Southern Star Ltd. logo
Subscriber Exclusives

Finally building up a head of steam!

February 6th, 2024 8:30 PM

By Southern Star Team

Finally building up a head of steam! Image
Beach saunas have proven a new year hit with columnist Emma Connolly. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Share this article

After years of avoiding saunas following a bad experience in the past, our writer decided to give them a go once more. She was pleasantly surprised by her first visit to a mobile version. She says it won’t be her last!

WHERE do we all stand (or sit?) on the topic of saunas? I used to blow a bit hot and cold when it came to them, to be honest.

Mainly cold, actually, after one incident left me hot (and bothered), and in slight trepidation of ever setting barefoot in one again. It happened well over 20 years ago, when I was working in Mayo and I still break out in a sweat when I think of it. I was a member of the local leisure club, and a very nice place it was too.

I regularly enjoyed a sauna after a swim, and on one particular night I was about to hop out having spent probably a few more minutes in the sweltering heat than I could tolerate, when in poured what felt like the entire local football team. They were called the Ballina Stephenites if memory serves me right, and they were enjoying a particularly good winning spell at the time, pretty much making them local heroes.

• Anyway, I had the sauna to myself before this and had been sitting in the top tier, and they all took up positions on the lower levels, sort of trapping me in. Well not intentionally trapping me in, but I would have had to do some very awkward, up close and personal, squeezing past to reach the door (and sweet fresh air!) and I just couldn’t do it.

• I was too self-conscious (mainly of my thighs) so I had to sit it out for what seemed an eternity. When they finally left and I stumbled out I was practically hallucinating, almost delirious!

• In hindsight, and being more than twice as old now as I was then, I’m certain that my thighs were perfectly fine, and of no interest to anyone but myself, but we all know that youth is wasted on the young. Having said that, on the rare occasion I’ve ventured into a sauna since, I always take the spot nearest the door, just to be on the safe side.

• I’m also a bit of a germphobe and can’t stop myself wondering who was perched on the spot where I’m sitting before me. And if they used a towel. And who cleans the sauna, or if it’s self-cleaning? And if the heat is a microcosm for germs to breed? Will I get a verruca? Or scabies?

• It goes without saying that I wouldn’t be able for Nordic saunas. Sit in the nude? Bare butts? Mother of god above, no! Anyway, my local leisure club has a newly installed sauna and after some coaxing I ventured inside the other day.

• I’m not remotely concerned about my thighs these days (too preoccupied by other things, like how tired I am or what I’ll make for dinner), but what unnerved me this time was the stony silence we all sat in, avoiding eye contact, while trying to give off an air of being relaxed. I lasted three minutes, maybe less, I think. Further proof that I didn’t think saunas were for me.

After avoiding saunas for decades after an incident in Co Mayo with what felt like an entire football team, Emma is verging back in! (Photo: Shutterstock)

 

• You’ll be relieved to know there’s a point to this and I’m getting to it now. It was my birthday last week (thank you ... Ilen Street Skibbereen if you’d like to send something small) and my lovely sister-inlaw organised a trip to the mobile sauna that visits a nearby beach on a Friday morning.

• I had never been and given my past experiences was a little sceptical, but figured nothing ventured and all the rest. So, we started in the sauna and then had a little sea dip, back to the sauna, another dip and so on for the best part of an hour, putting the world to right along the way.

• The flasks were produced afterwards, before we were on our way, new and improved. Hot air, cold water, coffee and chats are a winning combination for the soul and the skin.

• An added bonus is that I had the best sleep in months that night. So the moral of the story is to keep an open mind ... turns out I was just doing saunas ‘wrong’, and with the wrong people. They’re my new favourite thing and I’m now spending most of my free time researching one for at home. Extreme? Me? Where did you get that idea?

• So yeah, I’ve celebrated another trip around the sun and while I’m not sure I’m any the wiser, a few things struck a chord with me during the year. I realised the days might be long, but the nights are flipping short, so go to bed early. Stop faffing about with sleep procrastination (the behaviour is so prevalent in middle-aged people, it even has a name), remember that nothing much good happens after 10.30pm so get under the covers (and no phones).

• Also, work on showing empathy. I know we can’t take on every sad situation but I think a little empathy can go a long way; that and proper listening (and not just waiting for a chance to interrupt with your tuppence worth).

• What else? Eat the cake! Not all of it, mind you, but enjoy a slice because life’s too short. Enjoy some exercise too ... not just because you like to eat cake but because you want to be able to put your socks on when hopefully you reach 80.

• And have the odd beach sauna, if only for the novelty factor. The only downside to my newfound interest is I’ll be more full of hot air than usual – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Share this article


Related content