When Jules and I were in South Africa we heard about these things called Floatation Tanks. The concept seemed quite strange – you get into this tank which is about 30-40cm deep of salty skin body temperature water. The water has enough salt content to allow your body to float. Once the lights are switched off inside the tank it is as close to a total sensory deprivation experience as you’ll ever get:
– It is pitch black so you can’t see anything
– You aren’t supposed to feel the water because the water is supposed to be same temperature as your body
– As your ears are below the water line you can barely hear anything (but your heart beat) especially when wearing the ear plugs.
The main benefit of floatation is stress-relief but it has also been known to help with injuries, skin disease etc.
Jules was keen to try this out and I must admit it sounded intriguing. I’ve never been one of those people into the whole massage therapy/beauty therapy thing but this just sounded out there. A quick search on google and we found The Worlds Largest Floatation Centre near London Bridge.
A session lasts around about an hour but build in showering before and after and it can take quite a bit longer. I guess the concept of the tank is to go into a meditative state to allow your body to relax completely. For the first ten minutes I wasn’t sure what to think but it wasn’t long until I felt the first effects of the floatation – nausea. I hope it doesn’t disgusts my readers but I have to admit that I think I threw up just a little in my mouth. Gross huh?! After that I concentrated on trying to enter a state of nothingness and I think this almost had the opposite effect as I had so many random thoughts just popping into my head. After I guess about forty minutes I think I must have actually reached a meditative state because I remember feeling that time had passed but I didn’t remember thinking anything. Soon after that I started to feel really really nauseas and I had get out of the tank or face getting totally sick in the tank – not good for the person using the tank after me! It actually ended up being perfect timing as time was up (as signalled by the gentle music used to “wake” people up at the end of a session.)
Apparently its not all that unusual to experience nausea at your first session though it must be noted that Jules didn’t feel it at all. I asked the girl about it and she thought I might have some stress around my stomach. I couldn’t think why but maybe it was from overeating at Blubeckers last night! Ha ha. They say that it takes a couple of floats before you get the full benefits of floatation. I’m not sure if I’m ready just yet for the next one but I think I’m willing to give it another go at some stage in the future.