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Hooked. Just wow! Stepping out of that first float session I was overcome with immense calmness, my mind, thoughts, body, spirit all in sync with one another. I had experienced amazing visual colour patterns like dancing ballerinas on the back of my eyelids. I awoke in the tank firmly believing I was in an airplane cockpit, looking out through the front windshield. A bewildering experience.
I floated a few more times up in Melbourne before we decided to open up the The Private Sea on the Mornington Peninsula. Having the tanks at my fingertips became a dream come true. Just knowing I could float whenever I wanted to, I think calmed me. Like having an ace up my sleeve 24/7 for whatever life throws down on the table.
Now with over 300+ hrs in the tanks, I know now my truths, who I am, what I want to be and what I stand for. It reveals an inner dialogue in which you create such a unique relationship as it guides you through the effortless darkness. A week doesn't go by without my ritualistic float coming into play. It has become a staple in my life and I cannot see a future without floatation in it.
So it comes to the question… Why I float? Well each week brings a different challenge for me, giving me the opportunity to overcome it and from that grow. I use the tank in a multitude of ways to assist in these challenges. It is my happiness, my silence, my library, my meditation, my doctor, my teacher and my mentor. What I take from the tank differs each session.
Not all of my experiences in the tank have been that soothing, relaxing, warm feeling. I have faced fears and battled with my ego for countless hours in the darkness of that void. Some of the hardest challenges I have gone through in life have been inside that plastic tub. Yet here I am stronger (still with an ego, just a tad smaller) and more defined as a human.
There's a beautiful ebb and flow to floatation therapy, one week i'll be visualising i’m walking with my child self through the primary school I grew up in and the next i’m heavily in my head thinking, thinking, thinking not being able to quiet my mind in the midst of frustration and the next just sleep the full hour relaxing my overworked muscles and mind.The tank truly does express exactly what you need at that moment. Even if you think you do not need it.
There is a lesson in each session that you have. There is never ‘nothing’. You may experience ‘nothingness’, but that is far from ‘nothing’. I have learnt many things about myself in the tank and I now firmly believe that through experiencing nothing we can then truly experience everything.
