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Baring it All with Naked Yoga
By Elizabeth Penning

As its name implies, naked yoga is practicing yoga without any clothes on. This routine has greatly becoming a popular form of yoga, especially in western communities that are emphasizing the benefits of getting into one's total self by shedding off material attachment and disguises and appearing in a group of people comfortably and proudly of one's totality. A lot of naked yoga practitioners do their exercises at home, but lately, more and more people are engaging in naked yoga classes.

In the past two decades a plethora of old yoga traditions have been introduced to the mainstream. The renaissance of age-old yoga practices has been a very welcome phenomenon among yoga enthusiasts and among the wide array of ancient yoga practices that has been revived was naked yoga or nudist yoga despite the relatively queasy disposition of the present generation.

Naked yoga was introduced in the Western world around the 1960s when it has been integrated into wellness programs of progressive centers such all over the US like the Esalen Institute based in California. In fact, naked yoga has been featured in some films back then such as Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1968), The Harrad Experiment, and the appropriately titled Naked Yoga (1974). However, the practice was rather sparse back then.

In the US, a sizeable population of both men and women has rediscovered yoga as a great activity to relax the mind and find inner peace. The number of people who practice naked yoga has been increasing steadily throughout the years, resulting into the proliferation of many naked yoga classes, where people are free to shed off their clothes and be one with their selves and among other practitioners.

By 1998, a group known as “Midnight Yoga for Men” has been instituted in New York by American yogi known as Jayadev, involving participants who practiced the yoga style called sadhus in the buff. This instigated the proliferation of emulators. A lot of this exclusively male naked yoga gathering has been very much linked to the gay community, however, they were often not formed intentionally that way. Other cities followed suit such as in San Francisco, led bay George Monty Davis, and in Chester and Basking Ridge, New Jersey led by Ernesto Bustamante.

The principles of naked yoga can be traced back to the ancient form of yoga known as Tantra. Like the other types of yoga, Tantra aims to promote total health improvement, including one's most innate and instinctive energies. In Tantra, practitioners may also be naked as the exercises focuses primarily on the sensual and sexual nature of each person, without necessarily doing the sexual act.

It can be expected that the people of today may find being naked amongst others, especially strangers, a violating activity. But this does not mean they could not practice naked yoga. They can take personal lessons with yoga instructors they trust or they can follow naked yoga videos that are becoming quite widely available. This allows people to practice naked yoga in the privacy of their home.

Several variations of naked yoga are also becoming in-demand. A lot of naked enthusiasts have been suggested to practice the exercise on the beach to shoot two birds with one stone by practicing yoga and being able to get a good tan as well. However, this is not yet a very widespread practice as permissions are needed to be able to do naked yoga on the beach.

Perhaps the most accepted variation of naked yoga is couples' naked yoga. This form of naked yoga is deemed to increase intimacy among couples. It has widely been practiced as a way to help couples enhance their sexual compatibility.

Being in the nude, a lot of naked yoga sessions aim at enhancing one's sexual facilities. This makes naked yoga a very good practice for couples, especially for those who find their sexual compatibility lacking. Not only does naked yoga help enhance people's libidos, they also help couples to get to know each other more than ever. It helps couples discover parts of their sex lives that do not focus so much on the intercourse, but more on intimacy and togetherness.

If you want to stay fit and at the same time be totally comfortable about yourself, then perhaps naked yoga is a good activity for you. To know more about naked yoga, check out the various websites dedicated to this noble art.

Author Details:
Elizabeth Penning, copywriter for various web sites writing articles about natural health and other related subjects.

Article Source: Articles from Simply Top

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