Pranayama (breathing techniques) at the Spa

Practising Pranayama at the Scandinavian Spa.....

If you’ve never been to a Scandinavian-style outdoor spa experience, stop reading this and go.

At first the idea to submerge in hot water than cold water seems odd or even intense. It’s actually invigorating.

The other day I was preparing for a hot yoga class. This yoga class was going to help me refocus after receiving an upsetting email.  Maybe it’s time to start email-free Sunday, or have my policy: that if the content of your email is extremely personal, than an in-person conversation needs to be had - imbedded in my signature.

 “Grab your bathing suit because we’re not going to Hot Yoga. We’re doing something better.”

What can be better than Hot Yoga? A Scandinavian Spa. That’s what.

About an hour out of Montreal, northward, in a township called Rawdon. I arrive at the home of La Source BainsNordique. It is breathtaking.

The receptionist hands me my towel and locker key.  Moments later, in my suit, I am ready. First up the 35 deg hottub. As the soft sound of the water cleanses my stress away, muscles relaxed, I can actually see intricate detail in the snow-blanketed gardens. With clear eyes, I am present for the first time today.

Skipping up the hillside wearing a huge smile, my towel casually draped over my shoulder, I didn’t even notice it was 2 degrees out. I enter the dry sauna.

On the cherry wooden bench in a seated cross-legged yoga position (Sukasana), I softly gaze out the window at the white blanket of snow and bits of vegetation.

Pranayama is the breathing part of yoga. In a yoga class the most typical pranayama is called Ujjayi. This is breathing through the nose while restricting your glottis (throat). It lengthens the inhale and lengthens the exhale. Your breath, becomes the ocean, sounding like the ebb and flow of waves breaking on a shore.

The main reason a yogis breathes through the nose is because it calms the nervous system. Also nose-breathing creates backpressure, so the lungs can better absorb oxygen. Breathing brings lifeforce (Prana) into the body.

But I’m not in a yoga class, I’m at the spa. Chillin in the sauna. In this type of scenario it is best to not practise any sort of special breathing exercise. This is because the point of meditation is effortlessness. Special breathing takes effort. So here I breathe slow and heavy. Into the belly on an inhale, my tummy rises, and then falls inwards as I exhale completely.

I am in total peace.

Up next the super fun part. A dip and wade through the ice bath. Wow. My skin feels subtle and taught. My heart is alive. But not racing. Icy cool water and crisp fresh air, bites me. If meditation in the sauna is flying then the cold, wet aftermath is standing on earth. And what a beautiful earth it is.

After a few minutes at outdoor temperature on a chair, I moseyed into an indoor viewing lounge.

I feel somber, relaxed.

Next door is another outdoor hot tub. 40 degrees. I hear light laughter and silence.

Gracefully striding down the hillside,  up next is the steam sauna. Tucked perfectly into a rocky cliff. The eucalyptus steam billows airily. In thick grey steam I feel myself walking on my feet, like the very act of walking, it as an entirely new sensation.

From the bench in the steam sauna. The juxtaposition between hot and cold has awakened my circulation.   Tiny veins and capillaries in my arms and legs are snapping. It’s like they are once of those static balls, that sends a brilliant electrical current from the centre of the globe to your hand or whatever happens to be touching it. This is what I imagine. Lightening shots of blood, shunting to parts of my skin that haven’t been nourished quite like this before.  

Next, another cold pool. Hello world.

In the second viewing lounge. I am staring at a rock cliff. It’s more entertaining and beautiful than anything I have seen before.

Time to do the circuit again.

After round two, I head into the dark room. It’s pitch black, aside from the faint glow of a small embroidered emblem on each  reclining chairs.

In the blackness, something amazing starts happening. I hear vibrations. Maybe there was faint music playing. Crystal bowls. And maybe there wasn’t.

Maybe it was my breathe. The only sound in the world. Ahhhh. Just like music.