Steaming away the stress: garage-sauna is a Nova Scotia photographer's happy place
Claire Fraser installed a sauna in her garage to help cope with the stress of the pandemic
When Claire Fraser wants to relax, she heads to her garage to pour water on hot rocks and breathe in the steam.
The photographer and videographer from Dartmouth, N.S. recently installed a sauna in her garage. She describes the sauna as her sanctuary, and a good place to escape from the stress of the pandemic.
Claire discovered the relaxing power of saunas at the age of 14 when she was on a family trip to Windhorse Farms, a Nova Scotia nature retreat.
"At the time, I was dealing with really debilitating anxiety and panic attacks and I was not finding an escape from them," says Claire.
After a visit to the sauna, she was surprised by the level of relief she experienced.
"I couldn't remember a time when I had felt so relaxed."
A decade later, Claire bought a house with a garage that she didn't use.
So she found a second-hand sauna on Kijiji and rewired her garage.
Holding on by a thread
Completed at the end of 2020, Claire says the sauna has helped her cope with a year of financial insecurity.
With photo shoots for weddings and other events cancelled in the wake of COVID-19, she says there was a time when she had no work lined up for the future.
"I really found that I had lost a lot of my creativity during that time," she says.
"I was really just holding on there by a thread."
Although neighbours have been puzzled by the sight of Claire running from the house to the garage in a swimsuit, she describes the sauna as a place where she can become grounded again.
"I leave my phone behind, I'm not going to be distracted by anybody and I have nothing to do while I'm in the sauna," she says.
"It's a time that I've allotted to myself to be there with myself."
