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In Finland sauna is for relaxation and meditation. Heat of sauna causes the body to sweat and relaxes the muscles. Through perspiratiotation the skin cleanses itself of impurities. This relieves muscular aches and pains. The result is total relaxation, which gives you feeling of meditation; the time stops and all the stress disapears.
Through the ages people of different cultures have taken sweat baths in different forms and for different purposes:
religious ceremonies
healing illnesses
bodily cleaning
relaxation
meditation
social life.
Most of the natives once inhabiting the wooded areas of Europe, northern Asia, North and South America have used sweat bathing in one form or another.
There are many types of sweat bath as the Roman balneae and thermae, the Turkish hammam, the North American natives' sweat lodge, the temascal in Mexico and Guatemala, the Japanese hot water baths sentoo and o-furo, the Russian bania and the Finnish sauna.
In Europe public baths have been common since the Roman times, but during the 15th and 16th centuries bath houses were ordered to close due to widespread promiscuity and epidemics of syphilis. Only in remote areas such as northern Russia, Estonia and Finland did the bathing habit continue undisturbed to this day.
SAUNA AND HEALTH
For ages the sauna has been considered the very source of energy and health in Finland, and even today the average Finn finds the question of sauna´s health risks rather amusing than serious.
By an old Finnish saying an illness was to cause death if liquor, tar and sauna did not help. The sauna has been a subject of scientific medical research for a couple of hundred years.
Here are some findings of these studies:
For any healthy person the sauna bath presents no health risk, but rather gives a pleasant, relaxing and refreshing experience beneficial to both body and mind. It cleanses the pores of the skin, alleviates aches and pains and helps many people sleep more soundly.
The golden rule with the sauna is the feeling of comfort: you can go to the sauna as often as you wish, stay there as long as you wish and repeat the hot-cold cycle as many times as you wish so long as it feels comfortable. Beginners may start with a recommended procedure until they learn the way they enjoy the sauna best.
Groups of people who may have health risks in the sauna and who therefore should pay special attention to the way they bathe are patients with various diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma or skin disease. However, for most people in these groups moderate sauna bathing presents no health risk. "Moderate" here means keeping the temperature under 90°C (194°F) and avoiding any rapid changes from hot to cold or vice versa. Also pregnant women can safely go to the sauna under the same conditions, but should stay in somewhat lower temperature (around 70°C/158°F).
People who should avoid the sauna completely are e.g. people running fever or having inflammatory diseases or injuries. Anybody with a contagious disease should bathe only in his own sauna. Also people under the influence of alcohol should not go to the sauna, nor is there any evidence that the sauna would help in a hangover.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A SAUNA BATH
Leave your clothes in the dressing room. You should also have a clean set of clothes to wear after the sauna. Take something to sit on, e.g. a small towel, into the sauna.
Take a shower or a dip in water before entering the hot room. This is to moisten the skin and to remove any possible body or fragrant odors, which do not belong to the sauna.
Enter the hot room for the first round. The recommended temperature is 80 to 90°C (176-194°F), at most 100°C (212°F). At first the air may be dry. Increase humidity by throwing water onto the stones in the stove. Using the whisk is not recommended on the first round since the skin has not yet softened adequately.
Leave the hot room when you feel hot enough and cool off by taking a shower or a swim or just by sitting in room temperature or outside. Have a drink if you feel thirsty, but avoid alcohol in the sauna.
Take a second round in the hot room, which now should already be more humid than on the first round. After warming up you can use the whisk if you please. It feels best with adequate humidity and temperature.
Cool off again. Repeat the hot-cold cycle as many times as you feel comfortable with. Use the whisk according to your preference. For many people two rounds is usually right.
Return to the hot room for a short warm up to soften the skin. Wash up. After washing yourself you can return to the hot room for a while, now preferably to a lower temperature. Finally rinse yourself under a refreshing shower.
Dry yourself with a towel or just by sitting in room temperature. You can also lay down and even close your eyes for a while if you feel like it.
Have a refreshing drink. Before putting on clean clothes allow enough time for cooling off, otherwise the sweating may still continue. Also watch out not to get cold since the body is in a more "sensitive" state after the sauna than normally. Leave the sauna and the dressing room in tidy condition.
FINNISH SAUNA CUSTOMS
1. Always use the sauna bench towel when seated in the sauna or when sitting outside. When using the lounge or walking between the dressing room and washroom please drape a bath towel around you or wear a bathrobe. When you have finished taking a sauna please remember to dispose of your sauna bench towel and bath towel in the laundry basket.
2. In addition to washing off the dust and cares of the day, please take the time to wash away any trace of perfume or after-shave before entering the sauna. Please refrain from using heavily perfumed hair conditioners or bath oils or bathing salts that could soil the sauna benches. The same restriction applies to the use of any kind of additive to the water used to cast on the stones of the sauna stove.
3. Ask the other bathers, either when entering or leaving the sauna, if they would like to have more steam. Contests for whom can stand the hottest degree of steam do not belong to the customs of the Sauna Seura, but respect for others do.
4. Sauna is a truly calm and peaceful place for meditation. Kindly observe this particular feature with your own reserved behavior.
5. The Rauhala sauna is heated from 60 to 80 degrees. Attempting to change the degree of heat by leaving the sauna door open for a longer period of time or spraying water on the stove is not allowed.
6. The use of a sauna whisk is permitted. Whenever possible please collect any leaves that have fallen from the whisk and put them in the waste bin. Please do not leave the used whisk in the pail on the sauna bench when you have finished bathing. Replace the pail in its right place and take the whisk to the hatch in the washroom reserved for this purpose. It can be used later as tinder for lighting the sauna stove the next time.
7. Whoever is last to leave the sauna should ensure that nothing has been left that doesn’t belong there and that the sauna stove door is securely closed.
8. In winter time you can take a snow bath outsider of sauna. When taking a snow bath in winter be very careful of the slippery steps.
9. Your enjoyment of the sauna experience can be noticeably improved simply be reserving a sauna washer to scrub you and /or a masseur to give you a good massage.
10. Remember to drink enough to ensure that you maintain your sugar and fluid levels during your time in the sauna.
11. Please do not take any containers made of glass into the sauna or washrooms.
12. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is not permitted nor is it allowed to come to the sauna intoxicated. Smoking is not permitted inside. You will find certain areas outside that are reserved for smokers.
13. Only take as much sauna as your own health permits. Do not come to the sauna when you are sick or unwell as doing so could affect others. If do you happen to feel unwell ask for assistance if necessary and leave the sauna.
14. Please play your part in keeping the premises clean and tidy. Place all rubbish in the waste bin and tidy up after you have finished. Remember to return the pails to their reserved place, put your sauna bench towel and bath towel into the laundry basket.
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