I clearly remember sitting around a table discussing our weekend plans when Monty said that he would be taking me to a tree to pose naked that evening. He said he knew I didn’t care if I was body painted or just butt naked. In my head I laughed a little and was quite nervous to go down to the beach and strip naked at a popular sunset spot! It is not that I don’t care but that I have realized my once conservative beliefs on nudity are rather silly and have no basis.
But here were my next thoughts while contemplating if I was up for the task. There is no aspect of my life that I strive for the approval or acceptance of others so why should I follow societies beliefs on nudity when I don‘t even know where they come from? To me being nude is our natural state and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is not “perverted” or “dirty” unless that is what YOU have decided to believe. If you look back through history, nudity used to be embraced and accepted. I am not sure when it became so offensive and highly sexualized. Yesterday one of my friends changed her profile picture on facebook to her daughter’s sandy naked bum on the beach. When does nudity go from being cute baby bums or beautiful works of art to being something we are supposed to be ashamed of?
The human body is a beautiful work of art and should be appreciated not criticized. As a fitness trainer I have always believed that if we were always nude we would take much better care of ourselves. I don’t actually know why we wear clothes except for that it is “normal”. I don’t care about being normal. I would rather question, explore, be myself, and follow my heart. We have to step outside of our comfort zones in order to grow and in this moment, I was ready.
But now the photos are out and I am feeling a little exposed and like judgment day is here. There is no mask to hide behind and all my imperfections are revealed but I have quickly discovered that I don’t mind being judged because I understand my beliefs now and am comfortable with my actions. The hardest things in life require daily practice; changing and letting go of beliefs, loving unconditionally and without expectation, and quieting the ego can all be difficult tasks. For me these pictures represent my daily practice of challenges I am working on but to others they probably don’t represent anything, they are just me - raw and exposed.