On an early Spring day in March, when the weather was beautiful, I was out on the bike. I hit a forest with hardly any people around, found a secluded spot and grabbed the opportunity.
I spent an enjoyable hour there, lying in the sun, with nothing around me but trees, and nothing on me but sunlight and the occasional touch of the wind. It was fantastic, peaceful and quiet.
A big question for me will always be: Why don’t more people do this?
As I set off to go home, dressed to as much as textile decency requires, I suddenly had a realisation that I need to share with you all: how many people understand the sensory deprivation or even confusion that we put our bodies bodies through by hanging clothes on them so often? I had just had this wonderful experience of nothing but sun and a touch of wind. Now I was walking in the sunshine feeling too warm because of pants and a t-shirt (it was 20C/68F – too warm?), unable to feel the sun or the wind everywhere. Instead I felt the rubbing of clothes everywhere. Each time when I’ve had a naked, natural experience it gets worse to put on clothes it seems, and it takes longer before I’m “okay” with the feeling. “Okay” as in ‘accepting the inevitable nuisance’, not really ‘okay’. Non-nude people probably don’t even recognise the confused feeling of their body as it has grown so accustomed to the feeling of fabric, the tightness of some clothes, the squeeze in the privates area that inevitably happens when you wear clothes.
Is it any wonder then that people who go out naked for the first time find the experience strange? Their body isn’t hindered by the usual distractions, their brain registers the lack of the “normal discomfort” and kicks the panic button because the clothes come off.
Compare that to how the body of a naturist/nudist/nude-goer works. There the panic-button is pressed when the clothes come on.
I completely empathize with your observations. It is the same as swimming nude. Many people say that they do not want to go back to having to wear swimming trunks etc.
Exactly. It’s a matter of being through that first ‘feeling’ of unease that most people have. Once they’re past that they wonder why they didn’t do it earlier.