Icelandic Pools The Key To Happiness

17 Mar Icelandic Pools The Key To Happiness

Iceland’s Water Cure

From The New York Times Magazine

There is hydrotherapy, and then there is what takes place in Reykjavik, Iceland.  This post from the New York Times posits that the country’s happiness can be directly tied to its communal pools located in nature reserves.  Delving further into the culture of Iceland reveals that man made pools also play a large role in their society.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

“I just don’t want to go out there,” I said. “How do you make yourself do it?”

“You must, to swim in the pool,” Valdimar Hafstein said with a shrug. He is a folklorist at the University of Iceland who studies the country’s pools. “Kids hate it, too. I have to haul my kids kicking and screaming.” I took a deep breath and tried to think of warm things. Wearing only a Speedo bathing suit — I had packed three, in honor of the island’s reputation as one of the company’s most avid markets — I stepped onto the deck. It was a few degrees below freezing.

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