Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 111 Nature-Connected Healing: The Outdoor Wellness Revolution Taking Over New Jersey
What happens when an ex-Israeli Navy SEAL becomes frustrated with typical recovery methods? Innovation that transforms backyard wellness.
Leeron Mosayov joins us to reveal how Cielo Wellness emerged from personal necessity during COVID's darkest days. When her husband—an ultra-marathon runner and Ironman competitor—felt dissatisfied with disjointed sauna and ice bath experiences, he designed something revolutionary: a glass-roofed cedar sauna paired with a custom ice bath that makes contrast therapy not just effective, but genuinely enjoyable.
The science behind this wellness approach is compelling. Regular ice bath immersion delivers a six-to-eight hour serotonin boost, improves focus (Leeron's son with ADHD experienced remarkable benefits from just 30-second daily dips), and creates what psychologists call "earned success" that makes everyday challenges seem smaller. Meanwhile, studies show just four 20-minute sauna sessions weekly can reduce all-cause mortality by an astonishing 50%.
What makes Cielo's approach unique is the emphasis on experience. Their signature glass roof design connects users with nature, flooding the space with natural light while maintaining privacy. This thoughtful design encourages consistent use—transforming contrast therapy from an occasional discomfort into a sustainable daily ritual that delivers cumulative benefits for recovery, longevity, and mental clarity.
With installations available throughout the region and mobile demonstration units for events, Cielo is bringing professional-grade wellness solutions directly to homeowners. Whether you're an athlete seeking better recovery or simply someone interested in evidence-based longevity practices, this conversation offers fascinating insights into how ancient wellness techniques are being reimagined for modern backyards.
Ready to experience the benefits yourself? Visit cielosauna.com or follow @cieloexperience on Instagram to see their stunning installations.
Cielo Wellness
Leeron Mosayov
47 WALNUT ST NORTHVALE, NJ 07647
(201) 283-0509
info@cielowellness.net
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Good morning everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we have a really special guest. It's a very interesting business. We're going to talk about Very interesting backgrounds of our owners who own Cielo Wellness in Norwood, new Jersey. Please welcome to the Leeron Mosayov, . Leeron, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, your name kind of lends us to believe that you're Israeli, is that correct?
Speaker 3:That is correct.
Speaker 2:So born and bred.
Speaker 3:Born and bred.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 3:And right after the army.
Speaker 2:Right after the army, and when was that?
Speaker 3:That was in 1994.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So you went from Israel to New Jersey, or you started off in Chicago. New York City.
Speaker 3:Then, when my first born, my daughter, was born in the city, I felt it wasn't the right place. So, moved to Jersey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what a lot of people do. But from Israel to Chicago, you must have loved the winters. And then New York, oh my.
Speaker 3:God, the first time I went out for a run in Chicago, my lungs were burning so bad it was crazy. I couldn't breathe it was so cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I'm going to segue from going to a warm climate to a cold climate to now kind of segueing into what Cielo Wellness is. Kind of segwaying into what Cielo Wellness is, which is a sauna, kind of a luxury outdoor sauna and ice bath solution company right. So it's about, you know, being in the hot sauna and then cooling down in an ice bath right next door to your beautifully designed sauna in your backyard. So tell me a little bit about you know, I met your husband and he talked about his experience in the Israeli army and then his Ironman competitions and kind of the science behind why saunas and then you know cold plungers are so beneficial to your health. But tell me a little bit about how you segued from the Israeli army to, let's say, let's jump ahead to Manhattan to then moving to New Jersey and starting this business.
Speaker 3:So you know, I came for a month to visit and I fell in love and I stayed as a student, I studied and I moved from Chicago to New York, completed my degree in New York and just stayed. And I love New York City and when my daughter was born I felt it wasn't, you know, a great place to raise kids, so moved to Jersey and really I love, love it, love it. Since we've been here, we have neighbors, family, friends, you know, friends that are like family. We just love living here.
Speaker 2:It's a great place.
Speaker 3:Great for the kids, great for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Living outdoor year round, very active, loving it.
Speaker 2:So how do you? So? Ok, so whatever you studied, you know, you have your degree. And then you and your husband at some point decide let's start a sauna, luxury sauna company. How did that come about?
Speaker 3:Yeah is uh. Well, you know, a lot of businesses today start during covid um so ours went through.
Speaker 3:Uh, we had an installation and manufacturing and installation of custom metal and glass company. We did a lot of project in the city and during covid it really came to a halt and the business suffered, you know, financial losses and it was. It was a very, very tough time and during that time there was not much to do. You know, we still worked because we were considered essential business, but it was we couldn't go in the city, so most of our projects shut down and we my husband he was always an athlete as an ex-navy seal, israeli navy seal um, he was always an athlete and always looking for better ways to recover.
Speaker 3:And he met this person, um, that was always sitting out in the cold dead of winter sitting with shorts, drinking his coffee, and they met. They started talking. He introduced him to sauna and ice bath, but when my husband did it, his experience was very exhilarating on one end and very crummy on the other hand, because it was a small sauna closed and then they went to the other side of the yard to go into, like this tub with ice and very, and he, his wheels of creativity started working and I went to visit family for two weeks, came back, I had this amazing sauna in my yard with a glass roof and music inside and a shower that's connected, and built a custom ice bath as well.
Speaker 3:That was in ground and that's how it started. He just built it because he wanted to have a better experience.
Speaker 3:It because he wanted to have a better experience, um, and he really believes that when you have a good experience, you can make like a habit out of it, um, and do it daily, and that's when the benefit comes in. He does ironmans, ultra marathons, you know crazy mountain biking, races and and he, you know it really helped him recover and I, honestly, I got into it too and really helped me in a different way, because I'm an athlete, but not like him, not extreme, but mentally it helped a lot. First of all, the sauna is relaxing and the ice bath is amazing.
Speaker 2:It's just an amazing experience changed my life. Yeah, and there's a lot of medical studies and data that goes into the advantages of both, but certainly the ice baths and cold plunges. I was watching something I think it was on netflix. Uh, chris helmsworth, the, the Australian actor.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:He's doing all these extreme we'll call them extreme sports, but one of them he's in some Nordic country Might have been Norway or Finland, I don't know and they're diving into the lake in the middle of the winter, but there's a lot of things that happen to your body when you're in cold water immersion and I know your company goes into that a little bit like the advantages of both. So can you touch on that a little bit of why it's getting so much popularity among fitness enthusiasts and really wellness seekers? And I think and, and you know, one of the one of the reasons you probably like living where you do in New Jersey is there's a lot of New York city transplants that came over just over the river. Uh, so there's a lot of New York City transplants that came over just over the river. So there's a lot of us that are, you know, very metropolitan I could say international and a lot of people in sort of this demographic are looking for ways to improve their health and their overall lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Right, and I'm not talking about opulent lifestyle, I'm talking about wellness. So you know it's, and usually there's always the you know what you call the tastemakers or the influencers. So in something like this whether it's, you know, water flotation or it's you know cold baths or ice baths and saunas, it usually starts with athletes and maybe pro athletes and then fitness enthusiasts. Then it kind of trickles down from there. So what are some of the benefits of? Let's just start with the ice bath.
Speaker 3:First of all, it goes to longevity as well. So if you are thinking of things that can help you live longer and better, these two therapies combined really, really help. So in terms of ice bath, so many Mood improves your mood. It gives you a boost of serotonin for six to eight hours. It helped my son with focusing. He was 11. He did it every day before school only like 30 seconds or to a minute.
Speaker 3:Didn't have to do it for long, helped him with his ADHD, focus better awake, come to school invigorated you know it was. It really helps with that. It gives you a sense of calm mentally, a sense of accomplishment. You just achieved something hard. And if you manage to do that every day, every day, the everyday challenges seem smaller, easier to move past.
Speaker 2:So it has a lot of benefits really yeah, yeah, wow, so okay, so I could, um, I could go there's. There's franchises now with infrared saunas. Now, this is not infrared, right?
Speaker 3:no, but we, you know we build indoor and outdoor, and the indoor ones also the outdoor ones. You can have an infrared panel if you want to experience the infrared. Personally, I like the heat of the stones that are on the heater more, because it heats you up in a different way. The infrared is more external and this is more internal, because it's it's it heats you up in a different way. Right right, it's more external and this is more internal.
Speaker 3:You'd like your core temperature really goes down because your body is trying to cool off when you're hot and it really sends a lot of signals to your brain, which, in turn, sends a lot of signals to your brain, which, in turn, sends a lot of heat shock proteins and many, many really really good things that help longevity and overall wellbeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know like a combined, the combined therapy. You know there's a lot of things that you said. It can boost your immune system, I guess, also help burn fat. And then there's also the way your skin feels after you get out of a sauna. I guess it kind of rejuvenates your skin. You can feel like your blood circulation is improved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really does. Also, it's very amazing that the sauna, if you spend four times a week, 19 minutes to 20 minutes, really 50% reduction. This huge study that they did in all cause mortality, you know, disease point of view it's right.
Speaker 2:So I guess that would lead me to the ask then, if you're gonna do it four days a week or almost every day, why you see the benefit in having your own personal home sauna versus going to a spa somewhere every day and doing this. Is that so who? Who is your uh, a typical client that might want to have a personal you know personally built either indoor, outdoor sauna and do you and do you have to have the ice bath, whether you guys just recommend but you have the ice bath, or could you just do one or the other? You?
Speaker 3:can do one or the other of course it's always best to do both, because you get most of it. You get the contrast. So, if you do only ice bath, it's great. If you do only sauna, it's great. Actually, I started only with the sauna. I couldn't imagine going in the ice bath.
Speaker 3:It was you know, but it came along with it. It really does complete one another. But, yes, you can definitely do one or the other and we really our typical client would be a homeowner, doesn't have to be an athlete Interested in longevity and well-being People that you know, that love being outdoor. Our sauna really has this unique feature with a glass roof that lets you really immerse with nature and feel connected, and that's kind of our motto. If you have this connection to nature, you go out, you do the sauna, you. Your experience is positive and it's good. You have all the light coming in. Light is so important in life Sun and and you just tend to do it. If you have a positive experience, you tend to do it more. So your daily habit will happen more and overall your longevity will improve, your health will improve, your mood will improve the more you do it.
Speaker 3:And and in order to do it better, in order to do it every day, to come and face this challenge every day, you have to have a good experience doing it. Yeah, you know, in a dark right, not, oh, sorry, um.
Speaker 2:So my one second sorry, um. So so here's the thing. So you said you know you're one with nature. So what if your backyard and because it's open glass, I mean, am I worried about my neighbors, you know, peeking in? It's a very good question.
Speaker 3:Very good question we have. So it's not all glass. The walls are cedar wood and then the top part of the sauna of the wall is glass and the roof is glass. And the front door is is glass, so you can really put it, position it in a way that you know your neighbors are not going to see you. You still have privacy up to your shoulders and you still get get to experience the openness of nature and the immersion with nature so as opposed to.
Speaker 2:so, some of my neighbors have a sauna, but it's more like a barrel. You know, there there are no windows. You walk in, you open the door, you sit down and then they have a shower outside. So they happen to be European, so you know Austrian and Lithuanian. And then my other neighbor who's from Macedonia, he just built one in his backyard. So yeah, it's obviously it's a different kind of experience when you're in a kind of a barrel, you know, and I'm sure it's not, I haven't been in there yet but versus one where it's kind of open. But I guess that lends you to the question of OK, what about upkeep? So I have all this glass, I've got to keep it clean. How often do I have to clean it? And do you recommend that the owner do it themselves, or do you guys provide a maintenance service?
Speaker 3:We that the owner do it themselves, or do you guys provide a maintenance service? We provide a maintenance service. Um, it can be biannual, three times a year, you know, just for the wood and for the glass. The glass does come with a coating, a special coating that the water doesn't stain it, so it's pretty good.
Speaker 3:you don't have to clean it all the time it's up to you. Um, and it really, uh, it all the time it's up to you and it really, you know, like everything that you own, like your house, you have to clean and you have to weekly wipe down the, you know, the bench and things like that. But you can do it on your own or you can use our service. We do offer that.
Speaker 2:So talk to me a little bit about how it works. So if I call you guys up and, by the way, if you go to c-i-e-l-o sauna s-a-u-n-acom, you will see some great photos of what these saunas look like, what the cold bath, ice bath looks like. Um, you also get you know, some of the benefits, some articles about the benefits of both. But what I, what I'm interested in is how do I go about it? So say, I called you and said, hey, I'm interested in this. What's the process from there?
Speaker 3:So if you're local, we can come over and take a look and discuss where to position the sauna, how you'd like it made. If you want a custom one, if you want the one that's you know are featured, we have um. We're developing a new design right now which is not a whole glass roof just like a skylight, um. If you prefer more, you know more privacy and still get the sun, experience, the light, experience, um. So we would come over and look at the property, advise you exactly what you'd need to do, because you'd need to set up a small patch of land or you know you'd have to have some footings there to set up, to prepare for the sauna, and you just, you know, tell us your needs.
Speaker 3:If you want some customized materials, materials, we can do that. Um. If you want to purchase some um cold plunge as well, we do custom ones and we have the ones that we offer that are product lines, um and that's it. We give you a quote. There's financing available and um we financing available and we place the order Takes about. It depends what you order. If it's custom takes about three to four months. If it's more along the lines of the product, about two months for production and installation.
Speaker 2:And you manage the electrical part of it, bringing the-.
Speaker 3:So the electrical we connect the heater, but you'd have to have a licensed electrician to run the line from your panel.
Speaker 2:And then what about? You have a shower in the sauna, so how do I have the water running?
Speaker 3:Right, so you'd have to run a hose. It's very simple from your house to the sauna and we connect it to the shower.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So there's a little bit of landscaping involved to level off my yard. Obviously, I have a level spot for this and you would obviously advise of where the best part is in my property. To put it, I have woods in my backyard. I have a lot of privacy, although that's a nice thing about where I live. So you think about, okay, but is it level? I got to get the line out there, okay so. So there's a couple of things.
Speaker 3:And then what's the longevity Like? How long do these last? It's like a little house, you know. Structure is very strong. The glass is double glazed, insulated. Um, it's very strong, it's can last for many years, 20 years, even more. Um, it's built like you would build um a storefront of a building you know very sturdy.
Speaker 2:Right, and they're about the size of a good size shed so you could fit. You know, more than one person can sit with one at the same time. We have a few sizes.
Speaker 3:We have one for seven or eight people.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:We host a lot of people in our house. They come in, kids come in, they do sauna, ice bath. They love it. It's like a party.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, I can see that Sure. So if people host.
Speaker 3:You know we have a few clients here that host a lot and it's a. It's a gimmick, you know people love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's great and we have three to four people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I mean there are. I mean, I think if you walk into somebody's backyard and you see this, it's impressive number one. But number two, then it's a conversation piece to then talk about why you love it, the benefits of it, and then say, hey, come try it out, and I think it's. You know, when you go on your website, the product itself sells itself, regardless of the health benefits. You know, it's very kind of sleek and cool and you look at it in the winter and it looks very inviting to go out there in the winter. Obviously you wear a robe or whatever it is to go in your backyard. But yeah, I mean you guys have just started right. The company just recently launched, like a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have a very long experience with manufacturing and installing, so 25 years experience. So, it's not like we just started. We started this business just now, but we have a vast experience and we know this is easy for us after everything we've done in the city big projects.
Speaker 2:This is easy for us after everything we've done in the city.
Speaker 3:Big project, yeah, yeah do you know this restaurant uh in the city zuma?
Speaker 2:uh, I, you know I worked in the city for 25 years. I lived in the city but I'm kind of out of the restaurants, you know there's so, so many, so many of them now.
Speaker 3:But it's a crazy restaurant designed Amazing. Every metal and glass there we did was when is that?
Speaker 2:Where is that?
Speaker 3:That's a Midtown, midtown, madison Avenue.
Speaker 2:Madison Avenue. Okay, I used to work on Madison. I used to work on five, 50 Madison oh wow, I think it's both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So this is amazing. I, you know, I'm definitely intrigued and I think a lot of our listeners are intrigued and I For me. It's just a matter of getting the education out there of what it's all about in terms of the benefits of it. But you see, from some of these sauna franchises that are popping up that certainly there's a new kind of awareness to the benefits. Those are more infrared saunas. But, as I said, like in our area, in the northern Bergen County area, there is the kind of the demographic that I think is very open to this and wanting to have this kind of experience. So, is there anything that we haven't touched on? Certainly, does it matter where you're located? It's really not coming to your office, it's really about going, then contacting you. Right, you don't have a showroom.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter where you're located. We have installed in uh florida, going to install in uh south carolina. Um, we really like to stay local. Um, but uh, in the future we hope to be all over so it really doesn't matter and what's the best way to contact him so go to our website. There's the phone number there. You can look Instagram cieloexperience If you want to see our photos, you can contact us through there as well. That's it.
Speaker 2:And your phone number is 201-283-0509?.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, this is great. I'd love to experience it myself, and I guess, if somebody says it looks great, but I don't know, can I try it out somewhere? What would you recommend they do?
Speaker 3:sauna and ice bath and it goes on a trailer and we can get it anywhere. So wow would like. First of all, we're doing events. You know, um, we have, uh, I think, on mother's day, the jcc. We're going to be there with our saunas for the rubin run yeah, my wife.
Speaker 2:My wife ran that a few years ago and she came in second in her age group. So the five yeah, my daughter came in second in her age group. So yeah, my daughter came in first in her age group.
Speaker 3:Wow she was the only one in her age, about eight.
Speaker 2:She did 10k with her dad 10k at eight years old yes, so she came in first she got a trophy. Wow, that's great.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, we can give the experience as well. We always welcome people to our home to try it, and we also have this mobile sauna. If you have an event or something of that nature, we can, you know, get it over there and let you try it.
Speaker 2:That's great, oh, excellent. Yeah, I have to try it for sure. So, leon, thank you very much for for joining us today. And again I just want to go over. It's Cielo sauna. com. Ci E L O S A U N A. com. We're going to have this at the bottom of like the episode um summary, so it'll all be there on all the podcasts, uh platforms. But again, it's 2 0 1, 283-0509. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, and you and I will be right back, yep.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.