Why we sauna in the summer & Midsommar's eve sauna session
Tix for Friday June 20 5-8pm at the Octagon Barn in Spring Green
I’m emerging from my newborn bubble to celebrate Midsommar with you! I couldn’t be more delighted to return to Kindled Community Sauna and friends for a special weekend of gathering, bathing culture, and summer delights! Join me for a family friendly midsommarafton sauna session on Friday June 20th from 5-8pm. I’ll be providing herbal whisks, midsommarvatten (9 flowers water) for the löyly sauna bucket, nourishing herbal infusions, and traditional fire cupping for the adventurous!
While there are many proven health benefits to a year-round sauna routine, I won’t bore you with the details here, for in my teaching and personal practice I find it to be the least interesting thing about it. The wellness industry has been banging the ‘self care’ drum for years now and I think we’ve all grown weary of talking about life hacking our way to optimal health. Let’s instead talk about the emotional benefits and community we find herein- to our ancestors, sauna was not something you did alone in your basement thermal tent or at the gym’s dry room after a vigorous workout. Going to the sauna was a social event where people met several times a week as a family, and on holy days on the wheel of the year, to both socialize, cleanse, and be quietly together enjoying the social effervescence. Washing each other’s backs is a form of community care taught to me by my teachers. There is nothing like a sweat and a cold dip that brings us into present company, gets us to drop technology and shed our adornments for a little while, and reveals the space-holding capacity in us all. I’ve gotten some of the best travel recommendations, parenting tips, relationship advice, gossip, and (most importantly) shared silence on a sauna bench. The sauna is a place for new and old friends, for camaraderie, for learning from those who are different from you. At a time where we’re struggling with loneliness and collective grief, the sauna is an equalizing third space that brings us together as siblings and seekers. And in the summer, at its highest peak, meeting at the sauna offers us endurance contrast therapy that better equips us to handle cold lake waters and the hottest dog days with grace. Going to the sauna with some frequency all year round makes both the winter and the summer weather much more bearable, changing the scale of how we experience heat, which is becoming ever more important in the face of climate change and unpredictable weather patterns.
