One of the most absurd, bizarre, and detached perceptions of our culture is clothing.

I’ve heard parents saying to other parents, “Oh, there are naked people over there. Don’t go over there with your children.”

I was graced with parents who I don’t remember subscribing to that mentality.

I remember being seven years old and changing after a swim.

I remember another girl being so shocked that I just took my bathing suit off without trying to cover my naked body.

When we look at a body, a naked adult body, as though it is sex, we are missing so much of what the body is.

And this is dangerous.

This causes a disconnection between ourselves and our own bodies, so that we’re just concerned with our appearance.

A disconnection between ourselves and our partner’s body, so that we’re not so interested in how they’re feeling.

A disconnection from our sensations, our connection with earth, with source.

If you struggle with feeling uncomfortable in your naked body around others, or around yourself, or in the mirror, it might help to remember what the body really is.

Truly, your body is so deep, so rich, so complex.

Your body holds memories. It is made out of source.

Your body is sensation.

Your body is a stream of sensation, just like in a dream. There is a whole world, united by sensation, existing, within your mind’s eye.

Your body is your own personal God.

When you are healthy and in harmony with nature, you can feel how good it feels to feel good in your body. Bliss. Connection.

When you are out of touch with yourself, when your emotions and your thoughts are out of alignment with your truth, your body will be out of alignment.

The naked human body, the exposed body, your exposed self, beautiful and scarred.

When you feel ashamed about your body malfunctioning, you are missing out on the opportunity to dive deep into the truth of what is.

You are disconnected from the wonder of how you are out of alignment.

You try to mask the body, to make the body feel better and look better, so you can get on with your life, with important things and pleasure, instead of pausing. To see, to tend to the body, when it is calling for our attention.

This is the most important thing you can do in this life.

When you hide your body in tight pants and painkillers, there are aspects of yourself that you aren’t seeing.

You are choosing unconsciousness when you rest your eyes on appearances.

When you hide your body in makeup and cosmetic surgery, you are giving too much of your energy away. Too much of your power to your fears of others’ opinions.

You are keeping yourself small, dependent on others’ approval. Obscuring self-knowledge.

Also, when you pride your bodies based on their appearances, as compared to a cultural aesthetic, you are hiding your uniqueness.

There is so much beneath the skin, the naked body.

And, even on the surface, so much more than sex.

I’d like for there not to be a distinction between a naked and a clothed human body; they’re both just human bodies.

De-emphasize this charge around nudity. Take away the word for “nature,” because it is only when there is concrete and streetlights that we have “nature” as something distinct.

I’m writing this to advocate that we examine stigmas, shame, and anxieties around nudity. We can change associations, excitement, and perception so that we can feel more empowered by the profundity of existence.

As a sensational human phenomenon, and so that when we meet other people, we are seeing their sensitivity, their humanness, their profundity—not just their sexuality.

When we meet other people, we are interested in their depths, because that’s what they are.

If we stay dancing on the surface of the earth, we’ll be here for a long time.

Dancing around the outskirts.

It’s fun, it’s flirtatious, but it’s adolescent, it’s immature.

And it obscures our awareness of our true nature.

Did we come here to planet Earth, on this magical, mysterious, incredible phenomenon of existence and life, just to hide?

Is that why we came here?

There’s so much to explore.

Inside of ourselves and one another.

There’s s o o o o  m u c h h h h.