How the guided sessions at Revivery deepen the sauna and cold plunge experience.
The first time Jason C. went to a Revivery session he came home and slept better than he had in years.
The combination of sitting in a 180-degree cedar-lined room and plunging into 40-degree water gave him a powerful sense of well-being, but that isn’t what has kept him coming back two to three times a week for two years.
“I’ve met some of my closest friends from the sauna,” Jason said.
Jason, an anesthesiologist and Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete, said he’s connected with people of all ages, from all different walks of life. As a result, he said he and his wife drink and go to bars less because of the social element of Revivery sessions.
The sessions aren’t just surface-level small talk, however.
“At the very best,” Jason said, “ it’s almost like therapy.”
For Jason, what sets the Revivery experience apart are the people. That starts with the leads who are there at every session to facilitate, educate, inspire, and support.
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BECOME A FOUNDING MEMBERIt’s through the leads, and their ability to not only guide members through breathwork and meditation but also conversation and connection that Jason has forged meaningful connections during his regular sessions.
Guided sessions increase effectiveness
Cold water immersion has been shown to elevate the mood, relieve symptoms of depression, lower stress levels, and activate brown fat, which may help the body burn more calories. Sauna benefits include improved cardiovascular fitness, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and a reduction in all-cause mortality.
In addition to all of these physical and mental benefits, the guided sessions at Revivery layer in another element: connection and community. Each hour-long session is facilitated by a lead who not only ensures you’re staying in the sauna and the cold plunge for the correct amount of time while adding in breathwork and meditation, but who also facilitates connections between the people in the class, creating a sense of community.
Annette, one of the co-founders of Revivery, says the sessions are so effective because of this personal connection between the members.
“In the mental health world, the current research is moving around the idea that humans are made up of biology, psychology, and sociology. And if you attempt to address one without the others, none will be effective. Whereas if you address all three your level of effectiveness is going to skyrocket,” she said.
That’s the goal at Revivery–to positively impact your physiology, your mental health, and your connections with others.
The sauna and cold plunge experience will have an impact on the biology of every human, but where leads like Annette come in is helping people understand they are capable of more than they imagined, which builds resiliency and capability.
“You begin to understand intrinsically in your bones that you’re more capable of doing hard things with greater and greater degrees of ease. It doesn’t mean they’re not hard any longer. It means that you’re more capable and you know that,” Annette said.
While you can gain physiological benefits from most sauna and cold plunge experiences, the guided experience at Revivery means it’s someone’s job to make sure you’re pushing your limits while also staying safe.
“There is the range in which the optimal effect will be found,” Annette said, “and we’re not gonna let you stay there too long and we’re not gonna let you sneak out too early.”
Annette said she sees her role in a Revivery session as a protector, or as she describes it, “the universal best parent.”
When she’s leading a session, she’s on the lookout for how everyone in the class is doing, and she’s ready to jump in with support. When she sees someone struggling she tells them she believes in them.
“I know that we can do this thing together,” she says she tells them, “and it’s gonna be less hard because we’re doing it together, and over time you’re going to build a skill and a competency that you’ll own forever more.”
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Jason has his own sauna at home, but he keeps returning to Revivery because of the interactions within the class and the experience of a lead like Annette facilitating breathwork, meditation, and conversation.
“I think the guided experience is wonderful,” Jason said. “They’ll do a breathing exercise, which is great because I would normally not sit down and meditate, but it really helps relax you because it takes your mind off the fact that you’re in 200 degrees and sweating.”
On top of meditation and breathwork, Revivery leads check in with everyone throughout the class. It usually starts off with basic questions, like “How are you feeling?” and “How was your day?”
As the class finishes one round of sauna and cold plunge and then starts on the next, Jason says the conversation begins to deepen.
“You get this dopamine,” Jason said. “It’s weird. It makes you just feel fantastic. And then I think people get a little more talkative. So the second time you’re in the sauna, the lead might ask sort of a deeper question like, ‘Hey, you know, why don’t we do a gratitude practice?’”
While sometimes people keep it light, like saying they are grateful for taco Tuesday, Jason says this is where the conversation can sometimes get deep. And that’s when true connection and community form.
“It’s very judgment-free. Even the jocks who are generally, like, ‘I don’t want to talk about this’, they tend to open up too,” Jason said.
Building resilience
Traditional sauna, as it was done in the Nordic countries, was often a family and friends event and it was very organic. Annette said oftentimes there wasn’t a lot of conversation, and there wasn’t a lot of science—it was a come and go as you please experience.
“And while the biological benefits were there and some of the social benefits got touched on, they weren’t deepened,” she said.
Annette said her role as a lead at Revivery is to teach members about the science behind what they are experiencing and help them improve the experience with meditation and breathwork.
“A guided experience,” Annette said, “especially because we’re moving as a group or a unit, ensures that there’s room for everyone at the table and that the table is a place for everybody to contribute, to feel safe, to be seen, to be heard and to be cared for, and to know themselves in relation to others.”
As well versed as they are in the physiology and mental health aspects of sauna and cold plunge, the leads at Revivery are also trained to optimize the social setting. They understand the extreme heat and cold can sometimes be difficult, and it’s their job to support you through the difficulty.
“The lead is there to confirm that things don’t have to be perfect for you to be your best,” Annette said.
Annette says the sessions at Revivery teach people that you don’t have to wait for it to get warmer. You don’t have to wait for it to get cooler. It’s not going to be more convenient, you just have to move forward—sit in that sauna, step into the cold plunge.
“Your life is gonna continue to be hard,” Annette said, “what’s gonna be different is your ability to deal with it.”
