Have you ever wanted to get bendy in the buff? Well, I tried naked yoga the other day and here’s what I thought about the experience. Naked yoga doesn’t need to be anything riské, but can be done alone in the privacy of your own home, with nothing but the most basic equipment – your body and your yoga mat.
The articles are circulating out there, about how sitting for long periods of time is one of the worst things for your health. I’m so active that I have a hard time sitting still and make it a point to move my body every couple of hours. And besides, it’s the perfect reason to schedule some physical and dynamic movement into the day.
Good ideas come in the most unexpected ways (and at the most unexpected times)
The other day, after sitting at my desk for a full morning of work, I looked across the room and out of the window –the sun was shining brightly, and the weather was warm. My body was feeling a slightly stiff from a gym workout with weights the previous day. I only take pain relievers when it’s an absolute must, and one of the natural ways I prefer to alleviate soreness is by stretching and doing yoga poses. That’s when the idea of doing a naked yoga session came into mind.
To give you a little bit of background information, I haven’t participated in a group yoga class over the last few years for a number of reasons: the first is that I have practiced yoga in a class settings hundreds of times and have a very good knowledge of most poses and the correct posturing for each one. Another reason is that with a busy work and training schedule, I don’t want to waste my time in transit to classes. Not only has it been easier, but I enjoy the solitude of my ultra-private practice.
It’s nice doing yoga on your own every now and then
I find that sometimes we, as a society, are obsessed with the need of doing things in groups and paying for those group classes to boot. Let’s face it, all of those classes can add up into a serious expense. With a lack of FOMO and a little discipline, you might find too that you don’t always need to spend money on this type of thing.
So, for all of the following reasons: seeing the sunshine brightly, feeling a warm breeze, hearing the wild parrots in the palm tree tops, saving money, enjoying alone time, it just seemed like the right time to do naked yoga. And with that thought, I stood up, disrobed, and took my mat outside.
My solo naked yoga experience
Fortunately, I have a large, open, and airy veranda that’s filled with beautiful plants and is private. Other homes are nearby, but no one can see into the space where I set up – except for the birds flying by – only they would have that privilege to peer down upon my private naked yoga practice.
With an open heart and open mind, I unfurled my yoga mat into a sunny block on the balcony. I said hi to my potted green and flowery friends and laid down on the mat in a supine position, centering a few minutes before starting my series of sun salutations, forward bends, side stretches, child’s pose and floor work. Doing yoga in the sun served a twofold purpose – the sun warmed my skin in the most wonderful way, all the while I was literally warming up. It felt great to stretch the body without hindrance from sports bras and technical clothing – just the way it was as you were born into this world.
Final thoughts and where do I take private naked practice from here?
Should you try naked yoga in the sun, please don’t do it all the time, lest you’ll need to slather on swabs of SPF, which would be gross. But I can attest, first-hand to the fact that a simple, fifteen-minute naked yoga practice in the sun will do your body good and send your spirits high. The very act of doing it made me giggle to myself at first.
Well I don’t honestly know if I would ever try a naked yoga class, frankly, I don’t feel the need to since doing it alone (and with the birds) was a sufficiently fulfilling experience. Now that I’ve done naked yoga in a warm and sunny place, I guess the next thing would be to try it in a cold and snowy environment – I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes, when the time comes. Until then, bottoms up!