The Secret Naturist Handbook

[nuduke]

I wish I was bold enough just to brazen it out like you two guys do.  No use saying "Well why don't you?"  I've been there many times.  Just can't not err on the side of caution when others around.
John

[Greenbare Woods]

I wish I was bold enough just to brazen it out like you two guys do.  No use saying "Well why don't you?"  I've been there many times.  Just can't not err on the side of caution when others around.
John

All our childhood training is hard to overcome.  We still fear that some horrible fate will befall us, usually mother's disapproval from when we were 3.  Its deep psychological conditioning and takes a strong effort to overcome. 

[Peter S]

  Just can't not err on the side of caution when others around.
John

I know exactly where you're coming from, John. When I'm out on a naked hike I hope that I'll meet someone unexpectedly, forcing me to stay naked and just get on with it. With enough advanced warning of someone approaching I can't help the instinctive reaction to reach for my shorts, which then leads to an ungainly scramble to get them on and, on occasion, has left me looking a complete numpty. In fact every encounter I've had has been neutral to pleasant, with no problems experienced.

[jbeegoode]

Yes, we practice. We set an intention, or just leave the coverings behind. Sometimes, it is just easier to put a wrap over, than face the conditioned response and the unknown (which nearly always isn't the feared problem, or reality).

Sometimes, DF has her camera bag covering genitals and the straps part of her breast and she isn't aware of it.

It doesn't take long to get used to being seen, if it happens frequently enough on one hike. It feels liberating and bold to set of intending to grasp my human rights, but there is that conditioning that can still linger, like a knee jerk. It has been trippy standing watching my reactions inside, as I stand without letting my conditioned chains control. There are some powerful inhibitions in there, but not enough to imprison, once my mind was set on not allowing it. Most of the hassle is in the anticipation, the anxiety, but once in the situation, there are other social reflexes at play, too.

Being protected by a group, even of two, seems to embolden and comfort.
Jbee
 

[Greenbare Woods]

It doesn't take long to get used to being seen, if it happens frequently enough on one hike. It feels liberating and bold to set of intending to grasp my human rights, but there is that conditioning that can still linger, like a knee jerk. It has been trippy standing watching my reactions inside, as I stand without letting my conditioned chains control. There are some powerful inhibitions in there, but not enough to imprison, once my mind was set on not allowing it. Most of the hassle is in the anticipation, the anxiety, but once in the situation, there are other social reflexes at play, too.
Jbee

Exactly.  Conditioning as a young child before we were old enough to understand that we were being trained is almost impossible to forget.  I've been going naked and being seen naked for decades but I still get panic attacks when I'm about to be seen again.  It is a conditioned "knee jerk" reaction.   When I take off my clothes I tell myself that my PLAN is to be seen naked.  I think of the "howdy" or "good morning" or "good afternoon," etc. that I'm going to say,  And even then I still get twinges of knee jerk "run and hide" reaction.  Then I remember that my decision and my PLAN is to be seen, and I carry on naked.

Part of being naked for me is acceptance of myself as a human person, just me, without pretense of clothing and style.  After nude encounters that almost always go well, I find that it gives me some kind of deep psychological affirmation.  That helps me overcome the knee jerk panic for the next encounter. 

I tell people that they have to have a plan to be seen naked or they will panic and hide or cover, or apologize. There isn't time to make a plan out on the trail when you come around the corner and there the other person is. Plan to be seen naked first.  In truth, if you decide to go out into the world naked you have already decided to be seen naked, and you will be seen naked sooner or later.  I still get the conditioned knee jerk, but I usually overcome and carry on naked.

Bob

[jbeegoode]

Overcoming and making peace with those impulses is healing, finding ones self, accepting and experiencing reality. I like to see myself learning to be the whole one person that I began with, to unlearn.

After a day at a swim party among friends a few years back, I asked DF how she felt about being casually nude around people at the party, which were mostly dressed.  I think that everyone got in the pool nude, and some hung out around the area, just a very few didn't get dressed to go inside for potluck, bathroom and partying in the living room. I remember I went in and felt crowded out of place with just a towel over my shoulders to get to the bathroom. DF just acted usual, often sitting in the living-room with music and conversation and eats. She said that she just felt, "liberated, very liberated."

So, that is what it is so often for me, liberated. No laws, no hangups, no silly social contrivances, getting through all that hold me back from being my true self. When someone tries to impose their clothing trip on me, I find it abusive to humanity and an insult. Otherwise, why else would there be a sense of liberation. Liberation from what?
Jbee

[John P]

I have to admit that I am of the chicken persuasion. If I'm naked in public when someone comes in sight, I'll cover up, and if someone catches me before I can get behind cloth, I'm embarrassed. Getting a wrap skirt has been a great comfort for me--I can get that around me very quickly. But as JBG just said, being in a group takes the worry away, in fact being with just one other person helps a lot. Remember Arlo Guthrie's advice near the end of Alice's Restaurant.

If I were in a group where nudity was tolerated but most people weren't naked, I'm not sure how I'd act. It would depend on how well I knew the people, what I felt the atmosphere was like, was everyone the same age (I might not mind being "that naked guy", but I wouldn't like "that old naked guy" as much) and, uh, maybe how much alcohol had been poured. Oh, and would there maybe be a hard-core subgroup of naked people among the textiles, so we could say we had the club uniform on? There's group support again!

[nuduke]

I can relate to the "Liberated" comment. 
It is very rare and precious for me to find myself in naturist company but when I am there the feeling of freedom and liberation is strong. The first time I visited a naturist club I couldn't wait to get my kit off and I experienced for the first time that strong feeling of liberation because one was in a place where nakedness was the norm as opposed to my previous walks in nature where, however wonderful the feeling of that was, there is always the anxiety of being spotted and the need to keep on the lookout, which makes one tense.  At a naturist establishment that tension is not there, hence liberation.  I also recall the liberated feeling at a naturist event where BN South East section took over the grounds of a stately home for a summer's evening (although a bit rainy!).
That said, I have never been keen on being in a club (in the unlikely event they would have me as a single male) because the point of going to a CO club is merely to hang around and waste time in order to be naked.  I wouldn't do that clothed.  Were it not for the opportunity to be naked freely, I wouldn't really make use of a CO club.  It is some years now since my last visit to one, mainly because there aren't any within a reasonable distance of where I live nowadays! 
John

[Greenbare Woods]

That said, I have never been keen on being in a club (in the unlikely event they would have me as a single male) because the point of going to a CO club is merely to hang around and waste time in order to be naked.  I wouldn't do that clothed.  John

True.  That hanging around wasting time to be naked is another word for BORING.  We need to push freedom of being naked in our daily lives.

[jbeegoode]

We swim, we dance, we eat and drink, we meet people, and converse with friends at these places, which is not a waste of time. There are events and sports like volleyball and music making. It is good t relax, not just a waste of time.

On the other hand, I have been to events, like at home parties by non-landed clubs and the only commonality seems to be nudity. Very boring indeed. People that I probably wouldn't hang out with otherwise.
Jbee

[Safebare]

Yes, I find the same thing. I usually find others within the gated parks and resorts to be more of a gossiping crowd which share little interest in the things I like to discuss. A shared interest in nudism isn't enough to get me interested in spending an extended period of time in their company.  I find a better social group at a remote hot springs or swimming hole than at a landed facility. 
~Safebare

[Greenbare Woods]

I find a better social group at a remote hot springs or swimming hole than at a landed facility.  ~Safebare

Me too.  And the other half of my experience is that most landed nudist places I've visited didn't have very many people there on weekdays at all.   Numerous times when I took my family we were the only people in the place.  Sometimes there were a few permanent residents who kept to their cabins or caravans.  Better on weekends, but still lonely and boring much of the time.   I suppose it's better at big destination resorts.

[jbeegoode]

I remember visiting Shangra la  North of Phoenix for a week in the 80's. It was a birthday gift for me. People were very warm and helpful who lived there through the week. On my B-day, they through a surprise Birthday gathering for with a cake. Twenty or so, sang Happy B-day to me all in Birthday suits.

Locals will enhance a resort, promote it and make it successful, or they may be standoffish to those that they don't know, who have nothing to contribute but the usual "how long have you been a nudist" and "what resorts have you visited" or my nude cruise.

Things can be slow on weekdays.  On the other hand, things can be crowded on weekends.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

I remember visiting Shangra la  North of Phoenix for a week in the 80's. It was a birthday gift for me. People were very warm and helpful who lived there through the week. On my B-day, they through a surprise Birthday gathering for with a cake. Twenty or so, sang Happy B-day to me all in Birthday suits.
Jbee

One time around 1990 I had a business trip to Phoenix so I rented a room at Shangra La.  Nice to get the government to pay for a nude night, I thought. 
It was a mid week night.  I was the only person there as near as I could tell, except the management couple who stayed in their cabin.  One Member's cabin had high chain link fence around it with "No Trespassing" signs.  Apparently there was some kind of feud among their membership.  I didn't find any of those "warm and helpful" people.  I didn't find any people at all.  Pretty much lonely and boring, even naked. 

My experience at factory farm nudism is that most of the regulars are only there on weekends, except (maybe) a few who stay in their cabins/homes and don't mix with visitors in mid-week.  The night I was there at Shangra La, they had a lot of lightning and rain, but not cold rain, so I got naked and wet. 


Bob

[nuduke]

Ohhh! naked and wet.  A rare luxury in UK - even on summer days when it rains it is cold.  But just occasionally in high summer, very often at the inception of a thunderstorm, the rain is warm enough to get wet and enjoy it.
John