A guide is a person who helps you in your journey to reach a destination and that’s exactly what Nikki’s blog is aiming to do for those also on a body acceptance journey welcoming you to her journey and possibly yours. Our bodies exist for us, not for the visual pleasure of others.

Some may know Nikki from her yoga and meditation classes, as a past staff member, or even just a friendly face around Bare Oaks but you may not have caught her recent project, a body-positive blog The Guide to the Natural Self. https://www.GuideToTheNaturalSelf.ca/

“My goal with Guide to the Natural Self is to let my light shine, as I examine my thoughts, in hopes that it gives you a view into yourself. And then you can shine forth! I’m working towards radical self-acceptance as a woman in my thirties. Some days I’ll feel like a fraud, trying to guide followers to love themselves. Other days I’ll wish I could drag every beautiful being with me to the top of a mountain to cry out in ecstasy! And it is my searing desire that anyone who follows me will consciously learn about themselves. Even if you completely disagree with me from time to time, it will guide you to your deepest self. May we be adamantly curious, sometimes bold, and frequently vulnerable together!”

Body confidence is a difficult path for many to navigate, and often a journey that you feel you are in alone in. Media today constantly pushing unrealistic body standards to the masses creates this unattainable goal to reach a certain weight or look a certain way. Stretch marks, wrinkles and scars are hardly ever expressed or celebrated creating a society that doesn’t know what real normal bodies look like. Naturism promotes wholesomeness and stability of the human body, mind, and spirit. By shedding the psychological and social encumbrance of clothing, you gain the ability to see and respect the human body as created.

“If you’re reading this and you’re not a naturist, you might think that it’d be hard to be naked, especially socially, if I have these body ‘hang ups’. But it’s amazing what I see in the mirror when it’s all off. It all works together. It looks like me. And I tend to prefer the way I look nude because it does just seem so familiar. Clothing can break up the body visually. Squeeze things up, distract with lines, blocks of colour, rouching.”

If you have ever asked yourself “what if I don’t look good enough to be nude?” the question is exactly why you need to be nude. Naturists take their clothes off for themselves and out of respect for others. Each person is unique and there’s no such thing as a perfect body. Naturism is a form of therapy that will help you realize that bodies come in all shapes and sizes. With time, you’ll come to appreciate that older bodies also reveal the marks of a well-lived life.