Click Here for Real Nude Yoga:

If you clicked here hoping for some juicy article on sweaty naked people practicing yoga, or perhaps a few images of a cute nude practitioner doing happy baby pose, you are shit out of luck!  The real nude yoga I am speaking about is not the one where the same mat your uncovered butt crack is sitting on in meditation is exactly where your face will be landing in child's pose. No, the nude yoga I am talking about is our practice completely naked of our concepts, judgments, labels and expectations. The raw, honest, direct experience of ourselves, just the way we are, on our mat.
Many of us bring so much to our mat - our habitual patterns, our way of dealing with ourselves and trying to impress others, and so much more. In fact, as a yoga instructor I see it all the time! Students shamefully laughing off the wobbly leg in warrior three, or others getting angry for falling out of headstand. Even worse are those who don't ever begin the practice because they are "not flexible,” somehow believing this means they can’t begin a yoga practice. Ideas, ideas and more ideas! Throw them all away and get naked! Not literally if course, but naked of all the extra clothes of our minds!

So how do we get naked in our practice? How can we strip away the ancient habits of our thinking mind? It’s as simple as feeling our body and breath, moment by moment – pose by pose. Feeling our way through practice (rather than thinking our way through it) is the best way to deepen our practice, and to bring together our body and mind. As we’ve all heard before, the word yoga usually translates as “to yoke,” or “to bring together.” When we are clothed in our thoughts and ideas there is duality and separation from the direct, raw (naked?) experience of our practice. This means we are far from the unity which yoga practice originally intended for us.   

We must learn to work with one pose at a time honestly, directly, and compassionately, keeping in mind our yoga practice is simply an expression of how we live our lives. The reactions and habits we practice everyday will ultimately follow us to our mat. If we believe we aren’t good enough, our practice will also never be good enough. If we are always trying to be better, or always have to be the center of attention, so it will be on our mat. But the good news is the fruit of our practice can and will leak into our daily lives. This is the transformational aspect of yoga! So if we want to live more directly and love more deeply, then we must practice those qualities on the mat! If we want to be less judgmental of our self and others, we must practice!

I personally struggled for many years with an insatiable urge to impress others. This came from a belief that I was lacking something, and I used the approval of others (amongst many other methods) to fill that void. Once I began to practice, I brought these techniques of escaping the lonely, empty feelings to my mat. I would stay in the front of the room, of course wearing a sleeveless shirt to show off the gun show, and would throw in arm balances and handstands - any chance I could get so all could see the difficult poses I could do. Go me! As my practice deepened and I matured spiritually, I began stripping away all of these beliefs, finally coming face first with my deep-seated, empty feelings of isolation. It took many years for me to become naked and feel fully all the things driving my personality “flaws,” but I now feel much lighter and freer. My practice now is much more naked, but luckily for everyone else practicing with me, my nudity is only spiritual!

We must ask our self often, what type of yoga are we practicing? Are we naked and free, or are we clothed with judgments, labels, expectations, and ideas? Strip away the extra stuff and connect with what's left.

I wish you all well on your journey back to yourself.