A Letter For The Sauna

My ritual for a healthy soul and body

There's something deeply ancestral about sitting in a wooden room filled with hot stones and steam, letting the heat envelope you until your mind drifts into that liminal space between consciousness and meditation. I do this 4-5 times a week, and each time it feels both ancient and new.

Being of Nordic Swedish heritage, I sometimes wonder if my draw to the sauna is somehow coded into my DNA, passed down through generations who understood the profound necessity of heat in the cold Nordic winters. The Scandinavians didn't just use saunas for warmth – they were places of community, of ritual, of deep contemplation. Sacred spaces where the outside world melted away with each ladle of water on the hot stones.

I first started my sauna routine in Tokyo, where I’d incorporate it into my bi-weekly Onsen routine. Now it’s a practice of deep importance to me, the sauna has evolved into something more personal. It's become my sanctuary for Wim Hof breathing cycles (5x) and deep contemplation. There's a moment, usually about 2 cycles in, when the initial discomfort of the heat fades away as the intensity builds and my mind enters this incredible state of clarity. It's like the heat strips away all the unnecessary thoughts, leaving only the essential ones to float to the surface.

The rhythm becomes hypnotic: breathe in, hold, release. The heat pushes against the skin while the mind pushes against the boundaries of ordinary thought. In these moments, solutions to problems I've been wrestling with suddenly become clear. Creative ideas arise like the steam from the stones. It's as if the sauna creates this perfect environment where my mind can finally slow down enough to truly think.

What's beautiful about the sauna is its simplicity. Just wood, heat, and time. No screens, no notifications, no distractions. In our increasingly complex world, this simplicity feels revolutionary. It's a return to something fundamental, something our ancestors understood: sometimes you need to sit with the heat, with your thoughts, with your breath, and just be.

The sauna is my daily reset button, my place of clarity, my connection to both my ancestors and my present self. Thank you for being the space where I can shed the day's complexities and find that elusive state of mental clarity. For teaching me that sometimes the best way to cool down my racing thoughts is to heat up my body.

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew