We like to say that our first steps into nudism happened by accident. It’s a story we’ve probably already told a million times. More than a decade ago, Lins got a coupon saying “Spa for two” for her birthday. We got to choose between maybe 50 different wellness centers (we have quite a lot of those in Belgium). While browsing their websites, we noticed that they all looked different. Some large, some small, some private, some public, some far away and some nearby. There was one factor that really divided them: All the really nice ones had a no bathing suit policy.
This was how we ended up at our first socially nude experience. Thanks to that coupon. If Melissa, Nathalie, and Carmen hadn’t given Lins that coupon, we may never have become nudists. Naked Wanderings may have never existed. We might still be in some office in Belgium.
Is that really true?
Did such a small coincidence really change our lives?
We doubt it. It’s a fun story to tell, but in the end, it was us who decided to go to that particular spa. And not to one of the smaller ones where we could use a bathing suit. Or one of the private ones where there wouldn’t be any nude strangers around.
Did such a small coincidence really change our lives?
We doubt it. It’s a fun story to tell, but in the end, it was us who decided to go to that particular spa. And not to one of the smaller ones where we could use a bathing suit. Or one of the private ones where there wouldn’t be any nude strangers around.
We decided to step out of our comfort zone and give social nudity a try. To follow our curiosity. Yet, when we stood in front of the gate, we were terrified. Are we REALLY going to do this? Taking off your clothes is just one small physical step. The mental change that comes with it is much more significant. We were about to step into a world that nobody else we knew (at least that’s what we thought back then) had ever experienced. And it did change our lives.
Bye-bye status, hello confidence
It’s in our nature to have a need for dominance. It’s the survival of the fittest. We want to have the biggest and we’re definitely not just talking about breasts and penises here. The choice of a specific type of car is often influenced by the cars our family members, friends, colleagues or neighbors have. Lots of people are in serious debt and spend a lot of time cleaning a house that is too big for them. They don’t need this, but they want it because it brings them status.
Penises (to bring them up anyway), tend to be quite a lot larger when talked about than they physically are. Women often buy their clothes one size too small, hoping that others would notice this when browsing through their closet. Or even just to set their own minds at ease. It’s perfectly possible to surround ourselves with so many gadgets and stories that our status automatically keeps increasing. But does that make us happier?
The more our status grows, the more time and money we need to invest to maintain the level, let alone make sure that it keeps increasing. Is that tremendous mortgage truly worth the size of that house? Are those worries at the end of the month worth the petrol consumption of your Hummer? Are those 16-hour workdays worth the fancy one week vacation in the Caribbean?
Have you ever wondered how people in India can be happy living in a caste system? Especially those living in one of the lower castes? Knowing that they can never in their whole life have the status someone from the higher caste gained just by being born in another family. Yet they can be happy. By taking away the possibility to be someone different than you are, also the desire goes away. And so does the fear to lose any newly gained status.
Something similar happens within nudism. By taking away our layers of protection, it doesn’t make much sense anymore to pretend that we look anything different than we actually do. At first, it can be a very daunting feeling, but soon it will also feel liberating. There is no status to lose anymore. Instead, you become confident. Yes, this is me, what you see is what you get. I have nothing to hide.
Welcome to a different world
We have a desire to fit in, to be part of a group. We love the idea that there are people like us. Involuntarily we’re often driven by the question “What do people like us do?”. When we come home after work, late in the evening, we eat microwave dinner. Because that’s what people who work a lot do. We prefer standing in traffic jams over taking public transport because that’s what people like us do. We buy those shoes, go to this movie and send our children to that school. Exactly, that’s what people like us do.
On the other end of the spectrum is a dream of breaking out. Often fueled by curiosity. At the counter of the supermarket, we peek at what the person in front of us has bought and wonder how our life would be if we had a fresh salad and smoked salmon tonight instead of something that smells like turkey and looks like mash potatoes. We wonder how it would be to quit our job and go traveling. We wonder what life would be without clothes.
Often, that glimpse into a different world evaporates when we walk through the door and stand once again in that same old traffic jam. This is our life as we’ve been living it for so long. It’s not difficult to dream, the difficulty is in pursuing those dreams. In stepping out of our comfort zone. The only way to get an answer to “what if” questions, is to go and find out. To make that salmon salad, to quit that job, to walk through the gate of that nudist resort.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxeylymBVtN/
You are not alone in this
There are almost 8 billion people in the world. Whatever mindblowing choice you’re planning to make or seemingly impossible idea you might have, it’s silly to think that you’re the first person who ever considered this. Long before Isaac Newton was born, someone else must have wondered why we stick to the ground and not float away. Newton just happened to solve the puzzle. Jeff Bezos could have spent the rest of his life in a traffic jam, wondering how things would be if he could just stay at home and sell stuff online. A couple of cars behind him would be Elon Musk, worrying about how much his next stop at the petrol station would cost him this time. If only my car used less expensive energy…
We’re throwing with big names here, people who have changed the world by stepping out of their comfort zone and by actually searching for an answer to their “what if” question. You don’t need to be Isaac or Jeff or Elon to start with nudism. You can be just Nick or Lins or You. The good thing is that you don’t have to invest all your money or risk being expelled for some weird gravity theory.
Once you get to that step, you’ll quickly realize that you’re definitely not alone in this. In Europe and North America, it’s estimated that about 5% of the people have engaged in social nudity in one way or another. That’s a lot of people. No matter which nudist place you plan to visit, there will be others like you. Who discovered the joys of being nude. And who might have gone through the same mental steps as you did.
Nudists stick together
Although 5% on such a large scale is a significant amount of people, it’s still a small minority. That explains why the world isn’t as nude friendly as we’d like it to be. The good thing about minorities is that they stick together. They share a common ground which they can’t share with too many others. This often results in endless complaints about how we can’t be nude in our garden on a warm Sunday afternoon because the neighbors might be shocked. But it also results in organizations, clubs, and federations. Striving to spread our ideas and make the world a little bit more comfortable for those who prefer to not wear any clothes.
Have you ever noticed how motorcyclists greet each other with their foot, without even knowing who the other driver is? Or how tennis players can go to whatever club and strike up a conversation? Having a common ground eliminates the need for having to know someone before you start talking. The added advantage of not wearing any artificial layers that might cover (or fake) your background, enables you to meet wonderful people who you otherwise might have never met.
We enjoy many different factors of nudism, from the comfort of not having to wear a wet bathing suit to the confidence we gained from eliminating the need for status. From the tickling wind passing by our nude bodies to the liberation of stepping out of our comfort zone. From the wonderful places we discovered on our search for nude-friendly spots, to the amazing people we met at those places.
That is why we love nudism, and why you will too.
That is why we love nudism, and why you will too.
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AMEN! Great article!
Interesting article and I do enjoy reading about your adventures and other musings. At the end of the day, I can absolutely see what you like about nudism – mainly, it allows you to basically live your life at present like one long holiday, with the odd bit of not too difficult work here and there providing content for the blog and website etc. That’s a lifestyle that is just not possible for at least 95% of people who have kids, pets, careers they (mostly) enjoy, elderly relatives to look after and a whole host of other reasons why doing what you do is not viable or possible, at all.
You guys have chosen to roam the world from one pleasant (& naked) place to another, which is very nice and sounds idyllic but I know there is a trade off, in not having any real roots anywhere it appears, an uncertain income and many other things that you miss out on, but that’s your choice. You are at the extreme end of a spectrum that exists, starting with someone who is able to snatch a day or two (if possible) per year on the nearest naturist beach and perhaps wander round their flat or house with nothing on and that’s about it. In between there are lost of ‘levels’ of naturism that people can or can’t engage in, depending on their circumstances, desire and (in some cases) gender.
I admire your strong desire to exist at the top end of the spectrum, at least for now, and dedicate your lives to spreading the right message, news, views and opinions, which is great. I suspect very many people would love to be like you but just can’t, so we look upon you rather enviously instead!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
A lot of people tell us that they wish that they could live the same life as we do.
And in fact, most of them actually can. We are not dirt rich, we had to sell pretty much everything we had to fund our travels. Okay, we don’t have children but we’ve met several long-term traveling families so even that is not a reason why you can’t do it. We’ve met long term travelers in a wheelchair and only recently a more than 80-year-old.
The main question is: Do you really want to? Because our lifestyle comes with consequences. As you mention, we don’t have a solid income, we’re always away from our family, we don’t have a home base and every couple of days we have to pack our stuff and move somewhere else. This is not a regular holiday, this is our life.
PS: Blogging takes much more work than you would initially expect. But we don’t mind, because we have the best offices in the world 🙂
Thanks for the considered reply. I guess I would be one of those people who would like to experience your lifestyle for a couple of months maybe, but then would be very happy to get back to my existing life, which is more ‘normal’ in some ways but is just what I have built for myself and my family. To be perfectly honest, I think I’d get bored doing what you do 100% of the time, as the novelty of always being on holiday (despite what you say about it being your ‘life’ rather than a ‘holiday’, it is for the most part enjoying yourself day in, day out, every week, is it not?) would wear off I think. Plus I am one of life’s planners, so I’d always be a bit worried about what comes next, after the great adventure ends, as you can’t spend you whole lives doing what you are doing, presumably (or maybe you intend to do just that?!). So what is your exit plan – do you have one at all? Have you even thought about it or will you just see what happens, when it happens. That’s probably the best way to look at it. If it continues way into the future, then it continues…..
Actually, if we’d just be wandering around aimlessly, we’d probably get pretty bored as well. The good thing is that we have a cause. On one hand, there’s what we do for Naked Wanderings, searching for naturist places, and on the other hand are a couple of side projects we’re working on, those should generate the income to pay for all that traveling. This was lifting up pretty well until that virus came along, but we’re sure that it’ll get moving again soon.
That’s where our exit plan is. If we can earn from our side projects, we become completely location independent. Then it will become much easier to decide where we go and for how long. At the moment, we still love traveling to all those naturist places. Maybe one day we’ll prefer to take it slower, maybe stay longer in one place and visit fewer places per year. Who knows 🙂
Wow this is a good comment, the start of it anyway.
Getting bored of things .. now thats interesting, i think alots of ppl can be bored easily when they do one thing all the time, maybe alots of ppl dont wanna live a nudenude life cause it will take away the joy ,the looking forward thing in a vacation, or such.
I dont get bored easily of one thing/s and im not talking about nudism cause i aint one, but just saying that im one of those that doenst get bored of things i like, so if i was a nudie, id wanna be one all the time, but that cannot happen in todays world unless u wanna be a real real naturist, and give up all the 21th cent things and just live as in the old days ,with pure and only nature.
People in Asian countries like Malaysia need to get Inspiration from people who have a longer understanding and practice of naked life. It’s been almost two years since I brought myself into the nudist world and corrected thinking about naked body in mothernature without feel shame or sin.
Hi Zack, the people of the Thai Naturist Federation are doing a great job in bringing the naturist philosophy to Asia