naked – Zjuzdme.org

Look how naked I am!

A clothie never said. Until now.

I kid you not. Watch and shudder over what I found.

Our enemy called Fashion has a new ‘moment’. The naked look.

What you see here is clothing with life-like nipples on it. Because printed nipples are fine, where real nipples are EEUW NO GO AWAY DIRTY PORN!

How much more crazy do we go?

Is this bad enough? Oh, look how naked I am… I found this on the Guardian.

“It’s a statement – I guess it’s that punk attitude of like, ‘We don’t give a fuck.’ If I want to wear something that looks like my naked body, I can.”
London designer Sinead Gorey

I am not sorry. This is not a punk attitude of ‘we don’t give a fuck’. If you don’t give a fuck, you go naked like real people. The no-clothes version.

The article says there has been a t-shirt like this before (although I don’t agree that this is in the same category as the idiocy up here).

Created by Vivienne Westwood, late 1970s

I couldn’t be more flabbergasted than when I saw all this ridiculous stuff.

Don’t these people have any shame??

Being naked. It’s like reading a book.

(and the textile world doesn’t get it.)

Paul reading — Reading,. Naked.

Maybe this subject requires a tad of elaboration.

Why do you read a book?

Right. Because you want to read it. Perfect reason.

And why are you naked?

Exactly. Because you want to be naked. Again: perfect reason.

I think that completes this blog post, doesn’t it?

Not entirely, because, as usual, there is more to this than the ‘naked’ eye can see. (Interesting phrase, that naked eye.)

Woman reading naked

I am convinced that one of the major misconceptions of the textilised humans around us is that they aren’t aware of the simple fact that we want to be naked for ourselves. It’s not for showing off or any other outgoing purpose – most of the time.

In fact, let’s be honest, most of us aren’t the model that would be ‘shown off’ in the textile world. They have different measures and standards, and they hide their own nature beneath their layers of fabric.

The subject title of this post suddenly came to me. It’s such a simple truth that I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it sooner. We eat and drink because we want to. We read because we want to. And we ‘naked’ because we want to.

There are many things that we do because we want to do them, and in general most people have the same wants, cravings and needs. Books being one of them. Put in that light, there might be a way to make the textile world understand us, provided they want to listen. Because many minds are made up, set in stone and locked behind the cast-iron doors, courtesy of their peers and leaders.

Let our fight never dwindle. Each person convinced that we’re not the loonies is a win. Each person who finally sees that wearing clothes when they’re not needed is silly, is a big win.

Let’s stay naked. It’s good. I could write a book about that…

Nak-ed dot org.

Yes, nak-ed.org is a website. I heard about it on the current latest Naturist Living Show Podcast.

What is nak-ed?

‘ED’ should be familiar to most American readers of this post. It stands for Education. And yes, you figured out by now that nak-ed.org aims to deliver NAKED EDUCATION.

This site, and more importantly, this documentary, was created by a Norwegian man called Jan Dalchow, an award-winning Norwegian producer and director of documentaries.

As stated on the About page, NAK-ED is a documentary project with the intention to break the norms around nudity and decrease body shaming.

Nak-ed is created as a documentary which can be seen on Youtube (heavily censored as you might expect) and on Vimeo, uncensored. The Vimeo version is going to set you back an incredible $3.00, which I doubt is a huge problem for many people. I’m going to watch the proper version. It’s almost 2 hours of video footage that Jan worked on for years. I’m very curious about it.

If you’re not certain yet, have a listen to the podcast and hear Jan Dalchow talk about his project.

Things you can do naked. Skydiving.

Things you can do naked.

Walking nude in the street — Frowned upon

Every serious nudist/naturist knows there are lots of things you can do naked. Not everything is ‘acceptable’ in our narrow-minded society, because simply walking down the street in the nude isn’t exactly something you see everywhere. Odd, because it’s one of the simplest things you can do in the nude.

Skydiving?

It’s probably not the first thing you’d consider but it’s done. And done often. Just give your favourite search engine a swing with ‘naked skydiving’ and you might be surprised about the number of hits.

nude skydiving — Nude skydivers.

Of course you can wonder why people do this anyway, regardless of their state of dress. Most people assume there is nothing wrong with the airplane so why would one jump from it?

Exhilarating freedom.

I can state that this is true. While I never had the opportunity to do this in the nude (alas, unfortunate, sad), I’ve done 2 tandem jumps and the thrill is beyond explanation.

A tandem jump is where you don’t learn actual skydiving but you’re hooked up to an experienced skydiver who does the real work. You do learn how to behave in the sky so the descent is safe.

Nude skydiving woman — Tandem jump.

Something to consider is that it’s cold. You start the jump from quite high and no matter how hot the weather is, it will be cold or at least chilly. I’d love to experience that, though. The rush of being so free, ‘floating’ in the air without any ropes attached, and seeing others fly around like that is amazing.

The need for speed?

Granted, you ‘float’ downwards at an insane speed. When you do a normal, controlled jump, you’ll go down with speeds around 180 km per hour (112 mph). I think that’s fast enough for a naked person. Trained skydivers who perform a ‘speed dive’ (limiting the air resistance as much as possible) can reach up to 320 km/hour (almost 200 mph).

Do you remember Felix Baumgartner?

Felix Baumgartner

In 2012 made the highest and fastest recorded skydive ever. He started at 39 km (24 miles) and during his drop he reached a speed of 1342 kph (834 mph). Hardly the location and speed to do naked, but I thought I’d let you know about this anyway. It might give you a challenge. 😀

Challenges.

Some people take on nude skydiving for a challenge. Here’s a video of a young man named James Young who accepted such a challenge to raise money for a good cause:

He raised £1000 with this jump!

Would you do it?

Nude or naked?

Some of you may know that I write books. Writing books and stories means you have to consider the meaning of words carefully.

Considering the words ‘nude’ and ‘naked’.

They both refer to the state of being undressed, uncovered, clothes-free, yes. Still, to me they have a different charge as it were. Wikipedia’s take on these point to the same thing. Nudity. To me there is however an underlying difference.

What nude is to me.

ZMDSC01418

To me this is nude. You may argue that I’m naked in this picture so let me explain. When I am nude, I’m undressed, I appreciate it to the max and I am ‘in my power’. I am undressed by my own choice and proud of my state of being. When I took this picture it wasn’t warm. There was fog all around. Still I felt wonderful there, in nature, one with the elements of the moment. That is when you are in your centre of power.

What is naked to me.

caught_naked

Here is an example of someone I think is naked. It’s the ‘oops’ moment, the shyness, the not wanting to be seen like this.

It is when someone feels exposed and vulnerable.

Look at it this way: when you are nude and you walk around in the rain when it’s not cold, that’s all fine. You’ll get wet but you won’t shiver, you don’t feel bad.

When that same rain comes over you and it starts getting cold, you’ll feel naked. Exposed and vulnerable because this is not pleasant at all.

Note that this is just one example.

Naked does not always mean you’re weak.

Absolutely not, unless you make yourself weak. Having the courage to make yourself vulnerable is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of a different kind of strength. The world live in is a hard place where being weak is frowned upon. You have to be strong, in armour, fast and in control. Daring to be naked means you dare to be yourself, to be a real person who doesn’t want to be strong all the time. Trying to be strong all the time will wear you out on an emotional level or even detach you from your emotions. You become a machine, a robot.

Naturists and nudists, as far as I have met and talked with them, have the deliberate ability to go beyond that trap. They bare themselves. They make themselves naked as well as nude. They want to be vulnerable. Go into the mountains where you encounter nothing but sharp rocks and take off your clothes there.

ZMRocks — Me on the rocks in Wales

See? You are vulnerable. This doesn’t mean you’re weak. This just means you acknowledge you’re not made of iron and you understand how thin your skin is, especially when you scrape against that rock.

The vulnerability is where you put it.

As you see, there are more ways to feel vulnerable. Good ways and bad ways. Getting caught in something you shouldn’t do makes you vulnerable, even when you’re completely dressed. The power of allowing yourself to be vulnerable, naked, is something different. You bring that upon yourself. You say to the world, “Yes, this is me as I am. Naked, unprotected.” That kind of vulnerability should gather respect. It does from me.

naked-and-afraid-cambodia-2

It’s entirely different from the popular TV series ‘Naked and Afraid’ where people put themselves in danger willingly.

I certainly respect the courage of the people who do this, but I don’t respect their nakedness as the kind I described earlier.

Be nude, dear friend. And dare to be naked. It makes you more complete as a human.

Paul.

(This post appeared originally on ClothesLifeFree. I thought it important enough to share it here.)

Skyclad

What is ‘skyclad’?

According to Wikipedia:

In Wicca and Paganism/Neo-paganism, the term skyclad is used to refer to ritual nudity. Some Wiccan groups, or Traditions, perform some or all of their rituals skyclad.

Right, you probably wonder why I made you read that.

Pagans

I’m a Pagan. Pagans are folks who don’t follow any of the large religions with just one god. Enough of that, though, this post is about being skyclad. Being nude, obviously, clothed in sky.

skyclad-women And this is a way how pagans can perform their rituals. Skyclad.

Not all of them do. It’s a matter of choice.

Why do I bring this up? Well, on the friend of all naturists and nudists, Facebook (I’ll wait for all the laughter and boo-calls to end now…) I had an interesting discussion with a Wiccan friend of mine concerning burkinis.

You know, those unfriendly slabs of cloth that Islamic women can wear to beaches. She said that she was in favour of them because that way those women could go to the beach if they wanted. “Because everyone has the right to go to the beach the way they want.”

I asked her how she felt about nude beaches. Her response was that such a thing wasn’t right, because “at some point there is enough naked flesh“.

People at nude beach This of course made me ask her how that mixed with her previous statement about having the right to go to the beach the way you want. This, she said, was a matter of common decency. Because being naked wasn’t decent. (Note that I know she has done plenty of skyclad rituals.)

The minds of people and their attitude towards our lifestyle keep surprising me. Even someone who isn’t against nudity in one form can pull back from nudity in another form.

Safety

I think it has to do with safety. Someone who engages in a nude ritual does so with people (s)he knows, feels safe with. People like us, who engage in nude life do so with people we know and feel safe with. We have the advantage here because we don’t have such a tiny group of people we dare to trust.

safety

Naturists and nudists are nude for (mostly) a common goal: not wearing clothes. For feeling free. For experiencing nature in the most optimal way. The way I like to do that is having nude walks. As many as I can. Along beaches, in forests, in the mountains. As long as I can feel the air on me, move without being hindered by cloth and such.

Skyclad on a beach on Fuerteventura

I wonder if you, the reader of this piece, have experiences with people who condone nudity in one way but are very opposed to it the other way. I’d like to hear about them.

And in the mean time: stay happy, be nude as much as you can.

Ancient castles

Back from vacation.

You probably noticed I am back. No more England nor Wales, no more driving on the left side which is the right side there (will this joke ever get old? Not with me!). And no more ancient castles.

Ancient castles.

castle Say what you want but ancient castles are special. Huge blocks of stone, hundreds of years old, built with primitive means and still standing. (More or less in many cases, due to neglect.)

How long would the average modern house stay upright?

The castle here is called Dolwyddelan. It’s located in Wales and I can only guess how one properly pronounces it since Welsh is a language that consists mainly of consonants. Any vowel found there is usually a mistake. The door at the top of the stairs had a lock on it but the lock didn’t keep the door locked. For me of course the best reason to go inside and have a look!

Llewellyn I.

This castle was built by order of prince Llewellyn I. When it was a home to people it looked a lot better than it does now, and bigger too. Still I wouldn’t want to live in their circumstances. Hygiene, cold, smells, to name a few things that weren’t too big a deal back then.

Inside the Castle

And since I was the only there at that time (a few people I met in the parking lot told me they had seen a lock and decided the door was locked) I took the liberty of roaming the inside of the castle in the nude. If you have the opportunity you should grab it. How many people can say they wandered around an ancient castle in the buff? I can.

Naked meditation – 6. Progress

Welcome to part 6, probably then end of this short and simple trip into the world of meditation. How are you doing? Are you feeling more comfortable with meditating? Do you experience anything out of the ordinary?

If you want you can post your experiences here in the comments. If you feel unsure that’s a good idea you can of course always drop me an e-mail.

Note for norther hemisphere people: the weather is getting colder now. If you notice that meditating isn’t going that great because you focus on shivering, be smart and pull a blanket or so around you.There’s no need to feel cold while meditating – in fact that won’t help you at all. Don’t use anything restricting like clothes: a blanket will work. You’ll be naked and warm beneath that.

Notice:

If you already feel that this form of meditation is not working for you, that’s okay. Perhaps you are not one for a “sitting still meditation”. You can look for a yoga class near you and practise the forms you learn there naked, at home. Or you might even find a naked yoga class near where you live. Just don’t give up on this form of meditation too quickly. As I said before, it may take weeks or even months for your overloaded mind to accept this peace and quiet-stuff as a good thing. It will happen.

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.

vase Take 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.
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.