Sauna and Cold Immersion: A Ritual to Boost Mental Health

This post is co-created with Cadre, the mental health platform where I host Sober Not Somber Hour each week. Cadre is also a sponsor of my upcoming Wild Rise: Rituals of Renewal retreat, October 16–18.

For the past seven years, I’ve tried to sway people toward the upside of sauna, beyond the physical benefits and the subpar gym sauna experience. The response has been lukewarm (think 65-degree “cold immersion”). The reaction to cold immersion has been even more resistant.

That’s understandable when you think about how the body experiences hot and cold in our daily lives: as something to tolerate or regulate. Our whole perception of temperature, and of course our past experiences, can bring up real discomfort.

And yet… there is an incredible opportunity to honor those experiences and ask: what if there is more to hot and cold, and to the body’s response?

When I discovered sauna and cold immersion as a community practice in 2019, five years into my sobriety, it was led by an Aufguss practitioner. That first session dissolved all of my prior hesitation and past perceptions about sauna. In one three-hour session, the slate was cleared and my curiosity was piqued. I was definitely out of my comfort zone with the hot and cold extremes. Being guided made all the difference. Being with others in the same experience made a huge impact, too.

Mental clarity

Perhaps most important was the mental clarity and calm that washed over me as I moved from the experience into my day or evening. It was an elevated, sustained, and natural high.

There’s some science behind that feeling. Researchers have found that cold water can trigger a striking rise in dopamine, the brain chemical tied to motivation and reward. In one small 2000 study by Šrámek and colleagues in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, an hour in 57°F water raised blood dopamine levels by 250% and norepinephrine by 530%. Most of us aren’t sitting in cold water for an hour, and researchers are still working out what results like this mean for mood. But even a few minutes produced a lift I could feel.

As a person in recovery, finding a high that leaves me clearer without turning to a substance is especially significant. To delve into the hot and cold extremes asks a focus of me, and it return, the ritual helps me go deeper into emotions and the hidden gems tied to the practice of remembrance.

Sauna, sobriety, and mental health

As I kept up sauna and cold immersion three to four times a week for years, the ritual became a huge part of my life, my wellbeing practice, and my connection to community.

Enter Cadre, a social platform for mental health, where vetted coaches and peer experts share livestreams and content on everything from stress to grief, and members connect with others on similar journeys. Its founder, Luke Wendlandt, previously hailing from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and founded Northstar Behavioral Health, an addiction recovery center, drew me into the community in 2024.

In February 2025, I joined Cadre as a contributor. Every week since, I’ve hosted Sober Not Somber Hour: 10–15 minute shares on sobriety, tools for wellbeing, and what it takes to make sobriety sustainable. Showing up as my authentic self every week with very little scripted has helped me grow personally in my understanding of sobriety. Those who tune in do so for the human connection and the real life experiences I share that an online playbook to sobriety can’t deliver.

The sauna ritual I hold today is so closely tied to my sobriety journey. Sauna gives me belonging and boosted mental health in person, and Cadre is immediate and accessible support for the moments in between, when I just need a daily dose of human connection and to once again understand, life is challenging, but I’m not alone. For those in sobriety -- especially early sobriety when the cravings are loud, or you just need to hear from someone who gets it -- both experiences support the idea and practice of not doing life alone.

The Revivery method

As I found myself hosting events in the sauna, I discovered and became trained in the Revivery method in February 2025. Revivery looks at wellbeing through a biopsychosocial lens: body, mind, and community, all working together. Since becoming certified, I’ve frequently guided at sauna events and partnered with sauna venues to deliver experiences.

The Revivery method resonated with me due to their holistic approach in the curriculum that goes beyond science of the body to include reading psychology literature and understanding social norms and belonging. This is particularly important as there’s scientific research in hot and cold contrast therapy to delve into, but not nearly enough studies with various populations and a control group included to make certain our complete and accurate understanding of hot and cold effects.

Belonging without a bar

The research is still catching up on the part that matters most to me: the social element. So much of adult social life is built around alcohol. Happy hours, dinners, celebrations, even grief. In early sobriety, I didn’t just lose a substance. I lost a ritual and a lot of the places where I’d felt connected.

Sauna gave me a new ritual with its own rhythm: heat, cold, rest, repeat. It’s a space where people can show up as themselves, side by side in heat, without labels, phones or performance. There’s a vulnerability that comes with sitting in the heat together. It solved for the sense of belonging I sought and couldn’t find elsewhere.

The social element is the story I’m always sharing as a way to invite people to approach sauna anew without a focus on the potential physical challenge it poses. Recognizing that most people’s first sauna experience is alone in a gym setting, merely tolerating or even fighting the heat, waiting for it to be over. Mine was guided and shared. That difference changed everything.

It’s also why I started Sauna and Sobriety in May 2023. What began as a series of four-hour events at various sauna venues, featuring sauna, cold immersion, nonalc beverage excellence, and other wellbeing practices like breathwork, soundbath, and yoga, is evolving into a new model to bring an experience to specific groups, like those in early sobriety.

If you’re still lukewarm…

If you’ve read this far and still feel that familiar resistance, I get it. I was there. Here are a few gentle ways in.

• Find a guided session. A guided sauna ritual takes the guesswork out, and having someone set the pace makes the extremes feel manageable.

• Start small with cold. A short cold shower at the end of your regular one counts. You don’t need an ice bath on day one.

• Bring a friend, or go to meet new ones. Many communal saunas host social nights, and the shared experience is half the magic.

• Pay attention to after. Notice how you feel an hour later, as you go about your day. For me, the in-sauna connections drew me into the present while post-sauna vibes allowed life-stressors to flow through rather than cause reaction.

Come find out for yourself: Wild Rice, October 16–18

If there’s a way to experience everything I’ve described here, it’s this. From October 16–18, I’m hosting Wild Rise: Rituals of Renewal, a three-day immersive women’s retreat at Wild Rice Retreat, sponsored by Cadre. We’ll spend three days in nature, moving between guided sauna sessions, cold immersion, and artistic expression, and learning about the culture of sauna, cold plunge practices, and the science and history behind why heat and cold therapy transform women from the inside out. I’ll also share insights from my travels to Oslo for the International Sauna Congress in September 2026 (see: Here for the Heat: Norway Sauna Experiences as a Solo Traveler).

Off the sauna bench, the retreat celebrates a new kind of toast. Elevated nonalcoholic beverages will be featured throughout the entire weekend, creating an environment where alcohol-free sipping is the norm. The weekend is intentionally unhurried. Unstructured time, forest hikes, yoga round out a retreat designed to restore and reconnect. Wild Rise is open to any woman ready to feel deeply well. All you need is a willingness to show up, slow down, soften, and rise.

It’s for women who are sober, sober-curious, or simply want connection that doesn’t revolve around an alcoholic beverage. No experience with sauna or cold is needed. You’ll be guided every step of the way, just like I was.

Register here Jen Veralle Retreats by October 9, 2026.

The slate, cleared again

Twelve years after my sober date in July 2014, and seven years after that first three-hour Aufguss session, the hot and cold always command presence. I welcome it. The slate is cleared, again.

That’s what I mean by the slow art of being elsewhere. Not escaping my life, the way I once did, but stepping out of it for a little while and coming back clearer.

I hope you’ll join me, whether that’s in the heat at Wild Rice this October or on Sober Not Somber Hour on Cadre each week.

Wildly rise
— Jen