Spas
Nakedness – PART 2
The road to self-esteem and acceptance?
So, where were we? Oh, yes…the sauna lessons…..
The Sauna Master Session
This is an almost twilight-like experience.
It is astonishing, scorching hot and not sexy at all. It was either too hot or too cold anyway for any funky business.
Once you have found your space and accommodated yourself, paying strict attention that your body stays within the confinement of your towel, you defiantly avoid eye contact with any “body,” and you ceremoniously await the Master.
People wait with particular anticipation and trepidation. What will it be like this time? With what flavors and perfumes will the Master grace us?
Sardines
The Sauna Master comes in and informs his jubilant mackerels how he is going to steam them…to death! And we are so happy!
So ecstatic that in a few minutes, we are going to experience temperatures of up to 94C˚ (201F˚)! Of course, he warns us of possible dangers and that we should avoid suffering in silence: “Ihr könnt jederzeit die Sauna verlassen…. can leave!”.
This, of course, rarely happens since the Germans are a proud folk, and this would be, unintentionally, frowned upon.
The Master has personally prepared the scents for the water that he is going to throw on the hot stones. Lavender or pine or any other locally grown plant will reach our nostrils shortly.
All is organic, all is natural, just as our disrobed bodies, all is lovingly prepared for the guests to inhale and scorch their lungs with.
The sauna Master creates the steam by splashing the hot stones; he also takes ginormous fans and makes sure to equally distribute the heat all over the sauna. The wind gusts that reach you are a taste of what you would feel like if you were a virgin about to be sacrificed on top of an active volcano.
The vapors rip your lungs open as well as the rest of your air passages. Have a sauna, they said! It’s healthy, they said! I am beginning to doubt the Germanic Wisdom…
To the next “torture”
Once these unbelievably long 15 minutes are over, everybody walks over to the gelid lake (we are in mid-winter) to take the required frigid dip to activate the heart and skin capillaries.
This is done in a highly orderly way: people cue up, and one by one take turns to cool their reddened bodies, naked bodies I remind you, into the lake.
To my bemused eye, they looked as if they were queuing to be baptized and be born again.
It’s a serious business, this sauna business.
In between saunas sessions, you have to wear a bathrobe or a towel. You have to be silent and rest. No nakedness allowed outside the saunas, whereas you have to be totally naked in them! No bathing suits allowed!
And no one covers with a towel. You could, I guess, but again I have the feeling you would be frowned upon.
On the terrace in front of the placid lake, a hot tub with amazing views, where you also bathe in your birthday suit, awaits you. This, too, was most amusing: up to 10/12 people fit in this therapeutic salty warm water, where we all quietly sit and brood.
Basically, a human soup or as I like to call it the recreation of the primordial soup.
Final Lesson
If you are still reading at this point, it means that you are open-minded enough to continue hearing about naked bodies parading around in all their shapes, forms, and glory.
And this was the last lesson of my day.
The naked bodies were all different and, at the same time, all the same. Every single difference reminded me of how unique we are in our individuality, and yet how we are all part of the same human race.
I felt as if this common nakedness: no masks, no layers, no physical boundaries united us even more in our humanity and oneness with everything else surrounding us.
This diversity highlighted our sameness.
Perfect in our imperfections.
Extraordinary in our ordinality. Proud and accepting of who we are, of our profound nature.
What do you think? Is the road to acceptance of our outside the path to the acceptance of our inside, or the other way around? Leave a comment below.
May you always live in The Golden Moment of Now.
Samantha
http://www.thezurichinsider.com/
Note by the author: The sauna experience in Germany, Austria & Switzerland are quite similar. Although, it also depends on the establishment. Ask to be sure what the sauna etiquette is.
