Fire and Ice: How I reach my absolute bliss

Fire and Ice: How I reach my absolute bliss

February 19, 2018 From that blog I started but closed down again 

Check me out, all blissed!

I was born in Sweden, a place naturally cold, and with the cold comes different age old traditions of keeping warm. One of them is the practice of sauna. A wood fired little cabin, with wooden benches, where you're supposed to be stark naked, and bring a little towel to lie on. You sweat in the sauna until you can't take it no more- there is almost always a sand filled hour glass, timing 15 or 20 minutes. Most people use these to measure one session. 

After the first session, you go outside, and make yourself FREEZE. Either you'd roll in snow if that is available, or you dip in the freezing sea, or these days, there is a cold pool to dip in. 

Traditionally you do this ritual three times. Three times sauna and three times freezing water. 

I grew up with sauna being part of our culture. Everyone knew you have to be naked in the sauna, and the sauna etiquette is something everyone knows. You don't talk too loud, for example. You don't shave or do body peelings in the shower after the sauna. You don't lie down on the benches, because then there isn't enough space for everyone. You always sit on a towel. 

One of my absolute favourite saunas is in my home town Malmö. It's called Kallbadhuset and is a traditional open air bath, built in wood, with 5 different wood fired saunas and steam rooms, with stairs leading into the sea and beautiful views over the bay. It's more than a 100 years old. 

The Scandinavians are well aware that this ancient tradition stimulates the body and mind in remarkable ways. The cold water helps release a massive explosion of endorphins, which is the natural feel good hormone of the body, and the body's natural morphine, which numbs pain. Especially during the sunless, Vitamin D-free, dark, dreary, depressing long winters up there, this practice was helpful. 

I only started appreciating this Scandinavian tradition when my Dutch friend Katja, whom I met on my Yoga Teacher Training in Puglia, Italy in 2008, came to visit me in Malmö, and wanted to try a Swedish traditional sauna. Katja loves the sauna and goes a lot in Holland. Apparently, the Dutch have a huge tradition of saunas, and have some amazing ones, indoors and outdoors. 

So I took her to the Malmö Kallbadhus, and we enjoyed an afternoon there, doing three rounds of sauna and three dips in the ice cold water. I might add that it was the beginning of January, and the sea was frozen. They'd made a hole in the ice so the guests could dip down. Yes, it was properly freezing, but we did it, and the endorphin rush I felt at that time, made me a total addict. I re-discovered and started appreciating this practice and slowly started implementing it into my life. 

This year, on my birthday which falls on the 3rd January, I went here with my dear friend Emma, and did the same ritual. For me, there is no better way on the planet starting a new year. Cleaning, sweating, refreshing; with bliss as the result. 

Last winter I discovered that there is a swimming pool in Playa den Bossa, Ibiza, with a little spa. There's a hammam (steam room) and a wood fired sauna, as well as a cold water pool and a jacuzzi. I started going there regularly and felt how this practice actually stimulated me to feel so incredibly peaceful internally. After a visit to the spa, I felt as if no thoughts in the world were disturbing me. As if I was still, in my centre. Kind of like what yoga philosophy is all about: "Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind" (Yoga Sutras by Patanjali)

I laid there one time in February last winter (yes, in Spain none of the strict Scandinavian rules apply, you need to wear a bathing suit and you can also lie down as it's not so busy) in the hammam, just allowing myself to float freely in the gorgeous humid heat. I must have been on my third round already, all floaty and happy and peacefully blissed out, and I realised that stilling of the mind which yoga has as its goal, and which happens after a long, good yoga practice with much focus on the breath, is what happens naturally when doing the sauna ritual. 

No thoughts, just presence, in the body. Out of the mind, into the body. Total stillness, just being, presence. Joy. 

Last Friday I went to Atzaro Spa with Katja (who now also lives in Ibiza, lucky me!) and tried their sauna and hammam. The pool is this one behind me in the picture; it was cold, for sure. At the third dip though, we were able to stay a little longer in the water for even more endorphin explosions. 

I just love this fire and ice practice, going to absolute extremes, putting your body through some uncomfortable situations, to end up in absolute bliss, at the centre of the being.