How I Became a Sauna Fan

I come from a family where health was a daily subject of discussion. And I always felt that I had to take care of myself.

But in a period of deep depression, taking care of myself became much less of a priority. I neglected even the most basic things you can do for your health, and I certainly didn't get around to trying anything new. One of those 'new' things I had been curious about, was sauna use. Not knowing anyone who used a sauna, I had only been able to just read about it. 

And I remember being both mystified and attracted by what I considered contradictions in the concept. Take, for instance, the idea that you could seriously burn yourself with water of a hundred degrees Celsius, but that spending time in air of the same temperature was both pleasant and beneficial! Seriously?! But I had no one to ask about his or her personal experience, so I reserved the idea for when an opportunity presented itself to find out more from someone who had been there and done that, so to say.

At some point I started making improvements to my life, and I began to lift myself out of my depression - encouraged by a colleague who had been quite worried about me. And then one day I found out that she was a big sauna fan! Time to pick her brain...

I found everything she told me quite enlightening, even encouraging. I found out how things worked, how best to make use of a sauna, even of different kinds of saunas, how the spas in the Netherlands that we call 'saunabedrijven' [sauna companies] operate, and how to gain entry at the best prices.

Most Dutch sauna fans like to use Finnish-style saunas, and the majority of these companies that run spas in the Netherlands offer a variety of them - many set in a nicely decorated building, some even with a garden and a cluster of these saunas. Most often, these are complemented with facilities like pools, plunge baths, cooling down zones, sun loungers, restaurants, lounges and such. Germans would call these a 'Saunalandschaft' [sauna landscape].

I got more and more interested in trying a spa visit. I thought about it, and digested everything my colleague had told me.

And then one day something quite traumatic happened. Had I had a good marriage, I would have just gone home to calm down and be comforted, but in my first marriage that really didn't work: worse, the marriage had caused the problem in the first place.

I desperately wanted to find a way to relax, and to forget about my troubles for a bit. And then the thought hit me that a spa visit might do that for me. I booked the nearest spa, and made a reservation.

Had I had time to think about it, I might have been a bit nervous, because in the average Dutch spa people don't wear a lot, if anything, and I didn't know how comfortable I would be with that thought.

As it turns out, it took me about two minutes to get used to it. Just as well, because since then I have been of the opinion that it's best not to wear lycra, nylon - or anything else, for that matter - in temperatures of 90 or 100 degrees Celsius. Let your skin - all of your skin - breathe! But that's a subject I can go into deeper another time.

The first sauna I tried, was a very mild one, with only 60 to 65 degrees of heat - no, let's call it warmth. It was pleasant, but I wasn't too impressed.

After having cooled down a bit - that didn't take much effort or time after such a modest temperature - I had a rest, a drink of water, and a bit of a read. And then I decided to up my game. 

The next option in terms of temperature wasn't just warmer, it also had a few extras. The 80 degree sauna I then tried, had a water feature with automatic addition of menthol essential oil. I loved it! Easily took me over my perspiration threshold, clearly helped my sinuses, and of course I felt other benefits. I felt cleansed and relaxed.

Even using a cold plunge bath afterwards couldn't dampen my lifted spirits - in fact, undergoing the opposite of what the sauna had offered, gave me a whole new and unexpected physical and even mental thrill! Not only was I very proud of myself for immersing myself in cold water, but I could tell that my body reacted very well to the change from hot to cold.

I tried out several other saunas and facilities that day, spending the best part of the afternoon and evening there. And I loved every second of it! So much so that I immediately wanted to book the next spa experience - I was hooked!

Since then I've made a lot of those spa experiences possible by learning how to find the best deals, buying unused spa vouchers from others, signing up for promotional offers, and even getting free admission to spas when I became a spa reviewer! And I've benefited greatly from my spa visits in terms of both physical and mental health.

In future posts I'll tell you more about my experiences - good or bad, funny or not - with spas in the Netherlands and other countries - even on ships! And I'll go into some details about the benefits of sauna use. 

So, watch this space...