My Thoughts on Yoga – Why Natural (Nude)?
Each of us has our own reasons for choosing to practice yoga naked. Some enjoy the greater physical freedom. Many of us want to feel more comfortable in our own skin. Still others enjoy the taboo-breaking thrill of getting naked. Still others see nudity as a profound spiritual experience. Shedding of armor and barriers and the social masks we present to the world.
Physically
Physically the skin is the largest organ in the body. It contains nerve endings that send messages to the brain from every part of the body. When you wear any clothing that even slightly constricts anywhere the brain processes that information as a restriction and adjusts movement to compensate for that restriction. Performing your practice without these compensations helps you to feel the yogic lengthening of the body. Enabling you to naturally get deeper into each asana.
As a Teacher
Furthermore, as a yoga teacher, I believe that practicing in the nude helps to alleviate many distractions and helps you to maintain a more focused mind. I see students in class constantly adjusting clothing in every pose. Sometimes to make the pose more comfortable. Or maybe to adjust the clothing to “cover up” certain body parts that they might have issues. Being nude automatically removes these distractions. From an instructor point of view being nude allows me to see every deviation a person might have in a pose. This provides me with the ability to correct even the slightest miss alignment to give the student the most from every asana.
Issues
As a human being, I know that we all have issues with our bodies. We are continuously influenced by media with what people are to perceive as beauty, masculinity and strength causing each of us to judge ourselves and our appearance by unrealistic standards.
Experiences
There are many experiences in life I feel everyone should partake in, at least once, during this wonderful life; skinny dipping, feeling the cool water of a stream flow over your body or the stinging of warm salt water in the ocean; laying naked in the early morning dew of the grass as the sun warms your skin or finally, the wonderful connection of skin to skin from a partner, friend or new acquaintance in a non-sexual greeting or full body hug. By spending time in our “natural” state we learn to accept our body’s for what they are and through this acceptance we improve our self-esteem.
You’ve got work to do, so strip yourself. There’s something that you’re supposed to do that is your mission in life. To complete it, you must avoid the mind pollution coming from others who don’t have goals or dreams, and who don’t have a reason for being here. As you begin to look at yourself, and go after your goals and your dreams… begin to strip yourself.
Strip yourself of the behaviors, thoughts, habits, and attitudes that you know will block you from achieving the things that you want. Strip yourself of all the things that are none of your spiritual business. Stop buying into other people’s stories and excuses, instead of taking care of your own business. Strip yourself of the excuses, and all of the reasons that you’ve given yourself for not achieving your goals. Be about the business of making things happen. Let go of the things that don’t serve you, and launch forward to your dream. You deserve!
-Les Brown
