Hello and welcome to this NY Workshop for Beginners.
In this class we introduce the concept of NY to beginners.
We will tell you WHAT NY is, WHY we offer it and HOW it all started, WHO it is for and HOW or whether it can benefit you. We will also explain our Community and Class rules, tell you about how the classes are structured, answer your questions and help you set your personal goals - in group or personally.
What is NY
Naked yoga (or “nagna yoga”) has existed since ancient times as a spiritual practice. Yoga at its core is all about realising your true nature and freeing your mind from illusions of reality.
We live in the world of stories. When we are born, we have no idea who we are. We only know that we ARE, we reside in awareness of our existence. But then our parents, our surroundings, school, society, social media create stories of who we are or who we are not, defining us and restricting our understanding of reality. We start believing those stories and live according to them.
Yogis try to get back to that unrestricted understanding of who we are, to be fully connected to this awareness. Some yogic texts suggest austerity as one of the ways to get closer to your core. On the mental level it means stripping your mind of stories and limiting beliefs about yourself and on physical - shedding everything that is not essential, clothes included.
WHY naked yoga?
Because it doesn’t make sense to us that people feel ashamed of their naked body and ruin their mental health by constantly trying to change their shape or qualities, just because some trendy TikToker says they’re not good enough.
Also because we believe that if people practise self-acceptance and self-compassion, feel happy in their own body and have peace of mind - they will show the same attitude towards others - and eventually we’ll have a more kind and less violent world.
About the world of stories
Let's do a little practice. Think about who you think you are. The things that you think you know is "I'm a man, I'm a woman, I'm a yoga teacher, I'm a programmer, carpenter, accountant, lawer, father, daughter, grandmother". Now close your eyes and pretend you have never seen yourself in a mirror and you have no idea what kind of creater you are, nothing about your shape or appearance or profession. Does anything in your present experience tell you what your story is?
And it's wonderful that we have our stories, while we are happy and we love this character that we've created through the years - but what if that's not true? What if we suffer with who we think we are?
This is a very deep understanding of our practice, and that follows - but now we bring more attention to our body. The questions we ask here during our practices - Are you happy in your body? What are the ideas that make you unhappy about something in yourself? Where do the shame, disapproval and non-acceptance of your own body comes from?
Some people say "I'm happy with my body" but should somebody say "may I take your picture" - they say "ah no of course not". For some reasons we are made to believe that we need to be perfect at all times. Well, define perfect. In ancient times the whiter and curvy a woman was, the more she was adored. So it's just a story that changes from generation to generation.
Benefits
Give yourself time to contemplate those things
Physical:
Deeper body awareness
Increased range of motion due to absence of clothes
Better circulation and skin health
Stress reduction
Increased strength and flexibility through asana practice
Psychological:
Enhanced body confidence
Deeper mind-body connection
Greater self-acceptance and self-compassion
Release of tension and emotional healing
Sense of unity and oneness and liberation from societal inhibitions
Lasting feeling of peace and contentment
Community rules - read class rules
How classes are structured
Questions
Questions - confidentiality