With our own saunas, we sauna when we want (and settle into times that work for us).

Those of us who own our own saunas understand how awesome it is to sauna when we want (and how we want and with who we want).

Because we can sauna when we want, we have taken saunas at all times of the day and night.  Examples:

• Morning saunas to start the day.
• Friday afternoon happy hour saunas to wave goodbye to our work week.
• Saturday evening family saunas (a nod to Finnish tradition).
• Late night party saunas when the kiddies are in bed.

What’s great about owning our own saunas is that we wave the flag of freedom high.  Our backyard health and wellness retreat is ready for us when we are.  Our abilities to “escape” steps out our back door give us the feeling that we have gone on a long journey far from home.  And in all cases, an authentic sauna session is akin to a journey.  Sitting on our sauna benches, we close our eyes and could be anywhere, and often our minds take us to far places, free from distraction.  A lake cabin, a mountain stream, that waterfall in Hawaii stumbled upon.  Same during our cool downs.  After a lake plunge or cold outdoor shower, sitting on our sauna deck, with endorphin rush and a cold beverage.

Sauna time is our time.

And we are much less rushed in our own saunas.  We have created our own cool down zones and we enjoy the journey of our sauna sessions.  Invariably, we are able to stretch out our sauna time.  In our own sauna is where we are, so this is where we will be.  Not thinking about our car in the health club parking lot, we are present in this moment.  Thanks to our saunas, we don’t need a Deepak Chopra recording on guided meditation and being present.

These scenarios happen when we want them to happen.  For me, magical times for sauna are:

• 4 pm Friday Happy Hour sauna: my work computer is shut down for good and I can put all that stuff far behind me.
• 7 pm Weeknight sauna: It’s dark in winter, and there’s not much else going on.  I’m done by 9 pm or so and can have an evening snack watching the recorded hockey game in an hour.  Sauna guests can return home in good order.
• 5 pm Sunday Sauna: Post bike ride or, in winter, cross country ski.  Chili, soup, or an easy self serve meal afterwards with or without invited sauna guests.

During my younger years, we used to sauna starting around 9 pm.  I’d shovel myself into bed around midnight.  But drinking too close to bedtime causes the need to urinate at night, and that interrupted sleep was counter productive to the awesome sleep I get after sauna.  So, I like to sauna earlier.  Plenty of hydration and maybe a beer or two, and drinking nothing a couple hours before bed allows me a wonderful post sauna night’s sleep.

This is what we get with our own saunas.  We sauna when we want to and when it works best for us.