Happy Wednesday! My favorite day of the week!
Traditionally, Adam Anderson and I go on a date night every Wednesday evening. When we started having kids 10 years ago my mom said she wanted to invest in our marriage by giving us that time every week. We’ve been doing it ever since!
We don’t always do something fancy (or do anything at all) but sometimes we get the chance to do some cool stuff.
Last week, since we knew Adam would be gone this week for Valentines, we did something a little…. different…..
We went to a float tank.
A float tank is a sensory deprivation chamber. It’s a big tub filled with water that has a high concentration of epsom salt to makes you very buoyant. You get in, it gets dark, you float for an hour or so. Easy. Right?
Y’all. This was about as weird as it sounds. And as date nights go it was especially weird since we weren’t even in the same room. Still, the separate, shared experience was definitely a conversation starter for the car ride home.
You have your own room and your own pod. It has lights on the inside and fills up to about a foot and half deep. You shower before hand, turn off your room lights, and hop in with ear plugs in and your head resting on a floating pillow. Then you pull down the lid to as far as is comfortable.
The water is warm and there is spa music playing underneath. After the tub finishes filling the lights turn off and the music stops. Total silence and total darkness. I’m thinking to myself- so this is how I die.
I’m not really claustrophobic, but the dark warm echoing silence reminded me of the first panic attack I ever had- a scuba diving attempt. I opened the lid a little and let the air circulate some.
Once I started to focus on my breathing I kind of forgot I was freaked out, but then I started to get bored. And I started getting annoyed at the fact that I had to sit there for a whole hour doing nothing! Then I remembered, no ever said I had to be still. So I started playing the world’s biggest game of Pong in my pod. Back-boop. And forth-boop. I’d swish this way and twist that way. It felt like moving in gel, not water. It was so salty that I could scrape sheets of crud off my body.
Once I tired of that I started filing through memories. I tried to go as far back as I possible could and do everything in order. I found myself getting stuck on certain things and thinking of stuff I hadn’t thought of for decades. Memories of my Granny brought tears that mixed with the tank of salt. I’d focused really hard and then all of the sudden I was exhausted. So exhausted. Thoughts would come and I’d just shut them down. I just hung and floated, too tired to do anything else. I wasn’t asleep, just vacant. I have no idea if I was like that for 10 minutes or 45 minutes.
Then the lights in the pod popped on and the music started back. I slowly maneuvered myself up and out and went straight to the in-room shower. The water felt weird and my whole body was heavy. Even the shampoo from the dispenser felt weird in my hand. It’s what I imagine it’s like to go blind and have every other sense heightened.
This really was a wild and trippy experience. It was harder than I thought it would be to hang out with only myself for an entire hour, but I feel like I really got through some things. It was a total head game. I’d definitely like to do it again and I feel sure the next time will be easier.
What do you and your person do for date nights? We need your help with new ideas!
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