There are a small number of floatation pods in Dublin, offering a relaxing experience that is truly like no other.
Three of these floatation tanks are found at Drift Float Therapy in Stillorgan, a tiny haven of tranquillity where you are guaranteed to leave feeling better than when you walked in.
Drift Float Therapy contains three rooms consisting of these floatation tanks along with showers, towels and everything you need to make the most of your time there.
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If you have never tried float therapy before, it is essentially a way of achieving a meditative state, as Drift Float Therapy owner Rob explained to Dublin Live.
"When the lights are off, you can't see anything and you can't really feel anything. It's like you lose your sense of touch so you're completely relaxed," he explained.
After taking a quick body shower, it was time to get into the pod for my floatation.
Inside the pods, which from the outside resemble something from an alien movie, there is 450kg of Epsom salt in the heated water, which is what makes it so easy to float.
Before stepping in, there will be a pair of ear plugs for you to pop in before immersing yourself in, or should we say on, the water.
Once you pull the top closed (don't worry, it's super easy to open again at any time), you can turn off the lights inside or leave them on if you prefer. I left the lights on inside the pod as I found ambient slow-changing colours rather soothing.
What was initially most surprising about the experience was how tense I didn't realise I was.
It took me a while to properly let all of my muscles relax, to let my head fall back and be held by the water and achieve that sense of weightlessness. Once I did, it was a state of disconnectedness I had never achieved before, or at least not in recent memory.
It's worth noting here the highly stimulating world we live in today, where we are bombarded with notifications, messages and more information than our brains can often handle. If someone told you to lie in your room for an hour in complete silence with no distractions, you would likely prefer not to.
Spending an hour in the floatation pod forces you to do just that, and you will be so grateful for it.
Naturally, the state of relaxation achieved depends on the individual, but it's safe to assume that your experience will be peaceful.
While I was in quite a trance like state, the small sounds I heard were like movie sound effects. If I even slightly lifted a finger and tapped it on the surface of the water, it sounded astonishingly clear. You truly feel like you're in another world in which you are the only person.
While the health benefits of float therapy include athletic recovery, hair and skin health and muscle recovery, I found the main benefit to be the meditative state I never realised was possible to achieve.
Float Therapy isn't the only relaxing offering at Drift Float Therapy. Upstairs, you will find a salt cave and an infra red sauna, all of which can be booked on the Drift Float Therapy website.
A visit to Drift Float Therapy for an hour in the floatation pod costs €65. Meanwhile a one hour salt session costs just €25. There are also a range of combination packages and even membership for Drift Float Therapy available.
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