Where Silence Heals
All rights reserved with the author
Date: 1 December 2025
There are countries where culture is felt in festivals, food, or architecture.
But in Finland, culture lives inside a small wooden room warmed by stones—
the sauna.
For Finns, it is not luxury. It is identity. Almost every house, lakeside cabin, and even office building has one. More than five million people and over three million saunas.
Sauna is where families talk, where friends sit without pretense, where the mind drops its noise. The heater warms the stones, water sizzles, steam rises—
and slowly everything unnecessary melts away.
Inside the sauna, people are equal—rank disappears, titles dissolve. Here, silence is not awkward; it is respected. When Finns say, “Sauna is the poor man’s pharmacy,” they mean it literally. Generations have come here to clear the body and calm the spirit.
And then comes my favourite part—stepping out into cold air, sometimes straight into snow. Skin tingles, lungs open, and suddenly the world feels new.
Finland may be a small nation, but in its sauna culture lives a wisdom the world can borrow:
warmth heals, silence repairs, and slowing down is not weakness—it is strength.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Instagram: rajatchandrasarmah5
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
musingofrajat.wordpress.com 