What’s My Lebensphilosophie? I Went to the Austrian Alps to Find Out

The saunas

The hotel’s dedicated wellness area features five co-ed clothing-optional saunas (plus an additional private sauna in select suites), a salt steam bath, infrared loungers, and expansive natural swimming pools. To practice, or fully embody, Lebensgefühl successfully, you must be aware of your environment. At Nesslerhof, the alpine nature allows your body to break away from any externally imposed schedules and return back to your natural circadian rhythm, where an omniscient digital third person doesn’t determine your flow; you do.

As a lifelong advocate for a good time, I mustered some gumption to join one of the daily themed sauna “infusions.” During these sessions, a sauna master leads thematic experiences using natural, regional botanicals like thyme, sage, Swiss stone pine, and eucalyptus. It’s held in the adults-only sauna event room, a space large enough to accommodate nearly 50 people.

I walk in—towel on—and it occurs to me I’m the one making it weird here. There’s a lot I can swallow in life, but one thing I certainly will not do is be the person making things weird in a room. So, I lose the towel, join the crowd, and, in a state of mild panic, take a seat on the floor. Now, retrospectively speaking, I couldn’t grasp how all my choices in life had led me to this single, very conscious state of nudity in front of 40 Austrian strangers. There I was—sitting on the floor, completely floored. Which actually made things weirder, because I was later told you aren’t supposed to sit on the floor.

Enter the sauna master. Also nude. A sauna master is like a spiritual guide to a proper schvitz, and the infusions at Nesslerhof are next level material. At pivotal moments, I’m watching him execute rainbow ice acrobatics, teasing large, colorful chunks of ice around the room in a giant spoon before launching them onto the glowing-hot stones. Steam is sizzling everywhere as thick aromatics sweep across the room.

And it’s hot. To make matters worse for myself—still on the floor—we’re given a natural body scrub to apply. So, whatever, sure: I start scrubbing amidst the rainbow ice, dense botanical air, and naked strangers unabashedly sprawled across the room in their entirety. I begin to gain consciousness of the palpable sense of self-assurance emanating from everyone as they laughed and chatted heart-to-heart. They were all having…fun. Slowly, decidedly, I reach a state of compos mentis: the only thing mortifying about this experience is my belief that this is a mortifying experience. This is not an intimidating reality. In fact, it’s pretty funny—and wildly inclusive, despite the fact that no one here speaks English but me. For the first time since arriving here, I feel entirely in the moment, free from any pressure to make it something else. I’m there, existing. I watch as my friend walks by the glass door and we lock eyes—him sending a distress call, and me, now a part of the sauna hijinks, completely in on the bit. Yeah, we’re all naked. So what?