On the health benefits of being naked

It’s easy to find an article on the health benefits of being naked. After a short Internet search you will be informed of the following.

Sleeping in the nude can “aid you in getting a better night’s sleep”.

• Sleeping naked allows you to “reach an optimal temperature” “between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit” (15 and 19 degrees Celsius);
• “sleeping nude can help decrease stress”.

Avoiding “restrictive clothing and undergarments” is great for healthy skin.

• Restrictive clothing “often leave indentations and marks all over our bodies” and lead to “drying and wrinkling of the skin”;
• “wearing restrictive clothing can cause excessive sweating which may lead to inflammation of the skin follicles, rashes and breakouts”;
• going bare helps to eliminate “sweat toxins that clothing can reintroduce to the body and better overall blood circulation”.

“Taking your nudity outdoors” increases your immune system.

• Outdoor nudity not only “boosts your vitamin D intake and your mood”, but “also it can help improve your circulation, and detoxify the skin”;
• researchers have found out “that our bodies are better at absorbing Vitamin D from sunlight than supplements, and while exposing your skin to the sun for too long can have serious consequences, the dose of sunshine you get if you sneak outside for 10-15 minutes will be the best natural mood booster”.

There’s an important “mental component to embracing your nude body“.

• “Spending time in the nude is a great way to get in touch with your body”;
• “being in the nude reduces shame”;
• “spending more time naked improved your self-esteem and decreased body image dissatisfaction”;
• “since it’s typically harder to spend time in your birthday suit as you go about your day” you can “try making it a habit as you’re getting ready to hit the sheets so you can get your daily dose of nudity-induced confidence”. [1,2]

It is also claimed that:

• when you stay naked you burn more fat;
• being naked more often saves on buying new clothing;
• spending more time naked will allow you to feel better in your clothes;
• appearing naked in front of others will show the world the real you;
• being nude is fun [3].

Reading such texts, with mentions of the latest scientific studies, can go on almost indefinitely. What is more important is personal experience. I was sick for several months and finally broke up with the virus disease only after I was able to drop my clothes. I have no doubt that being naked is exceptionally good for my health. I have made it my habit to remain naked indoors for as long as possible (during the warm season especially). I am no longer ashamed of my nakedness and I have almost stopped blushing painfully when someone sees me completely naked.

Right now I see only one problem. It would be really nice to find a way to spend more time in my birthday suit outdoors as I go about my day. Among other things, this will seriously reduce my clothing expenses.

Hi, I’m Vadim. And I’m naked.
Selfie in Spring by Vadim aka t-maker

References

[1] The health benefits of being naked: How stripping down is good for you – Today https://www.today.com/health/health-benefits-being-naked-how-stripping-down-good-you-t44911

[2] 8 Benefits of Sleeping Naked:Do You Sleep With Clothes? – Casper https://casper.com/blog/benefits-of-sleeping-naked/

[3] 10 Reasons Why You Should Get Naked More Often by Bobbi Klein – lifehack.org https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-reasons-why-you-should-get-naked-more-often.html

On Nude Selfies

It’s hard to write something new about selfies. Everyone knows that the word “selfie” was announced the word of the year for 2013 (by the Oxford Dictionaries). Wikipedia defines “selfie” as “a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. Selfies are often shared on social networking services” [1].

The first photographic portrait ever taken is considered by many to be the first “selfie”. It was taken in 1839 by “an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius” [2]. Another point of view is that “people have taken self-portraits since the 1880s, when camera shutters with self-timers were first available. This increased in 1900 with the debut of the portable Kodak Brownie box” [3]. According to Oxford Dictionaries, the earliest usage of the term – “so far anyway” – was in September 13, 2002 in an ABC Online science forum posting [4,5].

People are taking selfies, trying to find self discovery and self-acceptance, due to boredom or simply for memories. “The abundance of selfies also quite simply allows us to see more images of a far wide range of people” [6].

If you are a nudist and you take a selfie, there’s a high probability that it would be a nude selfie. Many people are outraged by nudity for unknown reasons and, of course, those offended by the sight of naked man or woman cannot “just look away” [7]. There’s a dilemma. On the one hand, you don’t want to harm anybody’s feelings. On the other hand, it seems quite ridiculous to put on clothes just to take a selfie.

The wrong cultural understanding of nudity has a long history. More than 400 years ago, Michel de Montaigne opposed treatment of nudity as something taboo. In his Essays (Book III/Chapter V) he wrote about men’s “natural furniture”

… it were a chaster and more fruitful usage to let them [women] know the fact as it is betimes, than permit them to guess according to the liberty and heat of their own fancy; instead of the real parts they substitute, through hope and desire, others that are three times more extravagant …

and continued

what do we know but that Plato, after other well-instituted republics, ordered that the men and women, old and young, should expose themselves naked to the view of one another, in his gymnastic exercises, upon that very account … [8]

Montaigne argues that “the wearing of clothing for humans is only a custom” [9]. And there is nothing wrong in having different views on customs.

References
1. Selfie – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. Robert Cornelius’ Self-Portrait The First Ever “Selfie” (1839) | The Public Domain Review
3. Albert Costill, 13 Things You Should Know About the ‘Word of the Year’ – Selfie | Search Engine Journal
4. Australia stand up and take a ‘selfie’
5. This photo, posted on ABC Online, is the world’s first known ‘selfie’ – ABC News
6. Jill Walker Rettberg, Why people say they take selfies | jill/txt
7. Rosie Yates, Why are we so outraged by nudity? – Concrete
8. The Essays of Montaigne by Michel de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton
9. Stefanie Hollmichel, Montaigne the Nudist?

Nude Selfie. Self-portrait 04/01/13 by Vadim aka t-maker | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

P.S. This nude selfie is from the set uploaded to Flickr. The images were taken with iPhone using a Hipstamatic app for iOS.

Hello world!

Hi, my name is Vadim. I’m a photographer and nudist from Eastern Europe. As a nudist, I believe that only without clothes we can reveal our true self. I promote a nudist lifestyle, in particular, by making nude self-portraits. You’ll see some of them in my posts.

Me in the nude

The naked man in the photo above is me. I posed for this photo on July 9, 2008. Does it upset you that you have seen me nude? Some people think that nudity is indecent, while other believe that nudity creates a sense of freedom. Is nudity offensive indeed? I’ll write on this and other subjects in my blog.

Several times I started blogs, but after a few posts I gave up. This time I’ve decided to start from the very beginning and hold on. Below you can see the image I’ve chosen for the header of my new Vadimage Blog. It depicts the lake in Kiev on the left bank of the Dnieper river. I took this photo on April 25, 2009. This not my best and most valuable shot, but I think it suits with the theme.

Lakeside by Vadim aka t-maker | Flickr – Photo Sharing!