The latest issue of the Naturist Society‘s N magazine has an article on naked yoga by Wendy Tremayne. You can find it here.
In yoga class you will often hear people greet each other with the word “namaste”. A direct translation is “I bow to you,” although the yogis use it to mean “The light (divine) in me sees the light (divine) in you.” When used this way we’re acknowledging the part of ourselves that is the same and we’re practicing yoga by bringing to life the philosophy that there is universality amongst all of life. As I approach my naked yoga class each week this greeting takes on greater meaning as I address my class, naked, human, part of nature, and as an extension of them and them of me “namaste.”
Tremayne offers her classes in New York City. If you’re on the other coast, San Francisco, there’ a similar opportunity: Doing it in the altogether is what makes this yoga practice altogether free from distractions.
This was the first yoga class ever for Kristin Johnson, 34, unemployed, from San Francisco.
“I wanted to approach yoga from a nonphysical, nonsuperficial way, because a lot of it is about cute outfits and competitiveness,” she said. “Doing it nude, I thought there wouldn’t be any of that. It would be internal, about me.
“Without clothes, I was able to move even more,” she said. “Man! Not having anything on is so freeing. I don’t know if I could do yoga with clothes on.”
There’s an active Yahoo group called yogabare that deals with naked yoga, for anyone who wants to look into it more seriously.
Originally published June 11, 2005