For the past three months, I have been dreaming about booking my first float session. I have intentionally kept my eyes from wandering through “what to expect when floating” type articles because I knew that I would be writing about my first time floating for this blog. I wanted my experience to be authentic; I didn’t want other people’s experiences to become my preconception about what floating would mean for me. I only kinda succeeded in that effort because…well…I was terribly interested to know what it would be like to float for the first time! Most of what I read said that it would be relaxing and meditative.
Yesterday, the day arrived when I realized - hey! - I am going to have some time, tomorrow mid-day, to FLOAT! So, I called Float House Victoria and thankfully, a session was open at just the right time of day for my schedule. I’m often busy with my home-business and eight year old son, so it was a really sweet deal to have something that fit nicely into my schedule.
Today, I walked my enthusiastic-self down to the Victoria Float House location, and the lovely people there gave me a great instructional tour of the facility. It was quite spa-like, with a private floating room, a beautiful showering area, as well as a luxurious bath robe, shampoo and conditioner for afterward.
The racy part: I got undressed. Okay - the racy part is now complete (sorry). Did you know that you float nakedly? I suppose you could choose to wear a bathing suit, if you wanted, but wearing a bathing suit didn’t make much sense to me. The idea is to be completely relaxed, after all. How can one become entirely relaxed while wearing a bathing suit? I’m really not sure.
So, this is how it goes; first you go to the bathroom and take a shower. Then you open up the musical time capsule and enclose yourself in the dark, wet, warm chamber of salty goodness. With the way the lid opens up, I felt like I was getting into the DeLorean, (you know- like in Back to the Future). It was obviously pretty rad.
Now, I don’t know how to explain my sweet, yet very salty experience in only a few paragraphs, so there may be a “to be continued” piece to this article.
I went through what seemed to be a lifetime, during the 90-minute session. I wondered, often, “had I gone past the time limit? Was the machine working correctly?” because I felt that I had been floating for an eternity. Maybe being weightless alters time/space reality somehow. I will need to do some more research on that one. My current findings (based solely on my own experience) state that yes - floating changes one’s perceptions of time and space.
I think I also became an astronaut…even if only for a few minutes. I definitely felt like I was in outer space. This probably sounds strange, and I’m certainly risking my reputation (if I have one) by writing about time warps and such. It’s not that I normally have “out of body” experiences, but something happened in that sensory deprivation chamber that was not my normal in-body experience.
So, there you have it (well, a few paragraphs of it, anyhow).
Upon completion of my first 90 minute float session, I very much felt the need to ground myself, which I wasn’t expecting. It wasn’t a bad thing, though. I walked through downtown Vic and bought myself spicy California rolls and a couple ounces of dark drinking chocolate (spicy California rolls rather than regular rolls because I figured that after being sensory-deprived, I should probably compensate by indulging my taste buds).
I would say that my first time floating was a good experience. I definitely want to try it again to see if I respond differently, the second time around. Have you had float experiences similar to mine?
To be continued?
