Can you handle the heat? Designing your personal Sauna Ritual

Tips on designing your personal Sauna Ritual

Getting Prepped

To start, know that there is no one perfect way to sauna. This is your personal time and you make the rules! What leaves one person feeling relaxed and rejuvenated might be uncomfortable and exhausting to another. Experiment and find what works best for you.

You may want to spend some time just winding down before you enter the sauna. Sitting for a few minutes to calm and clear your mind before you start can allow you to fully maximize your entire time. You can finish up any text conversations and set your phone to do-not-disturb, close out your email for the day (or at least for the next hour), pre-hydrate with a cool drink (we love Cloud Water w/CBD), remove your makeup and get wrapped into a fluffy towel.

Pro-tip: If you plan on cold-plunging as part of your routine, you may want to place a towel into a warmer before you start to have ready for you at the end of the session.

Hair Goals: Before entering the sauna, take a cool shower and wet your hair, apply a deep conditioning hair mask and cover with a shower cap. The heat from the sauna will activate the conditioner and you’ll be getting silky locks while you sweat. Win/Win.

Set the Vibe

As far as temperature goes, it really is a personal preference. A good rule of thumb would be somewhere between 130F and 160F. Infrared saunas heat the body from the inside and don’t get as hot as a traditional steam sauna. This allows you to stay in longer and more comfortably. Find a temp that works for you to get a good sweat going but also relax and enjoy the heat.

You can choose some soft or low-fi music that helps you meditate or just something that you enjoy listening to, listen to a favorite podcast or you may just need a moment of silence to decompress completely. You can choose the color of light in the sauna to set the mood or just cut the lights completely and enjoy the warm glow of the heaters.

Your phone won’t like the heat so take this time to unplug and read a book or meditate in your private oasis.

Pro-tip: An essential oil aromatherapy spray can further the relaxing setting. If you need to step out of the sauna to cool down, you can spritz a little on a cold towel and take a few deep inhales to recenter. Eucalyptus, lavender or even lemongrass are great options.

Adding a Cold Plunge

To take your session to the next level, try taking a dip in the icy cold plunge during your session. The cold water plays a healthy contrast to the hot sauna and trust us, you will feel amazing when you are finished. You can start slow and work your way up to finishing every session with a 3-minute plunge up to your neck for a full nervous system reset. It sounds extreme but the benefits are tremendous and most will come to love this part of the ritual.

Pro-tip: Ease into plunging with just a short dip when you first start to get really hot in the sauna, and then go back into the heat. You will find that each time you go into the cold, you are able to go a little further in and stay a little longer. We love to end a session with a full plunge about the length of a favorite song. Listening to something you love will help you focus on something other than the cold and 3 minutes will pass before you know it.

When you finish, come back to a normal temp naturally for the best results. Your endorphins will be soaring at this point!

After the Sauna

Post-sauna, you should be very relaxed and refreshed. Enjoy this feeling and be sure to hydrate well as you go about your day knowing you’ve done something that works wonders for your mind and body. You should rinse off in a cool shower and put on some comfortable, loose-fitting clothing as you will continue the detoxification process even after exiting the sauna.



These tips can help you design the optimal sauna experience, but the most important thing to remember is do what works for you and take it slowly. Build up and take it one step at a time and you are on your way to establishing a routine that will positively benefit you across so many aspects of your health and wellbeing.