My meaning of Sauna.
Why it’s ‘my’ meaning is because it may mean something (or nothing) different to you.
It’s roughly 80 degrees Celsius. Splash some water on the hot stones and hear its evaporating hiss. Feel the wave of hot air spread over your face and body. Time evaporates. Instead, there’s the slowing ticking of expanding and contracting metal. Breathe in the heat. Sit with your back against the bare, comforting wooden planks and breathe out all your worries.
Without the water, it’s not so hot. Sitting in comfort is nice but that’s not my meaning of Sauna. Splash a few ladles more. Feel the heat oppress you. It’s so hot you have to breathe slowly through your mouth, otherwise your nostrils will burn. Blinking helps against your eyes popping. Now you get uncomfortable. Now you’re covered in liquid. It’s not all your sweat actually. A lot of it is just the moisture from the air. Now you start getting edgy and restless. You wipe sweat off your arms and chest. You run your hands over your face and hair. You rub your eyes with your knuckles. You can feel your heart beating faster, your circulatory getting a workout.
The urge to get out appears. This is the best part. Everything from the outside world evaporates. All your stress, thoughts and anxieties melt and vanish. It’s practically alchemy. Fire. The struggle becomes your primal priority. The challenge is to calm yourself. You’re not boiling alive yet so this is just one of those illusory barriers. It’s similar to when a freediver holding breath gets the urge to breathe in. The ones that can, push through that and can swim much further. I’ve done this. It is all mental and the trick, again, is to calm yourself. When you stop struggling, you become more aware of your body and the real state it’s in. You will know if you’re too hot and need to leave. You will also realise how much worse struggling makes things. Breathe slowly and deeply and feel the therapeutic warmth fill you. Thoughts from the outside world may start creeping in but it’s easier now to throw them on the hot stones. Once you’ve been able to stay calm, relaxed and in the zone for a while, it’s time to get out. You still have to respect your body.
That’s only half the fun.
You open the door, step out and feel the instant relief of cool air. Walk slowly towards the pool. It’s good etiquette to shower at this stage but then you don’t get the proper effect… for which you just have to dive in. Don’t even think about walking in gradually or dipping in your legs. Dive. Feel the sudden blast of cool water. It’s so sudden it’s not unpleasant. Swoop up to the surface and lie on your back. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Hold it. That’ll help you float better. The dive will have made lots of bubbles. As you’re now floating above them they rise and spread over your back. They tickle past, on the way to the surface, over your shoulders, neck, arms and legs. Most rush past. Some stragglers follow. It’s like you’re being caressed by some tiny creatures. And all that is in the first few seconds after diving in.
Now focus on the floating. With eyes closed, this is the closest to weightlessness. The water is warm enough to not be intrusive. It’s pure comfort and relaxation. Breathe out slowly and keep floating. There is absolutely no tension in your body. No pain. No strain. If your ears are underwater, it’s even better. All sounds are muffled and you can just hear the underwater silence. Perhaps some distant drone of machinery or spa jets. You might hear your heart beating, slowing down. Stretch your arms above your head and arch your back. That makes floating easier. You can even arch your head back underwater. Make sure to breathe out while you do this. That feels good. The stark contrast between the struggle you’ve just endured and the rewarding relief is visceral. That feels very good.
This is also alchemy. Water. Water cleanses, you know? Washes away. Open your eyes now and look up at the night sky. Stars, perhaps the moon. You can float here and feel as though you’re up in space. Think about how miniscule you are while all that unfathomable everything is floating out there above you. For all you know, you’re floating above it, weightless in space above an infinite ocean of the universe.
You can now hold your breath and dive. You will now be able to stay underwater for much longer. This is because you are totally relaxed, your heart is not racing and you’re not wasting oxygen. It almost feels like you don’t need to breathe. You’re not distracted. You’re not struggling pointlessly. If you haven’t yet, you ought to try it for yourself.
