How to become a nudist

You become a nudist in the same way that you become a human being – by being born. By the very act of being born, you get the naked body that each of us has. If you are then raised so as to be ashamed of your body, you stop being a nudist. Once so trained, it is, I believe, not possible to fully return to that same state of mind regarding nudity which you had in childhood. It is, however, possible to undo that perpetual feeling of shame in regard to your body.

In this article I’ll try to describe how to do that, based on my experience.

There are two aspects of becoming a nudist. In fact, these can be generalized to becoming (or accepting to be) anything. First and foremost, you must come to terms with yourself. What do you like about it, or why do you think you can’t go on without it? Do you, at this moment, judge these reasons to be strong enough to make you overcome the obstacles to practicing nudism? Think about it and the situations that might arise. Don’t scare yourself – try to think of a best-case scenario at this point, but identify things that are certain to be a problem.

Once you’re done with this introspection, it’s time to become comfortable with yourself being naked. Take of your clothes somewhere you know will be alone. Make sure that if the need arises you can put them on very quickly (I would usually wear track suit or something baggy), and put them somewhere you can easily reach them, stacked in the order you would need to put them back on. Once you’re naked, you’ll probably think about being naked because it may be a completely new state of being to you. I remember it was for me, which is why it took me quite a while before I realized that there’s not much to just being naked, that it is equivalent to being clothed. Once you become comfortable in your new (old) suit, focus on doing tasks you would normally do clothed. Start small, with things that are limited to the area you chose as a place where you would become comfortable with yourself naked, then slowly, at your own pace, go further.

When you’re at terms with yourself, it’s time for the next aspect of nudism, which is social nudism. You may not want to take off your clothes in a random public place, though. With social nudism, there are two ways you can go about it: you can try and practice nudism with your close ones if you feel comfortable with that, or you can avoid that and practice it on your own, but in a social setting with other nudists. Note that whichever way you choose, you will eventually need to out yourself to the people who are close to you, so be sure that this is what you really want before proceeding.

If you decide to proceed, the most important thing is to tell your close ones about it. Outing yourself about anything can be difficult both to you and the person you are outing yourself to. That they are close to you implies that they believe they know the most important things about you and they have accepted them as part of you. “Outing” yourself means telling them about something you deem important about you, which you either kept hidden, or didn’t know about. This is why there is always a risk of a bad reaction to such news, even though what you’re outing youself about might have nothing to do with your moral character, your beliefs, feelings, etc.

It is my belief that people who react badly to such “outings” have misconceptions about it. Be patient and non-judgmental about it and explain to them the things you find they have misconceived. Give them time to come to terms about it on their own. As someone who’s outed himself three times before (first as an atheist, then as bisexual and finally as nudist), I believe I can speak from experience on this matter.

You might out yourself before or after your first experience of nudism in a social setting. If you do it before, there’s always the possibility that someone you know might want to join you. If it doesn’t feel right, tell them. If it feels great, tell them as well. If you do it after, you always have the experience you can share with them and maybe convince them to join you. I, for example, would never want to be joined by my parents or brother, but wouldn’t mind my wife, or any of my friends to come along.

Maybe we can play Yamb while basking in the sun and jumping in the sea in between games.