The Healing Powers Of Sauna. A journey into the heat.

Escape To The Sauna...

Over the past few years I have found that the healing powers of sauna are akin to natural witchcraft for my body, mind and soul. With this being said, this blog has been written as a result of my own personal journey into the heat, and I cannot write about saunas and their power to help us in a non-biased, neutral way. I hope that this blog not only informs you of how they can help aid your mental and physical wellbeing, but also excites you to try them out for yourself. 

Over the summer I found myself at Escape To The Sauna’s woodland site, gazing up at the sycamore leaves dancing against the blue summer sky, whilst breathing deeply in a galvanized bathtub filled with icy water. I knew that the moment was absolutely perfect. 

I had driven down the Cornish lanes looking forward to the plunge with a strange anticipation that I hadn’t acknowledged before. As a heat seeking lizard, going for my regular sauna session has been a time to experience the relaxing calm that the heat offers me, but just then, in that freezing small galvanized bathtub, which I have shared with friends and floated in alone, I found a kind of healing that I never thought possible. The power to draw on deep, regulated breaths as I kept myself out of my natural comfort zone, whilst still finding my joy, was the point I had been seeking. 

The History Of Sauna.

We have the Finns to thank for the sauna, along with the hats which help our heads stay at a comfortable temprature.

My basic thought in life is that if humans have been doing something to aid their health for 10,000 years, it is probably a good thing to do. Finland is the home of Sauna, and back then people were digging holes, lighting fires, heating stones and pouring water on them to create heat and steam. The cleansing routines and rituals that the Finns embraced helped them connect with their minds and their bodies, as well as enriching their lives through building friendships in their communities whilst.

We can see saunas emerge through all the ages of history with the famous Roman and Ottoman empires taking the idea to new levels as they explored and conquered the world. The wellbeing and health benefits that sauna offer has been known throughout time, but it is the original Finnish model which I embrace on a weekly basis when I can here in Cornwall. 

New Studies To Help Mental Health Through Heat.

How heat therapy can help tame our monkey brains.

The scientific community has been studying the effects of sauna for decades, and research shows us how regular sauna sessions with cold plunges not only help our blood pressure lower, our immunity increase, and pain decrease, but also help chronic diseases. But there are new, very exciting feasibility studies that are beginning to show how raising our core temperature on a regular basis combined with talking therapies can help regulate depression, and in some cases, people are no longer classified as depressed after a prescribed course of therapies.

The reason why saunas are being looked at to help people with depression is that they seem to have a higher core-body temperature, and enforced periods of increased heat from saunas can be seen to bring their core temperatures down over time.

The study entitled Feasibility and acceptability of an integrated mind-body intervention for depression: whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the one we are getting excited about! Although the study had participants in infra-red pods and the trial excluded the social aspect of saunas and the ice plunges, the studies form a grounding for further explorations into the benefit of combined approaches to structured mental health plans. Dr Ashley Morgan heads up the research in America and is making waves in the research fields to seek funding to create larger sized control trials to broaden the results. 

I am very excited for more research to be done, as when we combine what we know about hyperthermic treatments with the benefits of cold water swimming, we may be able to empower our own healing in wonderful, creative ways. For me, this is where science helps us learn more about how we can add beneficial habits into our weekly routines so that we can start to understand ourselves better, and look after ourselves with care and consideration.

Easing The Pain

As a physical based therapist, the reason why I love saunas for my clients is that it helps them manage their pain! Any type of musculoskeletal pain seems to be aided by regular trips to the hot house, and I am here for easy management styles for those types of ailments so that we can get some head room before any acute injury or flare ups. 

With most of my work, my days are spent helping people who have longstanding concerns that won’t be fixed quickly. Bones may have been pinned and plated, pathologies may be here for a while, or for life, and scaring doesn’t want to un-stick very easily. Anxiety and stress take time to come down, with chronic fatigue and long covid often requiring weekly sessions for a period of months. This is why my approach to rehabilitation is more of a friendly management style; if we can bring everything down in the calm spells to a level that is easier, when the proverbial hits the fan, we have more in the tank to fight with. 

Does the Combination of Finnish Sauna Bathing and Other Lifestyle Factors Confer Additional Health Benefits? A Review of the Evidence. by Setor K. Kunutsor MD, PhD , Jari A. Laukkanen MD, PhD Published in June 2023

Popping even one sauna session in a week can help us maintain that headroom as it lowers inflammation in the body that can cause us common pain such as back aches, joint concerns and even headaches. My clients feel the difference over a short period of time, and when it is maintained as a routine throughout the whole year, the benefits can be huge. 

“A ‘Church’ Of Nature”

There is something that I gain from my sauna rituals that cannot be explained through the investigative power of science, and that is the feeling I have of inner connectedness with my spirit, body and mind. My inner voice calms, and my breathing deepens as my heart beats a relaxed, yet powerful, rhythm. 

There is a sacredness in the ritual of sauna which is created though Löyly, the Finnish steam spirit. When water is  poured onto the fire heated stones there is an intoxicating sense of release in the body and the mind, producing a sense of relaxation that is unique to these little cabins which allow us to connect into all our senses. 

This is a personal part of my journey with Sauna, and not something I have heard much talked about here in the UK. The wild sense of 'being' I get after the first cold plunge as I sit on the hot cedar benches in the cabin is akin to feeling water travel within me. This is the ‘Natural Witchcraft’ that I have come to crave; the connectedness between my body, soul, heart, and mind. 

I can fully understand why the Finnish consider their time in the hot houses, in communion with the people around them, to see it as a ‘Church of Nature’; there is something other that happens when we stop and take time to connect. 

Psychological Benefits of Sauna Ceremonies in the Context of Wellness by Daniela Stackeová and Lukáš Kerhart

By The Sea.

Wood fired saunas will always be my personal favourites.

Last week I was selfishly delighted that the little converted shepherd’s hut trundled its way along the roads that I had driven through this summer. The team at Escape To The Sauna had decided to park it opposite my apartment on the Greenbank in Falmouth. Suddenly I have the opportunity to sauna each day it is open, and a new routine for the winter can start. There was a feeling of slight loss that the galvanized bath of fresh water had been replaced with the sea, but after my first visit I confess that the only thing I really missed was floating whilst looking up at the leaves and the birds. It brought home to me that each sauna offers different elements to the experience for you; whether they are in woodland, or by the beach, in a gym (where I used to sauna regularly), or even at home. For now, I am going to embrace the cold drench of a drunk in the sea over winter, with the warmth from our little hut, and the laughter and conversations with my neighbours. 

Until next time, breathe deeply, 

Love Jenny x

This blog has not been sponsored, but has been written with thanks to Jem at the team at Escape To The Sauna, Cornwall.