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A Difficult Journey

Updated: Feb 12



I am not entirely certain when my interest in Nudism as a lifestyle began. I know that as a child I didn't think too much of nakedness at all until I was sexually abused and came to equate it with shame and discomfort. As a teenager it would have appalled me entirely. At some point after the teenage years, however, something changed.


Part of it was the internet and discovering images and stories of nudism online. It offered me a perspective I hadn't had up until that point. That nudity could be free from sexual interference and that the body wasn't just something we used for that purpose. I know that I began seeking out ways to be naked alone, and then eventually in more social aspects in my early 20s, but it was still a fringe thing. I didn't talk about it to many, and certainly didn't share my feelings with anyone outside of a few extremely close people.


It wasn't until my 30s, when I visited Wreck Beach in Vancouver, B.C. Canada for the first time that I was truly woken up to the joys and wonders of Nudism. I spent an afternoon there with a friend of mine and after spending the day playing frisbee, wandering, chatting and just generally being the exact same person I always was, just in the nude, and realizing that NOBODY else gave a shit... I was hooked.


Sadly, I wasn't able to stay in Vancouver at the time and from that point until rather recently moved from place to place that wasn't really situated anywhere near social naturism. Although I still knew I was a nudist at heart, I pulled away from nudism as a lifestyle for quite a number of years. Some of my best years, in fact, but the past is the past.


In 2014, I decided that enough was enough and talked to a good friend of mine about her comfort level with me being naked and if she'd be open to accompanying me while I did a self-portrait nude photo shoot, as I needed a volunteer helper for the project. Her openness and acceptance helped pull me out of a rut and we began spending every weather acceptable day at a secluded river spot near Calgary, AB. It was my naked time in nature, and it became my self-therapy. Those days really helped cement my realization that if I could, I'd prefer being naked whenever and however I could. It also helped lead me to my decision to accept a new job back near Vancouver where I could practice social nudism once again.


In 2017 I moved to the Sunshine Coast, B.C., Canada. Here, I had access to Wreck Beach once again and for 2 summers used that opportunity to the fullest. I became far more active online as an outed Nudist, I told friends, family and co-workers (so as not to have my company get shocked if anyone outed me for photos online), and basically stopped worrying that being naked was a shameful thing. I fully embraced body positivity and have researched and studied the positive effects of nudism/naturism. I have become a stolid supporter of Family Naturism, starting a comic strip about families in a Naturist Village and try my best to promote naturism to families I know in my life.



In 2020, however, the Covid Pandemic set my immersion in Social Nudism back quite a bit. My trips to Wreck Beach became few and far between, and it seemed to become harder and harder to promote a lifestyle to newcomers while everyone was exhausted by simply trying to live and survive. Even the online community seemed to start to fracture more and more. Yet I was, and am, determined to keep going. Nudism is my escape. It's my therapy and it's my life-line.


As the Pandemic continues to rage on, albeit with some hopeful changes and developments, it remains difficult to get out there and be social in the naturist community. Indoor events are cancelled for the most part, and winter is here now. The hope of spring and summer is there, however, and I have many ideas and purposes I hope to implement over the next few years.


The benefits of Nudism/Naturism for me are just too great, so no matter what roadblocks the world continues to throw at me (and there have been many that I haven't delved into here), I will continue to promote and support the freedom and joy of the unclad human body for everyone, young and old, of all shapes, for all time.


So I thank this site for existing here, and I hope many other people join in and tell their story and share their experiences and let the world know... we shall not be silenced. The body is a wonderful thing. It should not be hidden, it should not be shamed. It should not be used solely as a sexual vessel and it does not deserve to be persecuted, abused or oppressed.


So for now and forever, Get Naked. Stay Naked.


 

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