Although yogis are pictured as Indian guys sitting in a Lotus pose, more and more nice yoga nudes appear on the internet, developing health, body positivism, and freedom. Some call it art; some think such pictures pollute the yoga philosophy. So, I decided to learn more about this. If you’re up for some out-of-the-box thinking, read on.
Naked Yoga: Little History
Being naked in a yoga class is not a new thing. The spiritual practice of naked yoga is known since the 7th -10th centuries in India. Being a part of religious rituals and ascetic practices, nudity was a way to reach higher spiritual goals.
5 Ways Baptiste Power Yoga Will Change Your Life
It gained more popularity in western countries in 1960 along with a free spirit of hippies. And the development of a back-to-nature look in a yoga class proceeded in 2001, mixing practices on Kundalini, Tantra, and Ashtanga yoga styles in one. In present days, naked yoga classes are found in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, and London.
Nude Yoga Art: What Is It?
So what is considered “art”? According to Wikipedia, art is a way to express one’s beauty, ideas, or emotions via materialistic objects. Without a doubt, the human body is a perfect art material for creation.
By practicing yoga, you improve your physical appearance and range of motion. You can sculpt your body and get it in the most unbelievable form possible. And if you want to express yourself using your body, the only thing is what a message to the world is? And here, the more yogis, the more ideas to express.
What Nude Yoga Art Can Offer?
Breaking Rules and Having Fun
I came across a blog of yoga flocke body art and was stunned by what I saw there. My mind stuck trying to categorize this blonde girl curled in a pretzel and dressed in some lace lingerie. What is it – yoga practice or yoga porn? To be honest, the first call was to judge (which is a no-no thing for a true yogi). Some photos do look too sexy, and I’m not the one who likes to watch females Muladhara’s wide open.
But as I read yoga flocke posts, I have found a fourth series, Ashtanga yogi, with some fun attitude to death, life, and fun between those two dates we are all going through. And this proves the only fact that our mind is still too conditioned and caged in stereotypes. And those who dare to break the rules make you consider another way of perceiving your body and attitude to life.
Self-Acceptance and Body Positivism
Another example of naked yoga art is Nude Yoga Girl – a creator of a nudamag. She is a former model sharing her photos shaped in yoga asanas to popularize body acceptance. Black and white pics on her profile don’t show off any intimate parts of the body and look quite aesthetic. She promotes self-acceptance and love for the body.
Just to add that with the growing level of food disorders, when teenage girls aim to exhaust their bodies with diets the tendency to accept your own imperfect body may be a healthy one. So, nude yoga art popularized via social media is a great thing to make the world better.
Advocate the Body
The number of porn sites that appear on Google as I searched for “yoga nude art” was impressive. And that makes me think that the human body is taken as a sexual object in the first place. Nude yoga classes still offered online and offline aim to dissolve this stereotype.
What Yoga Is Best for Weight Loss?
In such a class, you can stay in a safe environment not related to the sexual context. The human body and especially nudity often lay under tons of fear and shame. Years of body rejection in western cultures make some people take their bodies as something that needs improvement or punishment.
Nude yogis promote a loving and caring attitude to the “temple of your soul.” You can feel OK in your own body and skin. And you can be naked in a room with other people, where each of you is just an alive creature.
To Sum Up
The idea of naked yoga practice still has so much sexualization in it. But thanks to some brave yogis like yoga Flocke artist, we can re-consider the attitude to our own and other person’s body. And maybe, that will help us live happier in our bodies without shaming others for expressing themselves.
