Hot and Cold. From Sauna to Sea: The Finnish Way to a Happy, Healthy Life

Carita Harju, Katja Pantzar

Authors: Carita Harju, Katja Pantzar

Published: 2024

Publisher: Yellow Kite / Hodder & Stoughton

Genre: Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Reading material:

Book proposal, partial manuscript in Spring 2023 full English manuscript in Fall 2023

Hot and cold contrast therapy is fast becoming the must-do wellness experience. This new book inspires readers with insights into the powerful Finnish method of alternating between a hot and cold environment in order to boost health and happiness and delves into how experiencing these contrasting extremes of temperature can change your outlook, your wellbeing and your life.

The sauna was recently ranked as the No. 1 global wellness trend by the Global Wellness Summit. Cold-water swimming is also a growing trend and is being proposed as a cure for all manner of things – from improving mental health to boosting immunity. But why is being hot good for you, and why is submerging into icy water good for you? And what about alternating between the two? What exactly is hot and cold therapy and why is it so vital for physical and mental health?

Dive into the unique world of hot and cold via Finland, where a good steam and an icy dip in a lake or the sea are the foundations of wellbeing for mind, body and soul.

This definitive guide by two experts takes readers on a journey into the transformative powers of hot and cold by pairing the sauna, that quintessential hot Finnish steam bath, with a cold-water dip. Along the way, it serves up the inspiration and practical tools for creating a wellness retreat at home using the Nordic contrast bathing philosophy, wherever you are in the world.

The Finnish hot and cold method boosts happiness by increasing wellbeing and encouraging connection with nature. It's the secret to how the world’s happiest nation keeps calm and carries on – no matter what life throws at them. Now you too can learn their secrets.

“I have been so struck by the growing interest in cold-water swimming and saunas and the powerful health impact of contrast bathing to help promote happy hormones, soothe away stress, build resilience and enhance wellbeing and encourage good mental health. When I started to explore this area more, what became clear was that the Finns have had the right idea all along! Alternating between hot and cold environments is a way of life in Finland and in Hot and Cold Katja Pantzar and Carita Harju will explain the science, give insights into their own experiences, and offer readers practical guidance so that they too can reap the benefits and improve their health. I am really excited about this acquisition and about helping Yellow Kite readers build some Finnish fortitude into their own lives to help them thrive.”

- Yellow Kite Executive Publisher Liz Gough, Hodder & Stoughton

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Rights sold:
WORLD ENGLISH: Yellow Kite / Hodder & Stoughton (orig.)

About author

Carita Harju

Carita Harju is a Finnish sauna experience expert and marketing professional whose mission is to share the Finnish sauna’s positive health and wellness benefits with the world. She is the founder and executive director of Sauna from Finland, which represents an international network of more than 200 sauna industry companies. The organization’s mission is to create the world’s best sauna experiences, and Harju loves her work, because it allows her to advance an idea that she is personally so passionate about. Carita Harju has always enjoyed saunas, goes to sauna with her family nearly every day and gives talks all over the world.

Her first illustrated guide, Sauna - The Way of Finnish Life (2016), has been published in four languages, including German and Chinese. Her second book, Soul of the Sauna, was released in Japanese and Hungarian, while her newest title Saunafulness (Hyvää oloa saunomalla/2021) was published in Finnish and will be published in Estonian in 2023.

Bibliography

2024, Personal Growth & Lifestyle

Carita Harju