Category: clothes free

Naked Meditation 5. Active relaxation.

Here is another sort of active meditation for people who prefer one to the passive, sitting-down ones. This form of meditation is done lying down so for many people that is an attraction in itself. 😉

Lie down on your bed with your arms and legs spread out, not touching another body part.

bedmed(And try to keep your dog or cat away for this one! 😉 ) Close your eyes and focus on your breathing for a short while. As soon as your breathing is calm and relaxed, the meditation starts.

Focus on your left arm. “Know” that it is there. Feel how it rests on the bed. Feel how the muscles in your arm relax, how the tension seeps away from it. Notice your fingers relaxing as well. Keep your attention with that arm until you know it is entirely relaxed. The best way to know that is when your arm ‘feels’ heavy. Then you focus on your right arm and you repeat the process.

After that you focus on your right leg. (Notice that this is opposite from the arms where we started on the left. We’re going around our limbs in a circle.) “Know” that your leg is there. Feel how it rests on the bed. Feel how the muscles in your leg relax, first in your upper leg and then in your lower leg. Notice how the tension seeps away from it. Notice your feet relaxing as well, your toes and the sole of your foot. Keep your attention with that leg until you know it is entirely relaxed. The best way to know that is when your leg ‘feels’ heavy. Then you focus on your left leg and you repeat the process.

Now you focus on your lower torso; your abdomen, your hips. Feel how relaxation sets in as you pay attention to your lower body. Don’t hurry, keep your attention with your hips for as long as you need to. After that you focus on your chest, the muscles in your back and even your lungs. Calm them down, give them the attention they deserve. After all, they serve you all day long without asking for much. Envelope yourself with the serene calmness that you are bringing onto yourself. Your breathing will go a little slower once your chest area is calming down, that’s okay.

Finally you shift your focus to your head. Your forehead, the back of your head, your facial muscles. Slowly allow them to relax while keeping your attention focussed. After relaxing your head you go back to your left arm and confirm to yourself it is still relaxed and heavy. If you feel like it you can go over the relaxing attention routine again. Keep your focus on that arm and be grateful that it’s there. Repeat this for your right arm, right leg and left leg. Your limbs need that extra attention because they do so much for you every day.

After completing that second cycle you can remain silent on the bed for a few minutes, allowing your body to relax completely. Try to keep your awareness focussed on your body, on feeling the stillness that enters it. Any thoughts of other things that come up will have to wait until you’re done with this relaxation technique.

After a few minutes you can start moving the fingers of your left hand and slowly stretch that arm to come to the end of this exercise. After the left arm you move and stretch your right arm. Note that there is no reason to rush or hurry, take your time for this.

Wiggle the toes of your right foot next, and bend your knee a little. After that you ‘wake up’ your left leg in the same way.

Finally you consciously speed up your breathing a little to awaken the rest of your body. Stay down for a few more minutes. Then you open your eyes and slowly get up.

Naked meditation – 3. Another technique

Hello, and welcome back to meditations.

I hope you did your best at meditating over the last days. If not, that’s fine. Meditation is not a must. It should become a ‘want’ once you discover how good it feels and finally it turns into a ‘need’.

Many of you may have found that the first few times this meditating thing went quite well. Some may still struggle. It’s normal for the first few times to go well and then suddenly the whole thing becomes a mess.

You count to 3 and then thoughts are flooding in as if your personal Hoover Dam just broke, and there’s no stopping the bloody thing. Yes, sounds familiar. It’s normal. What happens is that your mind, the thing that’s been taught to be active all the time, suddenly notices you’re not paying attention to the gazillion thing it tries to tell you so it becomes oppressive. It will do what it can to annoy you and yells

LISTEN, DAMN YOU!

But take heart. Meditation will take hold. It will teach your brain to listen to you. Whenever this kind of flooding happens, or when random thoughts pop up, just tell your brain, your mind that it’s okay and that you’ll deal with that later. “but first we meditate.”

This can take a long time (I’m talking months, up to a half year) but as you go on and progress you will find that the practice gets better and easier.

As I promised, here is:

another form of meditation.

Again this is done sitting down. For this exercise you need an object, preferably a simple object like a cup, a mug or a simple vase.

vaseTake a few minutes to look at the object as it stands in front of you. Just look and see how it is shaped. Don’t turn it to see the other side, just picture the thing.

Then close your eyes and repaint that object, let’s stick with the vase, in your mind. Recreate the vase. The shape, the colour, the reflections on its surface (oh yes, there are reflections of light). You will notice that your mind starts yapping at you again, begging for attention.
Remember to tell yourself, “Sure, mind, you’ll get your attention. When we’re done here.”

And you return to the image of the vase in your mind. Keep creating it, improving it, making it as real as you can.

Keep your eye on the time you spend on creating that vase. Do this for about 5 minutes. Then look at the vase and see if you missed some details. If you did, great. You’ll notice them next time. If you had it perfectly shaped, well done too.

Feel free to try this meditation. It may suit you better than the counting one.
There is no need to stick with that first cup or vase, you can take different objects for repainting them in your mind. Just don’t take things that are overly complex or difficult. Meditation is meant to be easy so take easy subjects.

It’s boring.

The idea behind these forms of meditation is to bore your active mind. Your mind is meant to keep you busy but in these modern times it’s taking over too much. You have to be up and at it 24/7, if possible even more. That is insane and not what a human is made for. Alas, the economy demands it. You can resort to the Fukitol pill and just run with the flow, or you can meditate

Teach your brain to be quiet a few times per day so your inner Self, your Soul, pick your name for it, has time to breathe and make itself known.

This is the way you can tap into your Self. Your Self is something else than your mind. Your mind picks up things from outside you and acts on those. Your Self has lots of things to tell you, for instance creativity and understanding and love of nature. Scraping off the layers of stress that you gathered with all your mind-thinking will open up the way to that inner part of yourself. I hope you will persist in the practice and find out wonderful things about yourself you never knew existed.

Happy meditating!

Naked meditation – 2. Meditating

Meditation.
Hello there. Ready to learn a bit more about meditation? You’re at the right place then. Do note that this series of posts is going to cover a few very simple and basic ways to meditate. Ways that anyone can do.

As I said before you need a good place to sit, with as few distractions as possible (none would be optimal) and some time. More about time later though, let’s first get at the real thing.

Posture.
During these meditations you will sit.

Sit up straight but comfortable. It’s best not to cross your legs and hands or fingers so your blood flow is not blocked. Note that this is merely advice. If you really need or want to cross fingers, legs, eyes or anything else worth crossing, do so. Also sit up with your head up straight. Don’t sit in a way that you can lean your head back. That will trigger falling asleep very easily.

Meditation doesn’t look like something active but it is. It’s an activity inside you and that’s an important place to take care of.

The first meditation.
Sit down and close your eyes. Breathe in and out a few times and relax. This is an important introduction to the meditation. Once this is a habit, your body and mind will respond to it quickly and the relaxation will kick in faster. Now you are ready to do the actual meditation.

With your eyes closed and your breathing calm, slowly count from 1 to 7 in your mind. That’s all. Well, of course that’s not really all. The trick is that you don’t force yourself to count. Just count. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 1… 2… 3… oh, I need to think of the laundry/groceries/anything… damn, I’m not counting.
Yes, you will encounter something like this. That’s okay. Really. The reason that this happens is that our minds are forced to be active and ‘on’ all the time. The moment you start this simple counting your mind gets bored (trust me, it won’t take long) and it will start pouring out all kinds of stuff. It’s normal. When you do notice that you’re not counting don’t get angry. Just breathe in, breathe out and 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 1… etc. More thoughts will come. An itch will come. At some point you’ll probably hear something. Don’t worry. Accept this things, acknowledge them and then go back to breathing and counting.

Time. clock-20mins
There are 2 bits on time for meditation. One is: how long, and the other is when. To start this exercise you should plan about 5 minutes. That may sound short but this is new and you may get twitchy after a while. Remember: you are probably not used to sitting still this way so there is no need to overdo it from the start. Give it time. Once you feel it gets easier you can add time. Go for 7 minutes. 10 minutes. And suddenly you will find you can do this for 15 minutes. 15 to 20 minutes per session is good. Less is also good. At least you are meditating, and meditating means you’re scraping away at the layers of stress you’ve been accumulating over the years. Each scratch at that is a good thing. You are teaching yourself to be calm, silent, serene. You relax at a core level.

Note that you should not set an alarm for this. Alarms are clocks that force you to do things. You should not force the end of your meditation. Glance at a clock once in a while. If you meditate ‘too long’ that’s fine. It won’t hurt you.
Then the when: once a day is good, twice is better. A morning and an evening session is optimal. Of course you won’t always be able to do this but if you really want it and you start feeling the benefits of it, you’ll automatically want to reserve some time for meditating.

The end.
Once you end your meditation, sit still for another few minutes with your eyes closed. Feel how you feel inside. Stretch your arms and legs. Get the blood flow active again. Then open your eyes and start doing your usual things.
Congratulations. You’ve just meditated.

Next time (should be next week) I will tell a bit more on the background of meditation and introduce another form for if this one doesn’t work for you. In the meantime try to practise this form.

Are naturists the real freethinkers?

I’ve been pondering this. In a world where you find promotion to be the same, beautiful, following the same screams of fashion and think the same thoughts, it takes a lot of guts to step out of the defined order.
allthesame

As long as everyone is the same, do all they can to ‘fit in’ so they are part of the collective, there is a good handle for ‘higher up’ to get and keep control on the people. It’s where people become sheeple, all in the same colour of wool, and all saying beeehhh to the same tune.

They are part of the Borg collective, so to speak, all in the same hive, all under control of the Borg Queen.

The_Thinker,_Auguste_Rodin

And then there are these people who don’t conform to that all the time. Who take off their clothes and are naked among each other. Everyone in their own skin, colour, size, shape. Scratched and scarred, yes, but also honest about their appearance. Beautiful in their own way

Is it strange that The Thinker by Rodin (pictured here) is naked as well?

Naturists don’t always feel the need to fit in. They step out of the defined borders of ‘normal decency’ to keep their bodies covered all the time, preferably in the prescribed colours and fabrics of a lower Borg Commander.

That is why I wonder… are naturists the real freethinkers?

 

The Scientific Reasons Why You Should Just Always Be Naked

This is a full repost of a great article. Find the original at http://elitedaily.com.

Show a man with a gun… it’s called action. Show a man with a dick… it’s called indecent.

There’s something wrong with the way Americans have come to accept almost every aspect of the human condition except for the most natural one. We’ve accepted guns, drugs and violence, yet refuse to accept bare breasts and genitalia.

Put a man killing and raping women in a movie and it may go on to win an Oscar. Put a naked woman on the screen, and it won’t be allowed a nomination (take “Blue is the Warmest Color” for example).

We’ve become so desensitized to everything, but the one thing that makes us human. We’ve come to accept almost every negative aspect of human nature, yet refuse to condone the most natural state a human being can be — the nude.

With the recent craze of the health benefits of sleeping naked, I couldn’t help but wonder if there were more benefits we’re missing out on by always covering up.

Are nudists colonies onto something? Are we depriving ourselves of essential nutrients and benefits due to our perversion to the human body?

What would happen if we accepted our bodies the same way we accepted everything else? What would happen if we stopped covering up and started stripping down? What would happen if we all just let our bodies hang out in the open and didn’t hide them in dark worlds of porn, indecency and fetishes?

According to Matthew Westra, a psychology professor at Longview Community College in Missouri, “Nudity is a taboo in America because we primarily equate nudity or nakedness with sexuality and we have taboos about sexuality.”

This association between nudity and sex is exacerbated by the use of strip clubs and pornography that have come to represent a wrongful or sinful type of behavior that is only achieved in the nude.

There’s no denying Americans are prudish by nature. There’s also no denying, however, that if we could get past our childish perversions and accept nudity as a basic and natural human form, there would be a lot less “deviousness” and fewer obsessions with the human body — and we could all just stop caring so much about it.

When clothes come off, so do the stigmas

Things are only taboo because we make them that way. People only go searching for something they can’t have because its “illicit” status makes it intriguing.

If men, however, were exposed to nudity on a normal, everyday basis, they wouldn’t fantasize and obsess over it the way 14-year-olds do at the sight of their first breast.

According to Dr. Conrad Manning in his paper “Virtues of Nakedness: Physical & Psychological Health,” “By making nakedness an ordinary, matter-of-fact, common experience, unassociated with sexuality, the unhealthy prurient interest in pornography would be considerably lessened.”

Imagine if men were desensitized to the female body. Imagine if they didn’t feel the need to rip a woman’s clothes off to fulfill some fantasy they’ve created in their minds.

Imagine if men stopped putting all their time and energy into seeing women naked and just learned to live side-by-side with them?

Fewer clothes, fewer problems

Imagine if we lived in a world where bodies weren’t hidden under layers while models with “perfect bodies” ran around half naked? Imagine if we all just looked at each other the way God made us without any implications or idealized notions of the perfect body?

According to Manning, it’s our clothing that creates our insecurities and inability to accept and love each other the way we should.

We put materialistic value on the human form and it’s created mental illness along with body dismorphia and an undesirable environment for humans to live and communicate within.

Early exposure means early acceptance

Like anything, most of our neuroses and phobias form during childhood. But what if we’d grown up in a nude household? What if we’d been taught from a young age nudity is natural and the human body is beautiful?

Studying these effects in their book, “The Naked Child: Growing Up Without Shame,” Dennis Craig Smith and William Sparks found that children exposed to nudity from a young age became either unfazed by the human body later in life and sometimes, psychologically stronger because of it.

More studies were done on this topic. One study published in the Journal of Social Psychology by Marilyn D. Story examined 264 children and their parents. The results proved children raised around nudity grew up with a higher body self-concept.

According to Story, “coming from a nudist family played a more significant role in the children’s positive self body-image than their race, gender, or area of the country in which they lived.”

Baring your body means banning bacteria

In another paradox, humans donned clothing to keep away parasites and filth, yet only created breeding grounds for different types of infections and disease.

While clothes may seem like a way to keep the dirt off, we’re really only harming ourselves more.

In the study “A Naked Ape Would Have Fewer Parasites” published by the University of Reading, “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.”

Along with infertility rates and Lyme disease, clothes also contribute to yeast infections and UTIs in women. They are creating problems by trying to eradicate them.

Naked today, alive tomorrow

What if I told you shoes were causing you to lose brain function? What if not wearing shoes meant decreasing your risk for Alzheimer’s? What if stripping down the clothes meant adding up the years?

According to  Dr. Norman Doidge, “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.”

It seems arbitrary, but walking around barefoot increases brain flexibility. It doesn’t just make you feel young again, it makes your brain feel young again.

 

The dressed want to be offended…

Naked_humanIt’s true. The dressed are always looking for ways to be offended, like the overly religious people. Perhaps unconsciously but they do. A while ago I was out on the bicycle. Good weather for it, be it a bit warm and stuffy. At some point at a deserted side trail I decided to stop, take off the few things I had on and walk around au naturel for a little  to cool off and enjoy the bit of wind on my skin. Of course at that moment two elderly people cycled past the trail and caught a glimpse of me. I saw that they saw me. Oh well.

They came back and got off their bicycles. The man said, “You don’t do that.”
Me: “Sorry, you probably mean that YOU don’t do this. I do.”
Man: “You can’t do that. People can see you. You’re not normal.”
I told him that I had the law on my side as this was not a public road. Then I asked if it bothered them that I was naked. (I wasn’t making any moves to get dressed.) Man: “Yes, it bothers us.”
Me: “Does it bother you more now you see all of me than when you happened to come by?”Man: “Yes. Of course.”
Me: “Well, then you should not have come back.” At that they both looked very confused… I doubt they understood.

Clothes. Why.

Clothes

clothesYour clothes. You wear them.

Not because it’s cold but because you’re told to wear them.

There is a reason for clothes, but not all the time.

tight-clothes-250811Clothes, they are normal. Clothes are a must. You must cover your body for nude bodies are bad. Didn’t you know? Your body is vile, ugly, nasty, no one should see it.

For heaven’s sake.

clothes_too_tight_copyBut clothes limit your freedom. They hide who you are.

Well done you clothes-wearers, for with all your stripes and colours, your baggy trousers and your bulge, you all look the same.

Naked_humanWhy is nakedness shameful? Is there anything wrong with a healthy body? Why has the world gotten so obsessed with nudity that people are less afraid of a gun than of a naked man? Or woman?

Why do we need energy-devouring air-conditioners? To keep us cool underneath all those wonderful layers of clothes that keep us covered. People get nervous breakdowns over not being able to get the clothes that are in fashion.

Go naked. Your skin is always in fashion.

Reblogged: nakedly refreshed

by hontouniheart on June 19, 2015

Originally posted on clothesfreelife:

Last night I had an amazing time being out with a small group of women and sharing from the heart. Every now and then, the group of us get together and catch up on the latest changes in our lives. In the past, I have talked about some things, but last night, I really opened up and talked about things I never thought I’d confess to others in all my life.

This level of openness I credit to my clothes free life for a number of reasons. Firstly, being willing to sit with myself and see my truth, rather than run away from it or ignore it, is due in large part to my practice of being clothes free. I find healing peace is letting my truth breathe.

 Secondly, seeing myself clothes free and living my daily life clothes free has boosted my confidence. You know, I used to look in the mirror and think, “Yeah, I look OK, but as soon as I get those extra few pounds off and fix my hair and suck in my gut, that’s when I’ll really be there.” Now, I don’t place conditions on my beauty or awesomeness. I am wholly and completely beautiful and awesome right now, head to toe, inside and out. And that attitude is beginning to shift how I speak and share myself with others. It’s not, “I’ll be beautiful and great when I have my life together.” No, I’m beautiful, powerful and awesome right now even if I’m a hot mess, even when I make mistakes.

Thirdly, some of the things we, as a clothes free community, talk about with regards to public nudity laws and people’s reactions to our discussions of being clothes free or naked outside are actually helping me to be more mindful about how I share myself with others. We talk about some of the negative ramifications of being caught naked, including folks who immediately turn it into sex and impose upon others their sexual comments or images; shaming from family, friends or strangers; loss of jobs; incarceration and so forth. Being naked in heart is also a huge risk. Indeed, I had, perhaps a month ago, confided something in one woman, and she betrayed my confidence. In the same way that not everyone is ready to deal with clothes free life, some people don’t know how to respect or honor a naked heart. So, while I am feeling more powerful, confident and open about myself from my clothes free life, I’m also discerning more carefully when to take my soul’s clothes off and with whom to be naked in spirit.

Finally, having been clothes free in the presence of others now and seen how it can heal and inspire (see posts where I wrote about my mom and friend for instance), I am seeing how important it is to share openly and deeply, with discernment of course. I spent a lot of this year being secretive and closed off, worried about what people would think of me with regard to many aspects of my life. I just didn’t know who I could trust. But that hiding also made me feel hopeless and alone. Last night, in this trust circle, we women opened up to each other about some very intimate things on our hearts, and it was so healing and freeing to speak about our experiences. I was so freed up once I shared about things in my life, and it moved the others to hear me share. And I was incredibly touched and inspired by their bold and honest shares. We were so supportive of each other, and I left the gathering feeling free, empowered and grateful, and the others echoed similar sentiments.

This morning I feel refreshed and renewed after a night of healthy sharing with a great group women. It felt like our naked hearts spent hours at a clothes free spa just washing out, healing and being.

Freeing the nipple

(image courtesy of Twitter)

 

We all have heard of #FreeTheNipple, I am sure. I can’t wrap my head around the weird minds who think that a male chest is any better than a female chest. And to make it worse, it’s often the “christian” fanatics who go on about that. (I’m not a christian, in case you still wonder.) Their god apparently made man after his own image. If this image is restricted to ‘the man’, the male of the two genders, then something is wrong in that image, because there are two genders. That god should have been more careful and should not have created women. Which would of course imply that all men would be gay and procreation would be at least very interesting, which is another item in christianity. But I digress.

This blog-post appears because I support Free the nipple. We’re all people, we all have a body and we all should be allowed to show it. No nipple should be left behind fabric.

If you want to learn more, visit the Free the Nipple website.