In search of nude nirvana
The following is going to contain some deep delving into the psychology and even the philosophy and spirituality of human sensuality, only getting on to the sexual aspect at the end (just in case you thought you had wandered on to the wrong site).
I want to start by asking a couple of questions, and to begin with I want you to think back through your whole life and work out what the biggest distance is that you have ever been separated from your clothes. Don't worry if you can't be entirely accurate or remember when it was, exactly, because the real point of this exercise is not the distance, but the units you use to measure it.
For the vast majority of people - I am guessing 99 per cent or more - the answer is probably a number of centimetres or metres; perhaps the distance from your shower to your wardrobe. But imagine if the distance was so great that it needed to be measured not in centimetres or metres but kilometres.
Now - question number two - think back and see if there has ever been a day in your life when you didn't wear any clothes, all day. That's any calendar day, between midnight and midnight. Even the day you were born doesn't qualify, because within seconds, or at best minutes, you can be sure the midwife would have wrapped you in something. My guess is that if you ever did have a completely naked day, it was because you wear nothing in bed and illness kept you there.
Why is all this important? As a naturist who absolutely loves being nude and wouldn't wear clothes again if I didn't have to (although it would have to stay warm enough all year round), both of the above - being kilometres from my clothes and wearing nothing for a full day - give me a deep sense of utter, profound, difficult-to-put-into-words liberation. It isn't just about casting off your clothes, of course, because when you do, it is easy to imagine that you are also dumping your stresses, worries and expectations.
And you are free. Because in removing your clothes you reject the main thing that society defines you by and people can't help judging you by - for better or for worse - which is what you are wearing.
What experienced naturists like me often point out is that taking off your clothes is a great leveller, which is good, but it also brings you closer to nature than any amount of walking in hiking gear or hugging trees or swimming in a bathing costume can ever do.
So, being a naturist is partly symbolic - you are choosing to be yourself, not what society dictates - and it is therefore a state of mind, but also physical in that you haven't truly felt the wind in your face until you have also felt it all over your body. And for the final act of connecting with the world, you also have to take off your shoes and feel your bare feet on the grass or the sand. Try it. It can be mindblowing.
Your initial emotion - and many people's initial fear - is that this will somehow make you feel over-vulnerable, but in a way that's the point. It is as if you are saying: I'm naked and vulnerable, but I can handle it. I am myself, my own person. And anyway, what's the worst that can happen?
All this is in my mind because I have just returned from a wonderful two-week holiday at a naturist resort in south-west France, namely La Jenny, which is on the Atlantic coast, about an hour west of Bordeaux. It was the sixth or seventh dedicated naturist holiday my wife and I have taken, so we are no strangers to the idea, but this time it was a bit different. Better.
One of the pleasures you get from naturism is the thrill - not a sexual thrill, but a real buzz - of being naked in a world that is otherwise geared up for clothes and usually insisting you are dressed. Basically, you feel like pinching yourself and saying: "Wow! I'm naked. And nobody cares. In fact, most of them are naked too, and it doesn't matter. This is so cool. And a bit daring and naughty."
And, no, I don't (and you wouldn't either) have an erection at this time. This isn't a sexual experience, but a highly sensual, life-enhancing, liberating, humbling moment in your life that is unlike any other.
If you are the kind of person who is happy to stay in the same location throughout your holiday (and the weather stays warm), perhaps just spending endless days by the pool, you could remain nude for two weeks or more, because clothes become completely unnecessary. But that's not us. Our holidays always involve exploring the local area by car or bike too, not wall-to-wall relaxing, so we have to dress at some stage, but this time around we spent longer than ever just chilling out. So there were several days when we never put any clothes on, which feels like it should earn you a badge (not that you have anywhere to pin it).
Even better: because La Jenny is next to a huge, beautiful sandy beach that is officially clothing optional, we were able to take long walks along the coastline, in both directions, for however many kilometres we felt fit enough to achieve on that day. Think escapism on steroids.
The naturist buzz I described above ("Wow! I'm naked!") is nearly always the predominant emotion, and very nice it is too, but this time we were so chilled-out and used to being nude that whatever novelty we were experiencing had all but rubbed off, and it was replaced with a true sense of nudity being the most natural thing in the world. Nude nirvana indeed.
Remember how I said naturism makes you feel close to nature? Well (hopefully without sounding too corny - because it is difficult to put this into words) this time, more than ever, we really felt that it wasn't just about being close to nature, but part of it. A merger, if you like.
The point of writing all this is to stress again (see a previous post) that you really can't imagine what it is like to be a proper naturist until you have tried it for yourself - so do it. And if you are being stopped by a partner who is reluctant to give it a try (probably because of mis-placed body image issues), help them understand the benefits, and take steps to overcome their reluctance.
So if it's not a sexual experience, what is this post doing on this site?
Well, if you read my previous post, you will understand something of the complex relationship between naturism and sex, and how they need to be treated as separate subjects, but converge in the end. In that post I said there is nothing better than getting naked for putting you in a relaxed and liberated mood that is perfect for sex, but if you can also experience that feeling of being at one with nature, sex is even better.
The kind of spiritual and (you could even argue) transcendental experience that comes with naturism is surely not unrelated to the tantric state that some people say can be achieved through sex. They are surely connected, and being at one with nature and - even more importantly - enjoying your own nudity is surely heading in the same joyous direction.
So if you haven't experienced what it is like to be a naturist yet, TRY IT!
Footnote: we are always happy to hear from naturists or answer questions/give advice to would-be naturists.
I want to start by asking a couple of questions, and to begin with I want you to think back through your whole life and work out what the biggest distance is that you have ever been separated from your clothes. Don't worry if you can't be entirely accurate or remember when it was, exactly, because the real point of this exercise is not the distance, but the units you use to measure it.
For the vast majority of people - I am guessing 99 per cent or more - the answer is probably a number of centimetres or metres; perhaps the distance from your shower to your wardrobe. But imagine if the distance was so great that it needed to be measured not in centimetres or metres but kilometres.
Now - question number two - think back and see if there has ever been a day in your life when you didn't wear any clothes, all day. That's any calendar day, between midnight and midnight. Even the day you were born doesn't qualify, because within seconds, or at best minutes, you can be sure the midwife would have wrapped you in something. My guess is that if you ever did have a completely naked day, it was because you wear nothing in bed and illness kept you there.
Why is all this important? As a naturist who absolutely loves being nude and wouldn't wear clothes again if I didn't have to (although it would have to stay warm enough all year round), both of the above - being kilometres from my clothes and wearing nothing for a full day - give me a deep sense of utter, profound, difficult-to-put-into-words liberation. It isn't just about casting off your clothes, of course, because when you do, it is easy to imagine that you are also dumping your stresses, worries and expectations.
And you are free. Because in removing your clothes you reject the main thing that society defines you by and people can't help judging you by - for better or for worse - which is what you are wearing.
What experienced naturists like me often point out is that taking off your clothes is a great leveller, which is good, but it also brings you closer to nature than any amount of walking in hiking gear or hugging trees or swimming in a bathing costume can ever do.
So, being a naturist is partly symbolic - you are choosing to be yourself, not what society dictates - and it is therefore a state of mind, but also physical in that you haven't truly felt the wind in your face until you have also felt it all over your body. And for the final act of connecting with the world, you also have to take off your shoes and feel your bare feet on the grass or the sand. Try it. It can be mindblowing.
Your initial emotion - and many people's initial fear - is that this will somehow make you feel over-vulnerable, but in a way that's the point. It is as if you are saying: I'm naked and vulnerable, but I can handle it. I am myself, my own person. And anyway, what's the worst that can happen?
All this is in my mind because I have just returned from a wonderful two-week holiday at a naturist resort in south-west France, namely La Jenny, which is on the Atlantic coast, about an hour west of Bordeaux. It was the sixth or seventh dedicated naturist holiday my wife and I have taken, so we are no strangers to the idea, but this time it was a bit different. Better.
One of the pleasures you get from naturism is the thrill - not a sexual thrill, but a real buzz - of being naked in a world that is otherwise geared up for clothes and usually insisting you are dressed. Basically, you feel like pinching yourself and saying: "Wow! I'm naked. And nobody cares. In fact, most of them are naked too, and it doesn't matter. This is so cool. And a bit daring and naughty."
And, no, I don't (and you wouldn't either) have an erection at this time. This isn't a sexual experience, but a highly sensual, life-enhancing, liberating, humbling moment in your life that is unlike any other.
If you are the kind of person who is happy to stay in the same location throughout your holiday (and the weather stays warm), perhaps just spending endless days by the pool, you could remain nude for two weeks or more, because clothes become completely unnecessary. But that's not us. Our holidays always involve exploring the local area by car or bike too, not wall-to-wall relaxing, so we have to dress at some stage, but this time around we spent longer than ever just chilling out. So there were several days when we never put any clothes on, which feels like it should earn you a badge (not that you have anywhere to pin it).
Even better: because La Jenny is next to a huge, beautiful sandy beach that is officially clothing optional, we were able to take long walks along the coastline, in both directions, for however many kilometres we felt fit enough to achieve on that day. Think escapism on steroids.
The naturist buzz I described above ("Wow! I'm naked!") is nearly always the predominant emotion, and very nice it is too, but this time we were so chilled-out and used to being nude that whatever novelty we were experiencing had all but rubbed off, and it was replaced with a true sense of nudity being the most natural thing in the world. Nude nirvana indeed.
Remember how I said naturism makes you feel close to nature? Well (hopefully without sounding too corny - because it is difficult to put this into words) this time, more than ever, we really felt that it wasn't just about being close to nature, but part of it. A merger, if you like.
The point of writing all this is to stress again (see a previous post) that you really can't imagine what it is like to be a proper naturist until you have tried it for yourself - so do it. And if you are being stopped by a partner who is reluctant to give it a try (probably because of mis-placed body image issues), help them understand the benefits, and take steps to overcome their reluctance.
So if it's not a sexual experience, what is this post doing on this site?
Well, if you read my previous post, you will understand something of the complex relationship between naturism and sex, and how they need to be treated as separate subjects, but converge in the end. In that post I said there is nothing better than getting naked for putting you in a relaxed and liberated mood that is perfect for sex, but if you can also experience that feeling of being at one with nature, sex is even better.
The kind of spiritual and (you could even argue) transcendental experience that comes with naturism is surely not unrelated to the tantric state that some people say can be achieved through sex. They are surely connected, and being at one with nature and - even more importantly - enjoying your own nudity is surely heading in the same joyous direction.
So if you haven't experienced what it is like to be a naturist yet, TRY IT!
Footnote: we are always happy to hear from naturists or answer questions/give advice to would-be naturists.
1 year ago