IN the spirit of participating in self-care acts that involve more than just hiding in the bathroom so I can look at small dogs on Instagram for five minutes, I have unleashed the big guns; this week I have been in a floatation tank. I have wanted to have a go since I first saw Eddie from Absolutely Fabulous emerge from a tank in her bedroom, cigarette in one hand, champagne flute in the other (neither of these accessories are advised). There hasn’t been a place nearer than Alton that offers the experience but when I heard it was now available at Limitless Float in Southampton, I jumped at the chance.

Sometimes I have the very maladaptive thinking process that I shouldn’t spend time or money doing things for me – this is UTTER NONSENSE and I would never give anyone that advice. I’m trying to resolve this ridiculous notion because as everyone tells me pretty much daily, you can’t drink from an empty cup. I need to be at my best mentally and physically for everyone else. It turns out lying in a floatation tank is just the tonic.

Floating in half a ton of Epsom salts whilst in the dark is as near to being an astronaut as you can get without actually being in space. I have never experienced anything like it. The ‘pod’ was spacious and easy to open which elevated my initial fears of feeling claustrophobic and trapped. I wondered if having an hour to myself would bring out all my mental demons or at the very least, I would just start planning what I needed to buy from Tesco on the way home. In fact none of this happened. The physical sensations were so new and unreal that I spent the whole hour marvelling at how relaxed my shoulders were for the first time in two years.

To remove light, noise and the weight of your body brings home a stark realisation of how many stimulants we surround ourselves with. I realised how noisy my house is, how many jobs I try to do at once, how tense I am all the time. To take all of that away gave my brain the space to BE and what was left was just calm. I’m wondering if I took away some of these constant stimulants, I would have a more focused mind. Watch this space.

* Stacey Heale has left her career as a fashion lecturer to focus on her two lively little girls and husband, Delays frontman Greg Gilbert, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2016. She launched the viral campaign Give4Greg to raise funds for lifesaving treatment: gofundme.com/give4greg. You can read more at her blog, www.beneaththeweather.com