There is no difference in what we’re doing in here
That doesn’t show up as bigger symptoms out there
So why spend all our time in dressing our bandages
When we’ve the ultimate key to the cause right here, our underneath
-Alanis Morisette, Underneath
You have to love a post on being mindfully naked in mundane life.
I mean, come on – mindfully naked. The little girl in me can’t stop giggling, and the sensual adult in me can’t stop craving such a state of being.
Being naked comes, of course, with multitudes of connotations and feelings. From mind-numbing fear to body-tingling arousal, nakedness truly taps into everything underneath.
So what does it mean to be mindfully naked?
To be with it all.
To stand, with no pretenses, no judgments, –
to shed it all and be in full awareness with what remains.
Entering a practice of being mindfully naked is like a strip tease. We lose one little piece at a time – one fear here, one attachment there. There will come a point where it feels like too much. You might rush to slip a few more comfortable things back on, lest someone see something …
But nakedness is our natural state of being. It is everything that lies underneath the adornments we wear to present ourselves to the world, and often, to our self.
Nakedness is our skin rolls, birthmarks, wrinkles, ingrown hairs, fears, guilt, beliefs – all of it…. And none of it. Being naked is being who you are even beneath these things.
Being mindfully naked means watching in the mirror as you undress yourself. Being with the judgmental thoughts that arise – including those of pride or anxiety.
It means looking into your mind, shedding the adornments of belief, and being able to sit with the naked silence underneath.
For most, this isn’t a comfortable practice. But I ask:
what could be more valuable than learning to see and to be with who we already are?
We spend countless hours and billions of dollars trying to cover, to fix, to alter. Would it not be more freeing to spend those hours coming to know what is underneath?
Then we can dress, adorn, dance – and do so without fear of what lies underneath. How we move, what we think, how we act will arise from a deeper place of knowing … from our raw, naked being.
….Namaste.
About Lisa Renee Wilson
I am honored to be your host for this journey! I am an Awareness Artist who shares her world work through Being Breath (www.BeingBreath.com). As a parent, artist, contemplative, meditator, yoga practitioner, introvert, runner, blogger, photographer, and iced-chai addict, I practice the art of mindful awareness throughout all of my daily activities. From playing with perspectives to playing in paint, no moments are off limits for exploration.
You can learn more about me over at BeingBreath.com, connect over on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter, or just stay tuned to hear insightfully honest stories right here at Bliss Habits!
Wouldn’t it be lovely! I know that I don’t like my body because I don’t like myself – as a child, the information I was given was that I was overweight and that was unacceptable – I was unacceptable. I lost the weight – more than once – and gained it again more than once. Now I still have the weight and still feel unacceptable. Imagine the difficulty that creates when my husband tells me I’m gorgeous – and that he loves my body! One of my dearest wishes is that I can come to accept myself – exactly as I am!