Guest Feature: The Joys of a Sauna - by Guy Chambers

This guest feature is written by Guy Chambers, award-winning British songwriter and producer.

About the author

Guy Chambers is an award-winning British songwriter and producer, best known for his long-standing creative partnership with Robbie Williams. His writing explores creativity, wellbeing and the importance of carving out moments of stillness in an increasingly busy world.

This year I realised a dream of mine, I commissioned a sauna to be built in my garden. I have toured the world and whenever I’d check in to a fancy Hotel, I’d almost always head straight down to the spa, find the sauna and relax. I’ve therefore had a range of communal sauna experiences from everyone in swimming costumes; usually UK and USA, to compulsory Nudity in Germany and Scandinavia! My most original sauna visit was in Finland where it seemed like half the local town were sitting in this enormous community sauna, age ranging from babies to grandparents. This place was particularly special because there was a beautiful clean lake to jump into in between sessions. I ended up spending awhile there happy as Larry. A sauna has always been a refuge far from the world, where you can switch off from phones, emails, deadlines, baggage carousels etc. You take off your clothes and within the gloom, (Ideally saunas should be very subtly lit, nothing worse than a brightly lit room.) and you are suddenly one of equals, democratised in sweat and towelling. Only sometimes I talk in the sauna - once in Dubai, I was sharing a sauna with the head of police, not that I could access his credentials, extolling the virtues of capturing international criminals and I couldn’t but help interrogate him on the complexity of it all!

Some saunas are super-inclusive like the one at Gospel Lido, an extraordinary buzzy mix of gen z x y and “elders” like myself. I think the fact the Lido was 2 degrees that day added to the sense of occasion, cold water really is an icebreaker. Last winter I joined a bunch of local Irish women by a beach in Galway. They were all regulars and chatted away ten to the dozen, though still managed to be welcoming. This was one of those caravan style saunas that gets moved around and the heat was powered by burning woodchips. You book it by the hour, it was tremendous fun alternating between the sea and the heat.

When deciding on the details for my own personal sauna there were a few options to address: Swedish trad or Infra-Red, I went trad. Wood fired or electric? I went electric because I wanted to be able to put it on in the Winter, swim in the sea and jump straight in when returning still shivering. I wanted in made of wood although how big? I went for the something dark and Aromatic – cedar. In terms of size, because I have 4 adult children, I opted for a generous size, you can get 8 adults in at a push. Another consideration was whether to install an ice bath. Decided against it, seemed a step too far for me in the Wim Hof world, went for an outside cold shower instead that is getting colder as the winter sets in. So now I have this fabulous sauna how has it changed my life and who gets to share it with me (I am picky!) I pretty much have one every night when I’m not in London and it’s really helped skip dinner and do the intermittent-fasting thing that was always very challenging for a continually hungry Capricorn goat.

It also has the additional benefit of less screen time, now I don’t automatically switch on the tv, post sauna I am normally so blissed out that I might listen to an audio book or just go to bed early, sober as a judge and very empty. So far my sauna companions have been my son, Marley and A couple of friends from the village I live in, including the parish priest who loves to parade around the garden naked between sessions! We sit in there for sometimes a couple of hours and conversation topics can range from climate change to the best time to plant garlic. But even if it is a solitary sauna, I find I really enjoy just stripping off, staring at the sky when I have a 5 minute break, and enjoying the delicious contrast between one minute sweating profusely to hyperventilating under the cold shower. I’ve bought myself a couple of felt hats, one from Ukraine and the other was given to me by a lovely weaver in the Zagori Mountains earlier this year. Wearing the hat protects the ears and encourages the sweating. I’m also a big fan of vigorous skin brushing, I learnt this habit years ago at an eccentric but lovely juicing retreat in Portugal.

So, in summation I know sauna-ing is very in vogue this year but there is a rational reason for this. People open up in saunas, time literally slows down. There is space for difficult, interesting and most importantly of all honest conversation and I will be eternally grateful for my little space of hot. Heaven just steps from the house.

Guy Chambers

If you’d like to follow Guy and his work, you can find him on Instagram and Facebook. 

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