Wednesday Wellbeing : FLOAT STRESS AWAY

For Christmas I got a voucher for a 60 minute flotation session. I redeemed it recently after some hesitation. Did I really want to spend an hour like a supine, watery Sandra Bullock in Gravity somewhere in Canary Wharf?

Turns out I did and it was the best thing I could have done on a stressed out Tuesday in March when my legs ached, my head hurt and my emotional equilibrium was off the richter scale. London living does that to you. So where better to go to ease the tension than a dark pod in an industrial ‘village’ in the city.

The Salt Lake Centre is at 32-33 Skylines Village, Canary Wharf E149TS. From central London you get the central line to Bank then change to the DLR to South Quay. From the station you turn right and walk for about a minute to the business village.

A cheery, relaxed looking woman welcomed me, having warned me when I booked, to bring my own towel because ‘we charge £1’.

She then led me to a small room with shower facilities and a large pod. The room is private so you can wear a bathing suit or your birthday suit. You step in, close the lid and just float. For the first 10 minutes you get gentle music then silence. You’re alone with your thoughts and floating, to quote, Bowie, in a most peculiar way, but somehow it seems just perfect. After a while your thoughts from and about the world outside give up and let you be. You feel the tensions of work, deadlines, relationships, life just ease out of you. The stiffness in my muscles that no amount of stretching had managed to ease also just flowed out of me.

The hour passed quickly. A quick shower and I walked out, as promised, rejuvenated, relaxed and ready to tackle anything.