Something has been bothering me for some time and I don’t know what to do about it.
I love the sauna. Having lived a year of my life in Finland, I appreciate it not only for its health and relaxation benefits, but also for its historical and cultural significance.
There is an art to having a sauna, and certain things are sacred. Like, you don’t take body lotion into the sauna and slather it all over yourself. You don’t eat in the sauna, or make irritating noises. You don’t lie across the top bench if the sauna is full. In short, you don’t do things that interfere with others’ enjoyment of the ritual.
I also love yoga, an equally ritualistic art form with its own rules of etiquette. But what I don’t appreciate are these people who insist on using the public sauna as their own, private hot yoga studio.
Well, not exactly private because I am there. Watching (I can’t help it) them contort into poses that, when one is naked, range from lewd to obscene depending on a number of factors; and listening to them make all kinds of irritating sounds. (Yesterday the woman in the sauna was doing a loud series of skull-polishing breaths followed by long, deep sighs.)
I considered making equally irritating sounds (rapping the lyrics to Common’s “A Film Called PIMP” perhaps—); or doing my own deep breathing (though this could send the wrong signal); but this just seemed puerile and possibly inflammatory. After all, I am a mediator.
I thought about taking it to the management of the Y; surely this is against the rules, perhaps a safety issue, and they could post a sign? But this would not solve the immediate problem. And besides, the other part of me wants to respect each person’s use of the sauna in the way that is meaningful to her. That principle too is part of sauna culture.
So I decided to try negotiation. I thought perhaps we could strike a deal; like can she please leave now before I melt down?(nice pun huh?) And just when I got up the courage to maybe say something, she de-contorted, got up, smiled at me sweetly and announced “Wow, that was a tough one, I’m outta here.”
It’s not her first time. Maybe you’ll have the chance to ‘negotiate’ again. The ‘art’ of sauna (and you haven’t reminded readers of the ‘real’ pronounciation, SOW-na not SAW-na!) hasn’t been lost, it’s simply not known, at least outside of Scandinavia. There’s sweaty yoga – there’s another name, of course – and my friend Ann loves it. Perhaps your sauna companion was replicating that environment.
Yes, even my Finnish sister Tea wrote to say that she too does “gym” in the sauna…. maybe I am getting too set in my old ways?