Many are familiar with Eckart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. Mason Jennings sure is.

Living in the moment, being present in the “now” is philosophy well suited for the sauna experience:

In the hot room:

• Enjoying the hot room experience.
• Loyly: steam created from water being tossed on sauna rocks.
• The endorphin rush of sweat.

And then the cool down:

• The invigorating feel of a cold water plunge.
• That calming state of equilibrium sitting outside between rounds.
• Fresh air.

But living in the now exclusively isn’t the answer.  Whether we realize it or not, a sport gives us therapy and a mental a rush because it gets us in the forward thinking mode.  Live in the now, but move forward:

• Mountain climbing.
• Bicycling.
• Running.
• Soccer, Ice Hockey, heck, ALL sports!

Fall down?  Let in a goal?  Get tired?   You brush yourself off and move on.  Look ahead.  What’s next, what can we do next?  Who’se ready for another sauna round?  Hey, who took my spot on the bench!?

Life gets better when we move forward.

A car has a bigger windshield than a rear view mirror.  Where are you looking?

A sauna at his health club

We were back to Buffalo, NY and I found myself at his health club a couple days after his funeral.  I had been to the Aquatic & Fitness Center a few times before.  My Dad loved the facility and especially the sauna.  He’d tell me about his sauna sessions and how he enjoyed chatting with other folks during his sauna rounds.

Yea, it’s a health club sauna “Absolutely no spitting water or water on the sauna rocks at any time”.  Yet after the few days I had, it sure felt nice to experience some sauna therapy, with or without Loyly.  After round one, I slipped out the pool patio door for cool down.  The day was blustery, 40 mph winds, and there had been snow flurries in the air.  As I stood on the patio outside, I felt the stares of people sitting warmly in the hot tub inside as well as the ice cold wind chilling me down.

Round two started with a few others, but I soon found myself alone in the sauna.  We all know that sauna is a spiritual experience, and  though this may sound hokey, I started to hear my father’s voice within all this silence.  I heard him clearly, right there within these same cedar walls:

“ah, this feels nice, but my son has a sauna on an island in Northern Minnesota.  It’s wood burning and…..”He took great pride in my saunas.

I thought about him and I taking a sauna, how he’d be more of a “low bench Larry” and he’d screech like a child with any amount of cold water on his body.  I tried to teach him about the “rubber band theory” of temperature extremes.

But he liked sauna well enough.  And this was good enough for me.

It was a spiritual sauna that day.  Alone, hearing his voice.  Round three: instead of sitting quiet in the sauna, I turned to the guy sitting in the opposite corner, and what came out of my mouth was just what my Dad would ask: “So, think the Sabres can pull it off tonight?”

Like yoga, spin class, and Mumford & Son’s:

1. Authenticity wins over a latest craze.
2. We need a break from a mobile device, whether we realize it yet or not.
3. Driving: we all need to get away from insanity behind the wheel.
4. We love nature and will work hard to try to find it, even if it’s just looking up at the moon between sauna rounds.
5. Our parents took 2 week vacations, we strive to fit in two hours.
6. Beyond having a “Euro cool factor”, saunas outweigh hot tubs.
7. We will ‘staycation’ more and strive for simple, authentic ways to escape.
8. Rising property taxes force us to think about how we can better use our entire lots.
9. Like enjoying a good cup of coffee, we will seek out quality: authentic saunas will win out over health club saunas or infrared light bulb closets.
10. We will recognize that our best investment is in our health, tapping into the benefits of an authentic Finnish sauna.