Those words hit home when she started chanting a Finnish hymn, passed down for generations as a way to summon the perfect löyly. She explained that this löyly wasn’t just the hot steam prickling my lungs, but the ethereal, life-giving spirit of the sauna itself. And while the chanting undoubtedly helped, Velten’s water-pouring prowess also contributed: slow and steady, to keep the steam soft and humid. “It should feel deeply warming and pleasant,” she said. “Not harsh or overwhelming.”
As the löyly roared and the heat pressed me down onto the wooden bench, Velten brought out a bundle of leafy birch branches and gently whipped my back, legs, and shoulders. This vihtominen, another cherished Finnish sauna tradition, is said to stimulate blood circulation and cleanse the skin. With every whip, the woody scent of birch leaves filled the boiling air, and just as I started to wonder if I might spontaneously combust, Velten gestured toward the door. “Time to cool off.”
Photo: Getty Images
Outside, the icy wind cut through my skin like a million needles. Wrapped in a towel, I shuffled barefoot through mushy snow towards the rock-strewn Baltic coast, and without thinking, plunged into the black water, cold as liquid ice. The shock sucked the breath out of my lungs, my heart pounded, and for a split second, I existed in a place of pure ecstasy—the kind of sharp, exhilarating clarity I had spent eons chasing through meditations and chi-chi wellness retreats. “Just 15 minutes in a sauna, followed by a cold plunge, can release more than 30 different feel-good hormones,” Velten said. “It’s an escape from the hustle of everyday life and encourages people to be fully present in the moment, a digital detox at its best.”
I spent the following days chasing that high. At The Hotel Maria, Helsinki’s latest luxury hotel taking over a courtyard-connected quartet of 19th-century office buildings, the experience took a softer, but no less revitalizing approach. With its marble-clad interiors and plant-draped atrium lounge, the hotel’s cavernous spa was a far cry from the no-frills saunas I had seen so far, but an hour of alternating between the sauna, steam room, cold plunge, and Jacuzzi tub jolted the jet lag right out of me.
