The Delight of Precise Intentional Suffering
As summer rolls into its full reign, and the setting of everyday life begins to resemble hell’s front porch – an officially recognized stage of, at least, the East Coast escalation of the season – it may feel counterintuitive to add more fire. But I’ve come to think of the ritual I’m about to describe in terms of “like cures like.” The way Turks sip hot tea deep in the bazaar while Istanbul pavement and the Bosphorus exhale heat.
This cure brings a high, a delight I’d known well once, but had forgotten – lost in between the ever-rushing feet of New York City. Now, in a bathhouse in Brooklyn, I’ve been chasing it for four hours. But this high only fills the body after repeating a series of particular, meticulous, sequential steps. Here’s the sequence:
Step 1. The Preparation: The Hot Pool.
You start there to allow your body the grace of time it requires to settle in. You stay long enough to let your cheeks redden, your shoulders begin to radiate steam, and for the small craters on the skin of your temples to open – letting out not only toxins, but all the things that have been eating at the substance hidden beneath the cranium that the skin of your temples upholsters. With the first drips of sweat, you’re allowed to move on to the next step.
Step 2. The Breather: The Walk In-Between.
Air-cool just a little bit. A walk from the hot pool to your next – and main – destination (your first challenge) will usually suffice. If the world starts to tilt, sit on a bench. Reclaim your grip before you proceed.
Step 3. The First Challenge (and The Beginning Of Your Reset): The Banya.
Be gentle with yourself. Don’t push, but be honest. It’s an exercise in self-awareness and patience. Stay in the Banya for as long as your body will allow (your body, not your mind). I like to test myself by asking: does the idea of pins and needles piercing my skin as I enter an ice-cold plunge sound fantastic right now? If the answer is absolutely yes – right about now – then it’s time to leave the Banya.
Step 4. The Second (Nothing Short of Hercules’) Challenge: The Ice Plunge.
You need to take a full dip. Yes, the head too. It will be painful. But it is essential to the high, and will be – oh, so very worth it. Pro tip: control your breathing. Breathe out the moment you think you can no longer stand it.
Step 5. The Pure Bliss: The Neutral Temperature Pool.
Immerse yourself slowly. Allow the sensations fully. That’s when the unbelievable buzz enters your body: a light, pleasant electrical current that runs from the tips of your big toes all the way to the hair follicles on the edge of your forehead. It vibrates from the depth of your muscles to the spaces in between the muscles and the skin, as if expanding it just a little, allowing more oxygen in, as you float in the pool. Rest your arms on the edge, folding them like a pillow on top of each other, offering rest for your heavy, heavy head. Your right cheek, red, wet, lays on top.
The time and slowness the process requires – the choice to slow down, almost a sacrifice in the modern day and age, and especially in a city like New York – the attunement to one’s own body: the purest of delights.