pastor, is being a pastor is what I do. I don't see it as who I am, that those are different. And so who am I? I am a person who almost about to turn 50 here in about six weeks or so, and over those 50 years, probably 30 of those most, most seriously, have tried to understand the person of Jesus. And I find Jesus out of any historical figure to be one of the most compelling people who's ever lived. And I've tried over 30 years to understand his thought process, his heart. I've tried to make my life model his life, honestly, very imperfectly. And one of the things I find most compelling about Jesus is I've learned, as I've learned about Jesus, and what he taught, is that Jesus had a belief in the value, the dignity of all people. And that inside of each one of us is a power and a presence that every person has access to. Irrespective of who we are, where we come from, it's just that not every person is actively cultivating that power, that presence. Over the last several years, I've been very interested in an idea called emotionally healthy spirituality. Because honestly, there's a lot of emotionally unhealthy spirituality out there. And it's dangerous, it's toxic, it is just not good for you or for anyone. And as I've delved into this idea of emotionally healthy spirituality, let me just give you a quick thumbnail what that is, how I understand it. That emotionally healthy spirituality is about developing the rhythms, the rituals, the practices that nourish our mind, our body, our spirit, and allow them to flourish. And when I studied the life of Jesus, I had to come to grips with something that at first I didn't want to admit. And that is that Jesus had habits that I didn't have. That Jesus had practices and disciplines that honestly I wasn't practicing. And the two that came to mind, the two that are most evident when you read the stories of Jesus, is that Jesus practiced silence and solitude. And I didn't. My life was very cluttered. My life was very busy. It was very noisy. Either my watch was buzzing or my phone in my back pocket was going off. And then I wasn't actually experiencing much silence or solitude. And I realized that if I was going to take Jesus seriously and his habits seriously, that I had to learn to practice silence and solitude. So how did I get introduced to floating? Our daughter, we have two daughters, our youngest daughter, who turned 17 two years ago for her 17th birthday. Her name's Hope. And I said, Hope, what would you like to do for your 17th birthday? And she said, Dad, I've been hearing about this thing called called floating. And I think I would like to try floating. But I'd like to do it not by myself, I'd like for you to go with me. So, you know, being the dad, being kind of an inquisitive person, you know, I fire up Google, isn't that what all of us do, right? You know, because when I thought of floating, the first thing that came to mind was sensory deprivation things. And I thought, Oh, boy, that sounds a little weird, whacked out. You know, I watch some videos online. I'm still not fully convinced, you know, what what what's going to be like. My greatest fear in going to float that first time was that I was going to have some sort of mental breakdown. I was gonna have a snap, you know, something was going to go away was never going to come back. And I was never going to be the same person. So I'm watching all these kinds of videos, crazy stuff. Found out that Tom Brady floated. I was under no no illusion I was going to come out of the float tank like like Tom Brady, or like Steph Curry, you know, then I'm thinking maybe Joe Rogan. I hope that doesn't turn out, you know, hope it don't come out like Joe Rogan. You know, that that may not be good for my career. You know, that decade could be a hard left turn. So I get this Groupon. And one of the one of the specials in the Groupon, you know, besides midnight bowling and other things, one of those is for local float center here in Denver. And it was a buy one, get one for a brand new place just opened. And so I thought why not? It's 4950 bucks, you know, if I have an awful time, if it doesn't require future counseling, it's only $50, you know, I can do that. And so my daughter and I went down to the float center. We each did our floats separately. And when it was finished, talked with the owner out in the lobby, and he said, So how was it? I said, I said, you know, I said, honestly, you know, it was okay, you know, I was floating, that was kind of neat. I didn't sink, you know, but my mind just never stopped. It just kept going kept going. And it just, I don't know, didn't really do much for me. And here's what he told me. He said, I know this is going to sound like a sales pitch. Some of you probably know what he's about to say if you're in the float business. He said, I know this is gonna sound like a float, like a sales pitch, but you really need to float two or three times to really appreciate the benefit of floating. And he shared his experience, you know, being a taller fellow and kind of a small confined place. And he said took him a couple of times. He said, you know, if you'll try it just a couple more times, I'll discount those next two times. And let's see how how that goes. So I did, I went back. And I went back and I had a better experience the second time. The third time. I had a fantastic experience. And that's been two years over 125 floats float almost every week. Ironically, I have not floated in the month of September. So even though I'm speaking tonight, you know, it's kind of weird to kind of feel strange. I haven't floated this month. But I floated almost every week for nearly two years. For me, here's some of the greatest benefits. I believe quite honestly, that that much of the conflict that's in our life, in our world, is because we haven't tapped into this idea, this sense that we are designed for a larger reality for a larger experience. That that's more than just our self. And one of the benefits I have found in floating is allows me to reconnect with that spiritual center, that spiritual core. But it's more than just recognizing that that we're made for something that's larger. It's about how do we tap into that? And I honestly believe that that that center, that person, that spirit, whatever you want to call that, that person that that idea that God sense inside of can't be found in the noise. It can't be found in the clutter. It can't be found with all the dings and notifications going off. It's not even a five minute break to recalibrate that we need serious significant time to do the inner work that brings out that expression of God within us. And so for me, that that weekly floating has been a chance to supercharge my prayer, my meditation life, that I do it religiously. How's that? You know, I do it quite often, religiously. And it has been one of the greatest benefits. And here's the last thing I'll leave you. The thing I've discovered in my life and floating has helped me appreciate even more. I cannot give away what I do not possess. And so for me, to be a person of faith, of spirituality, of hope, I have to tap into that myself. And floating has helped me do that. So for those of you who run float centers, float operators, if you're just involved in the industry in any way, thank you so much. Thank you for what you do. God bless you too, everyone.