Naturism has helped me to accept my body. As a bigger woman, I’ve been made to feel like there's something wrong with me. But here, you learn that body types vary—and that they're all normal.
From
Interview with Anonymous
Take a deep breath and relax! Nudity is more at this stage of life than
just taking your clothes off... thankfully!
Isn’t time came to become more mindful, shed negative feelings about
your body and enjoy the fact that now that you are in the empty nester
category, it is time to leave the bedroom door open for when you really want to
go au naturel!
Nudity and
Menopause
Menopause usually translates into covering up rather than
taking it off, but if you are good with an itsy bitsy teeny-weeny bikini, then
that’s good, too! Many women breathe a deep sigh of relief at this stage of the
game and learn to ignore that airbrushed perfection on magazine covers touting
the most perfect person in the world. We have got bigger and better things to
think about!
So, next time you are standing in line at the store
gazing at those perfect 10’s on the cover, think about what a trusted friend
your body has been to carry you this far. Appreciate it! Live in the present and get ready to spend
your time... exactly as you please! I hope, you feel better already. But, stay
onboard, more to come…
Let it RAIN!
Rather than focusing on what’s not perfect in your life,
while missing the things that are worth a second look, why not try mindfulness,
which is just paying attention to what’s going on right in front of you. Simply put, live in the moment and enjoy your
life as it unfolds, rather than continually ticking off your ‘to do’ list in
your head, trying to be a good “girl”, a good mother, a good daughter, a good sister,
and a good wife!
Studies show that this one psychological shift impacts
almost every part of the body, affecting your hormones, immune system and even
the psychological behaviors behind over-eating and substance abuse! Furthermore,
mindfulness is also associated with stress reduction or MBSR, which stands for
mindfulness based stress reduction.
Even long-time depression manifesting in anxiety and mood
disorder moved in a positive direction through mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is so powerful that it impacts
your DNA and can change the gray matter in your brain, say researchers. Long story
short: mindfulness even affects your DNA and the aging process.
Here are some ways to become mindful:
ü
Practice meditation (mind-body)
ü
Attend movement meditation (free-form dance)
classes
ü
Take up yoga (physical component)
ü
RAIN: Recognize strong emotions, acknowledge it,
investigate it, and non-identify with what is there.
New Transparency
As we all move into the ‘empty nester’ category, discover
the new transparency it offers by celebrating a renewed relationship with your
significant other through open communication.
Scientists suggest this time of life is ideal to become a couple again
after years of identifying as just a parent.
Men can suffer from empty nest syndrome, too, so it is a good time to
partner up for grownup things—with the door open!
Privacy rocks!
Plop down on the sofa, nude if you like, and learn how to have a
conversation with your husband again about something other than, ‘the kids.’
Take a second look on your half now, when your relationship is tested through
the new life stage – stage of renewed intimacy and rediscovery. Are you ready
to take this step forward?
Love Your Body
Finally, menopause is a time to relax your self-imposed
rules about having to look perfect all the time, especially in the nude. Consider your body a trusted friend who
served you well through the years and treat it accordingly. Pert, taut and flat might not be the first
words that come to mind, but there’s nothing wrong with curviness, soft skin
and ‘my husband/boyfriend likes what he’s looking at,’ to replace them?
Loving yourself is the first step to accepting
others. Acceptance is the first step to
awareness and guess what with awareness, we are right back to mindfulness. So, give your DNA a rest from constant stress
and anxiety, which leads to early aging.
It’s time to enjoy this new chapter of your life and release those
self-doubts about... well everything! Live
free and love it.
Go Out Nude
Being naked in privacy of your home is just a first step
of your emotional and psychological liberation. Being clothes free in “social
environment” settings bears multiple benefits you would never think about.
Conservative culture of the previous centuries outlawed and prosecuted social
nudity as inappropriate behavior, but there are many other things, previously
being “out of the question”, we currently consider acceptable and normal. May
be, this is a good time for you to reclaim the freedom of choice, of when, and
to what degree, you should be covering your body in the various societal
settings.
Historical Excurse
History reveals many cultures that were not
clothes-minded. Spartans were basically bare and their victories in
pan-Hellenic sports competitions enticed all neighboring Greeks to exercise
nude, creating the word “gymnasium” (Greek gymnos = naked). Romans mingled in
magnificent bathhouses, enjoying dense communal nudity as they drank, dined,
defecated, bathed, read books, argued politics, and watched theater.
Adamists — naked heretics — performed stripped-down
church services in North Africa, Bohemia, the Netherlands, and England.
Pre-Hitler Germans were avid adherents of Freikorperkultur (“Free Body
Culture”) with 70,000 attending co-ed Nacktkultur schools.
There are naked Japanese in hot springs, naked Finns in
saunas, “sky-clad” Jain monks in India, plus millions of nudists worldwide
going to “Nakation” camps, beaches, and resorts.
They are still sporty as Spartans, eager to hike naked
(“free bush rambling”), canoe naked (“canuding”), bicycle naked, ride horses
naked, run naked, play volleyball, badminton, ping-pong and chess naked, swim
naked, dance naked, do Naked Yoga, Naked Tai Chi, Naked Gardening, Naked
Bowling, and of course, many of us, perhaps you and I, dear readers, are NIFOC
— Naked in Front of Computers.
Naked Benefits
Here is some overwhelming evidence suggesting that
skin-only can be superior, proven by scientists to the various degrees of
validity:
1. Born Free
Pediatricians agree that infants thrive with a daily dose
of “naked time” because the unhampered range of motion aids brain development,
stimulating neuron growth. Recent discoveries reveal that the “plastic” brain
changes and develops throughout our entire lives. Neuroplasticity pioneer
Michael M. Merzenich believes, “Everything that you can see happen in a young
brain can happen in an older brain.” Doesn’t this imply that “naked time” is
equally valuable for humans of any age, especially the elderly?
2. Weakened Bodies
A 2003 University of Reading study entitled “A Naked Ape
Would Have Fewer Parasites” posits that “humans evolved hairlessness to reduce
parasite loads, especially ectoparasites that may carry disease.”
Unfortunately, the garments we wear can be a breeding ground for filthy fungi
and bad bacterium, causing yeast infections, urinary tract infections, rotting
toenails. Lyme Disease deer ticks can grab onto our sweaters and sea lice can
sneak into our bathing suit crotches. Cinched-up belts, ties, and clothes
impede breathing. Men’s snug pants raise testicle temperature, lowering sperm
count and fertility.
3. Barefoot Medicine
Going shoeless is now recognized as an anti-Alzheimer’s,
brain-boosting activity because the sole sensation entices your brain into
growing extra, efficient neuron connections. Dr. Norman Doidge (author of The
Brain That Changes Itself) believes skipping shoes increases brain flexibility
and youthfulness, and many podiatrists now advise going barefoot as much as
possible. Bare feet are today’s prescription. Will tomorrow’s elixir take the
next step: Bare Body?
4. Burning Fat Faster?
Your body’s main supply of brown adipose tissue (BAT), or
good fat cells, are located around your shoulder blades and neck. When your
body is exposed to the elements and is cooler, the BAT proliferates and
essentially kills the white adipose tissue, aka bad fat cells. So, not wearing
any clothes helps promote this and makes you healthier.
5. Sleeping Naked
Sleeping is one of the most important activities that
helps to keep you healthy and relaxed throughout your life. Getting the right
amount of sleep is very crucial, almost as important as eating, and it has
several health and mental benefits. However, you can be able to reap far more
benefits by sleeping without clothes.
Naked sleeping is a liberating experience that allows you
to sleep comfortably and helps you to feel free and happy – the lack of
constrictive clothes and the feeling of being sandwiched between cool sheets is
very stimulating. Sleeping also exposes your skin to fresh air, especially your
private parts, armpits, and feet, which are usually covered by layers of
clothing during the day. It also helps you to maintain an optimal body temperature,
which enhances the production of cortisol hormone. This helps to keep you
relaxed during the day, improves your moods, and helps you to effectively
manage stress and anxiety.
6. Superior Socialization
Most people live with the constant fear that their body
is not good enough. This is especially the case with women, who are made to
feel inferior if their bodies do not match the ideal body images shown in
fashion magazines. For example, most women will feel inferior if they perceive
that their breasts are too small or too large, or if their bodies are too thin
or too large. As a result, people are always under pressure to live up to the
mythical ideal image, and use clothes as a way of hiding their feelings of
inferiority. Naturism helps to avoid this, by helping people to understand that
their self-perceived body imperfections are nothing more than a confirmation of
the diversity of human bodies. This helps people to accept their bodies, and
respect those of the others.
Self-actualization proponent Abraham Maslow believed
“Nudism… is itself a kind of therapy.” Health benefits of social nudity include
stress reduction, satiation of curiosity about the human body, reduction of
porn addiction, a sense of full-body integration and developing a wholesome
attitude about the opposite gender. Research at the University of Northern Iowa
discovered that nudists have significantly higher body self-acceptance. Another
study concluded that teens at a New York nudist camp were “extraordinarily
well-adjusted, happy, and thoughtful.” It’s also excellent for children to grow
up free of shame about the human body.
7. Tolerant Views
A University of Central Florida 2008 study of 384
participants concluded that pro-nudity students “were significantly more
accepting of other religious groups and gays and lesbians” when compared to the
anti-nudity students. They were also “less prejudiced towards ethnically
dissimilar others.”
8. Healthy Sexuality
Contrary to what most people believe, clothing focuses
attention on sexuality. In today’s society, partial clothing is considered very
sexually stimulating, and it is used to sell products. The current trends in
the fashion industries are also aimed at eroticizing different parts of the
body, for example, the breasts, hips or buttocks. This has led to increase of
immature forms of sexuality in the society, leading to immorality. Naturism on
the other hand, focuses the attention on the acceptance of the body and its
imperfection. Shedding of all clothes makes people become familiar with a
nakedness, which helps to reduce curiosity and enchantment that is common with
partial clothing. This helps people who engage in naturism lifestyle to become
more mature sexually.
According to studies, countries that support naturism
have a lower rate of teenage pregnancy and abortion. This is due to the fact
that naturism promotes the understanding of sexuality by reducing the moral
disapproval that comes with trying to seek such knowledge. This reduces the
inquisitiveness that is common with most teens, who experiment with early sex
without being completely aware of what it entails.
9. Healthy Couples’ Relationship
According to a recent survey that was conducted on
naturism in March 2016, most people joined the lifestyle because their partner
was interested in. The lifestyle helps people to accept their bodies, and it
has been shown to promote healthier sexuality, which can help to strengthen the
relationship between couples. It also provides a safe place where couples can
spend quality time together and share their thoughts, feelings and desires. The
acceptance of one’s body also helps to boost confidence, self-esteem, as well
as break down various barriers that can hinder fulfillment in a relationship.
In addition, naturism promotes honest communication based on trust, which can
promote healthy relationships.
10. Soothe Away Your Crazies
Massage is recognized as a therapeutic treatment for
mental health issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolarism,
borderline personality disorder, learning difficulties, and low self-esteem. naturism
acts as a form of massage — improving blood flow and detoxifying the lymph
system — is duplicated by the warmth, freedom, and improved circulation generated
in nakedness.
11. Soak Up the Rays
Vitamin D deficiency is currently soaring, with up to 75%
of USA teens and adults receiving insufficient amounts of the “sunshine
vitamin.” Lack of this essential health aid is a factor in numerous ailments,
including cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes. Anyone who bares
all outside as a “naturist” harvests larger amounts of Vitamin D in a quicker
time span. In addition to improving the physical health of the body, exposure
to sunlight also helps to improve mental health; sunbathing naked helps to
promote an overall feeling of well-being in your body, which can help to lift
your moods.
12. Financial Liberation
Clothes are a huge money and time-suck with shopping,
laundry, closets, dressers, and gazillions of hours wasted wondering what
so-and-so looks like with their garments removed. The global market for
swimsuits alone is expected to reach $17.6 billion annually by 2015; our carbon
footprint would shrink like a wool sweater if fabric was no longer manufactured.
13. Self-Esteem Boost
Clothes are used by the society as an indicator of social
status, which can lead to feelings of superiority and inferiority. In a
naturism lifestyle, once people remove their clothes, everyone is considered an
equal and very little attention is paid to the social status. In addition, the
feeling of euphoria that comes with exposing your body to nature helps to boost
your confidence, which is a major boost to your self-esteem.
Think about it. If you can walk around your apartment
naked and happy, walking across a room in clothes is probably a piece of cake.
If you can eat a piece of cake naked and happy (this might be my ultimate goal,
in life), then you can definitely do anything. Liking yourself naked is liking
yourself exposed, flawed, complicated, and undone. If you can like yourself
like that, you can face the world proud and naked! Or just proud. With the
confidence of a confident naked person.
14. Freedom
Naturism is a liberating lifestyle that gives you a great
sense of freedom when you remove your clothes and expose yourself to nature.
Being naked is more comfortable, and it allows you to enjoy activities such as
sunbathing and swimming more. Being naked also removes the restrictions placed
on your body by the clothing, which makes it easier and more enjoyable when
moving around and performing various activities.
In addition to giving your body freedom, nudism also
gives you freedom from the various entrapments that exist in the society.
According to Paul Ableman, naturism symbolizes the “taking off” of civilization
and the various constraints that it comes with.
According to Dr. Robert Henley Woody, the fear of being
naked is a defense mechanism of the body. A lot of people develop this
mechanism to help protect themselves from feeling inferior due to their
self-perceived imperfections. This can lead to a compulsion to be always
clothed, even when it is not socially required to do so, or even when it is
uncomfortable for your body. While this compulsion can help to protect you from
feeling inferior, it can also hinder the growth of new behaviors that can help
you to grow psychologically. Naturism can help you to avoid this by freeing
your body, mind, and spirit, and helping to improve your mental health.
15. Relaxation
According to naturists, one of the main benefits of
naturism is that it provides an incredible feeling of relaxation. As a
naturist, you can be able to enjoy your surroundings without caring about
various societal entrapments such as status and fear of being inferior. In
addition, naturism provides an environment where people view each other as
equal and accept each other for their true self. Therefore, you can be able to
shed all the defense mechanisms you have adopted so as to protect yourself.
This allows you to enjoy your life more, which can be more relaxing than in the
textile world.
16. Connect with Nature
Naturism is a lifestyle that promotes living in harmony
with nature and respect for the environment. As a result, most people who
engage in the lifestyle feel more connected to the nature while naked. For
example, sunbathing or swimming is more enjoyable when swimming naked than when
you are wearing clothes. The euphoric feeling that you get when the wind blows
on your naked body or when walking about on barefoot is very invigorating, and
it helps you enjoy your surroundings more.
17. Nude Soaking, Sauna
Sweat lodges were used by indigenous people of the
Americas long before Europeans arrived. Nobody knows when saunas were first
used in Nordic countries, because it was before most of their recorded history.
And natural hot springs were undoubtedly used by any humans who had access to
them as long as there have been humans. Such things have been popular because
they are physically relaxing and stress-reducing. This is probably because of
endorphins that reduce stressful physical pain and tension.
18. Swimming Pleasure
Before the YMCA became co-ed in the early 1960s, men and
boys swam completely nude. Since nylon was a relatively new invention at that
time, it was feared that allowing swimsuits made of cotton or wool in the pool
would clog up their filtration system.
Most nudist resorts are located near a swimming pool or
beach. When you are swimming naked, you don't have to fight the waves as much.
Also, when swimming nude, the water simply feels better against your
unencumbered skin than when you're wearing a wet swim suit or trunks. Then,
when you get out of the water, you don't have to worry about that icky feeling
of a wet swim suit clinging to your body.
19. Dancing Naked
Dancing is a fun activity that has a lot of physical and
psychological benefits. However, you can be able to intensify these benefits,
and even enjoy it more, by dancing naked. This is a completely practical thing
to do, as it gets rids of restrictive clothing that can interfere with your
movements, making it more comfortable. It is also very liberating, and you can
do while alone, with your partner, or with a group of like-minded people, and
without caring about the societal norms.
20. Reduce Patriarchy and Promotes Female
Liberation
Clothing promotes a patriarchal society where women are
expected to dress according to certain requirements. Those who do not follow
these requirements are frowned upon by the society, and often exposed to
prejudices. Clothing also helps to promote the sexualization of women’s bodies,
which leads to sexual deviant behaviors such as pornography and sexual
harassment. Naturism on the other hand, advocates for the acceptance of other
people as equals and helps people to respect their bodies. This helps to
eliminate male oriented expectations that are repressive to women.
While the gender-related deviations in the societal
expectations are much smaller in the Western World, comparing with the religion-dominated
countries, there are still substantial. Bare male and female chests are still
perceived differently by the Law and by the general public.
Nakedness is the greatest equalizer you can imagine.
Sources and
Additional Information:
