Confidential Confidence

 In looking back over past entries, I write in a very casual, blithe manner about being a naturist.  Am I really one of these liberated, uninhibited persons?  In my wildest dreams, I never imagined the day would come in my life when I would join a social gathering wearing nothing more than a smile.  I never thought about or had the desire to be a naturist for the majority of my life.  I was presented with a circumstance that forced my hand somewhat into an introduction to the naturist life.

Granted, it didn't take me long to feel okay with it.  I would have felt a lot more gung ho from the beginning had I felt better about how I looked.  For some time after my baptism of fire, so to speak, I steadfastly maintained that I revisited the state of undress for my husband's sake alone.  At some point something changed for me and I realized this was something I was doing for myself as well, but why?  What do I get out of being a naturist?

I have mentioned previously in other entries the need to feel comfortable and secure to be able to come forth and stand naked among other people.  These people seemed to be supremely confident and happy with themselves.  For a great many years of my life, I lacked confidence in myself.  When I began to experiement with naturism, something very interesting began to happen.  For the first time in my life I felt a sense of empowerment.  I already confessed it was necessary for me to get into better shape physically before I could feel truly comfortable naked.  This is not necessarily so for others I've since met. 

Becoming a naturist caused me to feel a sense of awe towards my female body; more so than I'd ever felt before.  I began to really like the way my body looked.  We're all so critical of ourselves~our own worst enemy.  Adopting a naturist lifestyle has allowed me to grow in terms of self-esteem which has affected other facets of my life.  I am more secure with who I am as an individual.  I've become more vocal and assertive in my workplace.  Naturism has brought these strengths to me.  If I can mingle socially with naked folks, I can do just about anything.  It's a powerful rationalizer.  Admittedly, this is a unique way to acquire these traits but different methods work for different people and the lucky ones are simply born decisive and confident.

It is said that we must love ourselves in order for others to love us.  I believe this to be true.  Naturism makes me feel like a person worthy of love and respect.  It makes me feel more like a member of the family of man than anything I've yet to encounter.

 

Wearing Nothing But A Smile, A Suitless Birthday

What better way to celebrate a birthday than wearing nothing more than your birthday suit for the occasion?  Makes perfect sense to me!

Saturday, August 14th, was my 51st birthday and my husband took me to our special hot springs to spend the day.  It was a wonderful day.  He spent the whole day catering to me.  We whiled away the day together lolling in tubs of warm mineral water, steaming our cares away in the steam room and basking in the dry warmth of the sauna.  Throughout the day he gave me foot rubs, leg massages and congenial pats of affection and appreciation.  Every caress made it quite clear that even though I turned 51 in the chronological sense, my husband continues to regard me as a healthy, attractive, desirable mate.  There's life in this old girl yet!

We had a light lunch to save room and a hearty appetite for dinner.  My husband has become quite an excellent cook over the years and his grilling talents have become legend.  My birthday dinner consisted of grilled kabobs of large shrimp and Ahi tuna pieces marinated in his homemade teriyaki sauce, slices of a homegrown Heirloom tomato dressed with olive oil, rice vinegar and sprinkled with crumbled feta and a loaf of garlic peppercorn bread with warm herbed olive oil in which to dip it.  We shared a festive bottle of  Schmitt Sohne 2002 Riesling, one of my current favorite summer wines, to complete this festive feast.  No birthday celebration is complete without at least the hint of a birthday cake.  At the meal's end I was presented with a Hostess Cupcake.  Perfect.  I don't think I've eaten one of these in at least five years; it'll be another five years before I consider another.

All the while we were enjoying our meal, a lively discussion and genial merriment was coming from several people seated at the table next to us.  A brief moment of blatant eavesdropping informed me that one of the women was celebrating her birthday as well.  Truly, this was a woman who knew one of the best places in the world to celebrate a birthday.

I entered this world naked and unashamed 51 years ago, the very physical result from a loving union between my parents.  I enjoy the fact that I'm currently willing and able to visit available places and return to being naked and unashamed in the prime of my adulthood and glory in that brief element of chance that allowed for my existence on this Earth.  My continued practice of living the life of a naturist is my ongoing gift to myself.  I shall indulge for yet another year.  It was a very happy birthday.

                          

Naturism: Questions and Answers

Are some of you who are reading this vicarious naturists?  I suspect you are.  If so, why?  What's holding you back from at least trying this exhilarating experience--once?  I believe I know many of the reasons and have a response for each of them.

1.  "I could never be naked around other people.  I'm too _______ (fill in the blank) thin, fat, young, old, tall, short, scarred, big, small, flat, busty, etc."

We all come in different shapes and sizes.  Thank God.  We all have our dings and dents and assorted souvenirs of life's experiences.  Those eight or so people that consistently appear on magazine covers aren't as perfect as they seem either.  We'd all look fantastic with someone continually working on our face, body, hair, make-up and if we were perpetually standing in front of a fan to make our hair look "just right".  Come on, people!  This isn't reality!

2.  "I'd feel so uncomfortable without my clothes on".

Of course you would--for about 15 minutes or so.  We all did and once we got past that time frame, it was okay forever after.

3.  "My wife, friend, significant other would never want to do that!"

How do you know?  Did you ever ask?  Are you sure?

4.  "What would my family and friends say if they knew I was doing this?"

If you choose to tell them in the first place, a great many of them would probably think you were a brave, gutsy soul.  Some would be envious and begin to wonder "why couldn't I do that?"  When all's said and done, do you really care?

5.  "Why on Earth would people want to run around without their clothes on in the company of perfect strangers?"

The strangers don't stay "strange" for long and I'm willing to bet you'll discover some of the nicest people you've ever met once you experience a clothing-free environment.  Naturism seems to attract warm, caring, happy people.  They have little else to win you over but a big smile and an innate confidence and pride in being a member of the human race.  It's very refreshing.

I know these things to be true.  Not too long ago, I was asking some of these questions.  It's summertime and warm in most places.  If you're even the wee bit curious about what it would be like to experience the utter freedom of life without the bonds and restrictions of clothing, try it while the thought is still fresh and alive in your mind.  Don't let it become a thought that gets relegated to the back burner of your brain ending up as nothing more than a faded memory of "I wish I had...."

In Search of...Positive Body Self-Image

I grew up in a modest household, not puritanically so but modest just the same.  Like all children, I was curious about how grownups looked undressed, both men and women.  My mother had several nursing textbooks that showed pictures of naked people but since there was always some sort of disease or skin problem being illustrated, these weren't too helpful.

I tried to satisfy my curiosity in the usual manner of kids; a stolen peek at the pages of an unattended Playboy magazine and, of course, art books.  We had lots of these books in my house.  Early on, it struck me that renditions of the female form were definitely more prevalent than male ones.  As for observing male anatomy, all I had to go on for years was a picture of Michaelangelo's statue of David and, frankly, that didn't offer a whole lot of enlightenment.  Once when I was quite young, I walked in on my father unintentionally while he was undressing.  I was out of the room so quickly he didn't even know I'd been there or seen him.  What I did see in that brief moment stayed with me a long time.  I was embarrassed and shocked.  I was also both fascinated and repelled.  Had he known I had seen him, I think my dad would've been embarrassed as well.  Why is this the initial reaction to seeing a naked individual?

I recall a picture of one painting in particular that I found very interesting.  It was of a woman stretched out languidly on a red flowing piece of material alongside a river or stream.  She was relaxed or she may have been asleep and she was completely naked.  Peering out from behind a tree she was lying next to was a rather nasty looking little man.  He was staring at her and the lurid expression on his face clearly showed that his intentions were not honorable.  However, at my young age, I didn't have a clue as to what he might've been thinking.  This picture held my attention for years and it was only a few days ago that the memory of it bubbled up to the surface of my memory.

I recall the woman in the picture as being beautiful with a lovely body.  She was neither slender nor Rubenesque.  She was perfect in my eyes.  I think the look and shape of this female subconciously became my ideal, how I wanted to look when I grew up.  This didn't quite happen!  When I was growing up, I didn't think about it but there's a great deal of mystery about the human body.  Children who grow up in nudist households don't share this curiosity.  To them, the sight of a naked man or woman is as natural as breathing.  The bodies they see are those of ordinary people, not air-brushed perfectly sculpted forms.  This allows acceptance of varied body types as well. 

I'm not quite sure exactly where I'm going with this.  Perhaps if we grew up seeing all sorts of body types and accepting them as normal, there wouldn't be this obsession with extreme weight loss and the constant pressure to try to look exactly how society has deemed we should.  Not many of us have what our current culture calls a beautiful body.  We owe it to our health to try to take care of the bodies we inhabit; so many people don't.

Embracing a naturist lifestyle enables you to see that we all look pretty much alike and I find comfort in that.