A Passion for Naturism and Nudism

It all started from a blog post written by Anna from A Naturist World, for the International Women’s Day, entitled “Women and Naturism” (A Naturist World is a membership-based social networks for nudists and naturists). Towards the end, Anna writes about her passion for naturism, which is something that resonated deeply as I am truly passionate about naturism and nudism. Then, following a comment I added to the post, Anna replied, “It seems impossible to properly consider naturism without it becoming a passion.” That’s a fascinating statement, I told myself. I had to put my brain on it and trying to understand why some naturists, like Anna, are passionate about naturism.

Passion, a Definition

As usual, I cannot think thoroughly about a topic without going to the root of its meaning. So I went to the Merriam-Webster and found quite a few definitions, two catching my attention:

• Intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
• A strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept

The first definition relates to en emotion, the second to love. In both cases, the adjectives intense and strong indicate the level passion operates at: high! I continued looking for more definitions and explanations about passion. The article What Is Passion and What It Means To Have Passion provided additional information to reinforce the intensity of passion: “Passion is a strong desire that can get you to do amazing things”.

The interesting point here is the presence of action. Passion can be the fuel of doing. Not doing simple things, but “amazing” things. I started to see that passion was an incredible feeling that drove humans in a positive way. But I was puzzled that in the Merriam-Webster anger and suffering were mentioned. Like many things in life, could passion have two sides? I found some elements of answers in the article Passion 101 of Psychology Today. I pondered over the quote of the philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Nobody wishes to have passions. For who wants to be put in chains when he can be free”? So passion can chain you.

The article goes on making a difference between “an adaptive, positive form called ‘harmonious’ passion and a harmful form called ‘obsessive passion'”. And here it was, the dark side of passion, the one that becomes obsessive, self-centered, consuming. Passion can make you swim far, it can lead you to sink also. And this is where we need to find balance. Passion yes, obsession no!

Another article, 10 Things You Should Know About Passion, shed some additional lights about the positive side of passion. Those 10 things teach you that passion

• is not a hobby nor a dream,
• should make you happy,
• helps you weather the storm no matter how hard it is,
• can come from a childhood crush,
• helps you invested,
• can’t be stopped,
• is raw,
• pushes ambitions & limits,
• is embraced.

As you can see passion is a complex topic that would require more that a few lines. This is one of the reasons I am designing the project of the sixth installment of the Nudism series of book I started a few years back. Entitled temporarily Passion for Nudism, it will go deeper in the concept of passion and show how to find balance, drive and happiness, while living the naturism and nudism passion.

Before jumping to the next part of this post, I wanted to leave you with this quote from T.S. Elliot.

“It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion
to a person who has never experienced it
than we can explain light to the blind.”

T.S. ELLIOT

It says that passion is experiencial. I totally second this. However, what stroke me in this quote is replacing a passion by naturism: “t is obvious that we can no more explain naturism to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind”. It fits so well and resonated with Anna’s sentence I mentioned at the beginning: “you cannot fully comprehend naturism without it becoming a passion.” It’s probably because both needs to be experienced.

Becoming Passionate About Naturism

When you discover naturism, you often want to experience it more often. Can naturism becomes a passion overnight? Well, being passionate requires effort! What? But I thought that when you’re passionate, things are done easily and now you tell me being passionate requires effort! As Wikihow says :”Being passionate requires dedication, hard work, focus, and the willingness to fail over and over again”. It provides a method in 8 steps: 1. take action, 2. Get advice and insight from other people in your field, 3. Set goals and meet them, 4. Have a daily routine that helps you follow your passion, 5. Take a stand, 6. Share your passion with others, 7. Learn from your mistakes, 8. Continue to work hard in the face of rejection.

When applied to naturism and nudism, this provides a fairly consistent way of living, the naturist way:

1. Take Action. If naturism is a passion, nudity is a daily choice. Start living naked is an easy action to take to appreciate the first benefits of simple and plain nudity. The second is to get out, and the third is to meet other nudists. My article, 12 Ways To Become Comfortable With Nudity, that you can also find as a book at Amazon, provides 12 actions that you can take to live your nudism and naturism.
2. Get advice and insight from other people in your field. Naturist forums and social networks, whether A naturist world, Naturist Hub, or Naturist Go, or Nudism and Naturism subreddits provide a great way to interact with other nudists and naturists, share experiences and questions.
3. Set goals and meet them. As a passionate intentions and goals setters, I totally agree with this step. My post How To Set Nude Year Resolutions That Work goes into setting nudist goals and meeting them. Having nudist goals fuels my passion for nudism, as my body is flooded with dopamine each time I come closer and get to a goal.
4. Have a daily routine that helps you follow your passion. Another obvious step that I described in Naturist Lock Down Idea #1 – Setup a Naked Daily Routine that can be applied to non lockdown times. In this article I go over my morning routine that happens to be a nudist one, which reinforces my passion.
5. Take a stand. Becoming a member of your naturist or nudist federation is a way to take a stand. Participating in nudist festivals or world naked bike rides is another one to show publicly that nudism means something important to you. Nudist and naturist federations are always looking for volunteers, raise your hand!
6. Share your passion with others. This blog, my books are my personal ways to share my passion for naturism and nudism. The books I have in my library, the magazines that are on my coffee table are other ways to share my passion for naturism and nudism. Of course, talking about naturism and nudism, inviting friends and family to join naturist and nudist activities are ways to share my passion for naturism and nudism.
7. Learn from your mistakes. Not all roads are paved with good intentions. Learn to recognize when you went onto a wrong path and right your wrongs. Simon Sinek, the leadership master who wrote the famous book Start with Why, talks about falling forward, so you can get up and continue walking. I love the idea and apply it daily. Mistakes are okay as long as you learn from them.
8. Continue to work hard in the face of rejection. Some people will not accept nudism, naturism, and simple nudity. They have been conditioned to demonize nudity and won’t be willing to change their point of view. Accept it and move along. Nudism and naturism are wonderful and respectful lifestyles. Accept they are just not for everybody.

“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”

Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

If you follow those 8 simple steps daily, you’re really passionate about nudism and naturism as many nudists and naturists are. I realize it can become a chicken and egg question though. Am I doing those 8 steps daily because I am already passionate about nudism or is doing those 8 steps intentionnaly will make me passionate? I think it creates a virtuous circle. You may wonder if you’re passionate and decide to take those steps seriously and develop your passion. You may also fuel your passion by taking those 8 steps. Whatever the case, try them and look at your sensations and emotions. If you become happier, more fulfilled, then a passion is in the making. Here what it will look like.

A Passion for Naturism

Passions do not become passions overnight. Psychologists teach us that truly passional people cultivate six personality traits. These are needed to grow a passion and to fuel it so it remains a passion. Those traits are the following:

• Be excited.
• Be positive
• Be brave
• Be focused
• Be motivated
• Be curious

Let’s look at them with a naturist lens.

Be excited

When you think about your passion, you feel excitement growing. The tone of your voice demonstrates that passion, you’re ready to speak about it for hours, it fills your mind every minute, and can even become an obsession. I’m excited by naturism and nudism, due to their numerous benefits. On the one hand, I don’t think there’s another lifestyle that has that many benefits. On the other hand, I don’t think there’s another lifestyle that is misunderstood that much. It does not take away my excitement, quite the opposite. Knowing that my energy can convince somebody to try it gives me even more faith in naturism.

Be positive

Naturism and nudism are for every body, but not for everybody unfortunately, as a lot of people have deep beliefs that forbid them to truly understand naturism the way it should be. This does not stop me from seeing nudism and naturism as the most positive, natural and comfortable lifestyle. To every person who tries to bring negative arguments about naturism, I counter it with a positive one. I’m biased because I’m a passionate naturist, but I cannot think about naturism in negative terms, and I balance any negative thing (if any) with at least one, sometimes more, positive one. There’s so many positive aspects to naturism that it’s become a second nature to see the glass half full!

Be brave

Being passionate about naturism requires some form of bravery to share one’s nudism and naturism. Like positivity and excitement, bravery requires that you go against the current, that you’re ready to be confronted to hostile people, although most people won’t care that you’re a nudist. Most will forget, a few will see you as a weirdo, and some will turn away. Coming back everyday to nudism by embracing nudity as a normal way to be is a form of bravery against the way society and culture have indoctrinated people.

Be focused

It’s difficult to have many passions. One is fine, two can be achieved, three is challenging, more is almost impossible. I feel truly passionate about 3 things in life: my family, nudism and writing. Although I love many other things like hiking, sailing, cooking and computers, I don’t feel passion about them. I spend time researching, learning or practicing those topics, but the one I can spend hours without being bored is naturism. I’m laser focused about naturism, nude life, nude activities and their benefits.

Be motivated

Motivation is something hard to find when passion is absent. On the opposite, you don’t need to get motivated by a passion. When I hear or see about nudism or naturism, I jump on the news article, radio or TV broadcast, book or podcast. The same goes for writing articles, sharing the whys and hows of naturism and nudism with others, or finding places where simple nudity is accepted or tolerated and enjoying naked time with friends.

Be curious

This is probably the most important trait if you want to keep your passion alive. Curiosity means that you look for occasion to fuel your passion with new ideas, points of view or friendships. Internet is providing an easy and convenient way to fuel this passion almost indefinitely. Nudist social networks, subreddits, books and magazines provide a vast choice of topics that will fuel your curiosity, make you discover new places, meet new people and discover aspects of your passion you never thought about.

Many textiles I talk to don’t generally think how naturism can be a passion, since it’s just about getting naked, there’s not much to talk or write about. However, I explain that naturism is a journey that starts by undressing and getting comfortably naked alone and with others, but never ends as you discover new activities you can do naked, new people that have their own stories and experiences with naturism, and new sensations as you embrace nudity in ways you may have never thought before.

“The human body is the best work of art.”

JESS C. SCOTT

Excitement, positivity, bravery, focus, motivation and curiosity are what makes a passion grow and thrive. Curiosity about naturism is what brought me to write this article and the forthcoming book, A Passion for Nudism. Each of this traits will probably form a chapter of the book, as they’re essential to making nudism and naturism a passion, but more importantly, to living a fulfilled and happy life.

Sharing the Passion for Naturism

Along with the six traits that we’ve just seen, passion is said to be communicative. This means that a true passion is shared. First with other passionate people, and also with people who are not, to make them understand why it’s important to you. Sharing is a great way to fuel this passion, by deepening the topic itself, confronting points of view, and developing a unique perspective. I’ve found six ways to share and deepen my passion for naturism:

• Become a mentor
• Share the passion
• Make sacrifices
• Learn to find a balance in life
• Live in the present
• Be proud of yourself

Like with the previous six traits, let’s look at them trough a nudist and naturist lens.

Become a mentor

Becoming a mentor is taking care of somebody to guide him or her on the path of naturism. This could be a friend, a family member, your spouse, a colleague at work, in short anybody who’s interested in discovering naturism and feels he/she needs help and guidance. There’s nothing more rewarding than guiding somebody into naturism. You can give books and magazines, point to websites and blogs, have discussion and start sharing nude time. Being a mentor to a wannabe nudist is being able to share more nude time and activities and grow our circle of nudist influence. It provides more opportunities to be naked with others and enjoy the many benefits of social nudity.

Share the passion

I love naturism! If you love naturism, tell it! Share your experience and nudist life where you can. One easy medium is the internet. There are many nudist communities on the web. Most social medias are not pro-nudism and there are many confusions between nudism and sexuality, where nudist content can be found on porn sites or feeds that creates even more confusion. However, there are genuine profiles that can be followed (Naked Wanderings, Linda, Helen, Hector, AANR, The Naturist Society or mine just to name a few or to start with) and amplified. You can create your own channel to post information, experiences and points of view about nudism and naturism. Be part of the solution, share your nudism!

Make sacrifices

Having a passion is dedicating time to it, while making choices and abandoning other things. Whenever possible, I choose nude. This could mean that between a nudist resort that may be away from the main attractions and a clothed one that is closer, I will choose the nudist one. This means also that I may drive or walk extra miles to go to a naked beach. This has also meant to get away from people who did not embrace the nudist lifestyle and were totally against it. My friends are either nudists or textiles that understand and accept nudism. Nudism for me also means to take time to write those articles and books, to spend time on nudist social networks to chat with other nudists and contribute. Do I feel those are sacrifices? Not really, they fuel for my passion!

Learn to find a balance in life

A passion can quickly become an obsession and ruin the necessary balance one needs to have in life. If there’s no nudist possibility, do you need to turn an activity down? No, of course. For instance, I love art and movies. I cannot visit museums naked (yes, there are some opportunities, but they are scarce), so I will visit them clothed. I go to the movies quite frequently, always clothed. And, I frequent textile friends and have dinners or parties where nudity is not an option. So be it! If nudity was an option for every day life, I would chose so, temperature and security allowing of course. It is not, I’m happy the way it is.

Live in the present

You want to get naked and you can? Don’t hesitate, just undress and live your life the way nature has intended. You wonder if an activity can be practiced naked? Ask! As I am writing and polishing this post, I’m sitting naked in an AirBnB flat far from home, and as you can guess, I’m fully naked. I had and will have to run some errands, clothed of course (anyway, it was far too cold to be naked outside). Howerver, I undress as soon as I enter my AirBnB and stay so indoor. I feel so much better when I’m naked alone or with friends, and I try to live the moment to its fullest. Don’t look too far ahead in the future, the present is now, be there, be naked!

Be proud of yourself

Few people have a passion that fuels their actions. If you’re passionate as I am about nudism, be proud of yourself. Nudism is a fantastic lifestyle. Many nudists feel some level of shame and tend to avoid talking about nudism and naturism. It’s true that talking about nudism or shouting you’re a nudist may not be appropriate. It depends on the context. However, in friendly or family circles, be a proud nudist and carry the nudist flag high. Look for opportunities to get naked and share the nudist respect and tolerance messages. Be a teacher, a messenger, a prophet. Nudism is healthy, natural and totally normal. Feel proud, be proud, be a proud nudist!

Writing this post and thinking about my passion for naturism and nudism inspired me to deepen the topic and organize my thoughts in a book, temporarily entitled A Passion for Nudism. It will become the 6th installment in the Nudism series. I’m not sure if it will be the last of the series, but it will be slightly different from others as it will be more oriented towards experiences and stories. Stay tuned!

Strip Nude, Stay Nude, Live Nude, and Share the Nude Love!