Make the most of your visit to these lux American sweat lodges with these recommendations from the Finnish Sauna Society:

1.      Shower to rinse off perfume or scented lotion, which could irritate heated skin.

2.      Enter the sauna while wet. Ladle water over the hot stones to create steam. According to Weil, air that’s too dry can inflame the upper respiratory tract.

3.      When you feel warm enough, leave the sauna, soak in a cool shower or pool, and drink some water.

4.      Return to the sauna. If you want, apply a moisturizing mask to your face or hair. Then brush yourself with a birch whisk, scrub or loofah to exfoliate and increase circulation.

Mauna Lani Resort

Kohala Coast Hawaii

The spa’s naturally heated, open-air Lava Sauna is shaped like a skate ramp, so the sloped walls trap heat. While relaxing, you can baste yourself with skin-smoothing black clay. After your body mask has dried, shower, the retreat to the outdoor waiting area.

Rooms start at $430; www.maunalani.com

The Carneros Inn

Napa, California

It’s situated deep in the heart of California’s wine country, but this spa has a Nordic sensibility. All treatments are bookended with heat therapy in a traditional Finnish dry sauna.

Rooms start at $325; www.thecarnerosinn.com

Juvenex Spa

New York City

Open 24 hours a day, this midtown spa offers two saunas, one made of clay bricks an one constructed out of 20 tons of jade, which some Asian cultures believe to have healing prosperities. The Jade Journey starts in the gemstone igloo, then moves through cold showers and herbal soaks before finishing in the baked-clay room.

$65 for the Jade Journey; www.juvenexspa.com

By: Firsty

We have all known fear. For some of us fear is a constant companion, the underlying force in our lives that keeps us feeling ‘stuck’ or ‘safe’ as the case may be.

Sometimes it has saved us from entering into a dangerous situation. At other times it may have prevented us from pursuing something that could have been a life-changing opportunity.

Fear can keep us from boarding airplanes, from falling in love, from asking for a raise, and perhaps the saddest of all, from fulfilling our true purpose here in this lifetime. Fear insinuates itself into our emotional fiber, so the more power we give to it; the more it demands.

It speaks to us constantly, a catastrophic song about one thing or another, and we continue to listen. What is thing ‘fear’ that lords over us, calling the shots and robbing us of our peace of mind?

Before we can begin to free ourselves from the grip of fear and its negative effects, we need to understand the true nature of fear. In the beginning, we were given instincts to help us survive. We had a heightened sense of our environment so that we could nourish ourselves and procreate.

As time went on we became more dependent upon machines and technology for our quality of life and survival. As a result, our instincts and senses diminished and our mental processes strengthened. As we became more and more identified with our minds as our source of supply and safety, our thoughts and emotions carried more weight. Fear shifted its focus from our instinctual nature to our emotional nature.

It is the imbalance of our emotions that create toxic levels of fear. We strengthen what we focus on. The more attention we give to fear, the stronger it gets. The key to overcoming the debilitating affects of fear is to bring our emotional, instinctual and spiritual natures into balance and harmony.