A tiny room with
a perfect view Global pandemic got you down? Joe Gillivan can’t say enough about the soothing powers of a good home sauna. Increasingly, he’s not alone BY ALEC BRUCE
W
hen Joe Gillivan squeezes all 6’4” of himself into the one-seater sauna that sits in the corner of his home gym, his world doesn’t shrink. It gets bigger. “I don’t care if the thing’s only six feet tall,” says the 60-something Halifax leadership coach who makes a living showing Canadian CEOs how to broaden their horizons in a decidedly cramped and self-isolating time. “It’s got mood lighting and Bluetooth. I can listen to music and podcasts. Or, I can meditate… I got what I paid for.” Specifically, he got a box with infrared panels that plugs into the wall. Within 30 minutes of flipping a switch, he can watch the temperature
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inside it rise to about 50°C, and meditate on the fact that his power bill hasn’t budged since he bought it for a sum he prefers not to disclose (but which is, nonetheless, somewhere south of $3,000) a year ago. “It’s so invigorating,” he grins. “More people should do this.” And more people are. According to industry reports, the global pandemic has pushed sauna sales through the roof. Leading manufacturers of home kits, Clearlight and Sunlighten, report that their worldwide orders have tripled in just eight months. Popularity is growing more slowly in Atlantic Canada, but Gillivan says the Halifax Costco (where he bought his) keeps them on order.
