A year ago if you asked me if Alan and I were Naturists, I would have said yes. I would have thought it meant we were lovers of Nature and all things natural. The Naked Truth was masked from me. Little did I know what it really meant, especially here in Europe.
Flashback to 2013:
You see Naturist is synonymous with Nudist! Was I that naive? I guess so.
The weather is beginning to warm now and more and more people are out on the beaches. If you recall, we let you know how the kids were exposed to culture upon arrival. Well you see there are also “Naturist” beaches just about everywhere you go. There is one in particular less than a 10 minute walk away from our house.
The Naked Truth
The truth of the matter is, Alan and I want to embrace the culture and just feel as “local” as we can. You know “When in Rome…”, but going to Naturist beach would be crossing the line. You see we both have had some really open-hearted conversations recently. We both can not begin to explain how much we love each other, but the problem is….we don’t love ourselves (our bodies) as much. Why are we this way? How did we learn this behaviour? Is it the “conservative” American culture or just the way we were born? How can we tackle this quickly and love every inch of our body as the other loves us?
People here in Spain / Europe don’t seem to have this poor body image problem that we Americans do. They seem to have no problem at all wearing those skin-tight pants/shirts, the tiny speedo or bikini with or without that perfect body. They don’t even mind going topless or in their “Nubs” (the buff). Why are they all so comfortable in their own skin? How can they be so casual about their fat, cellulite, thinness, wrinkles, freckles, scars and small/large body parts?
I began to wonder if this is just American thinking. Are we raised to be judgmental of others and ourselves? Are we our own worst enemies? I can’t even count how many times I have overheard someone say in the U.S. “She shouldn’t be wearing that.” or “What is he thinking?” when they see someone showing off a less than perfect body.
Why are we like this? Who gave us the right to judge others so harshly. Perhaps hearing these comments from others, about others, my entire life has conditioned me to assume it is being said about me behind my back as well. Heck, I even say it about me in my own mind. I love to wear tank tops when it is warm. It is out of comfort and I tell myself I don’t really don’t care what other people think. The problem is I do and sometimes I can catch the look on their face and know they say these things behind my back.
You know it is funny when a friend says something negative about themselves, I often am shocked that they think that of themselves What they see isn’t what I see in them at all. I think they are beautiful and didn’t even notice that little thing they are obsessed over. I wish I knew why we continually are cruel to ourselves in one way or another. No one deserves that type of attention, especially not from ourselves!
The Naturist Experiment
Then the idea for the Naturist experiment crashed upon my brain. “KABOOM!” We have a tendency to like to face our fears head-on in our family. We like to push each other out of our comfort zones and realize it wasn’t as bad as all that. So with a huge gasp for breath, I run the idea past Alan and see if he is okay with the experiment and he was! Wow, that was a shock. Now it is real and the next thing to do is to tell you.
Today I am telling you we are going to embrace the culture. While the kids are at school Alan and I are going to attempt to be comfortable in our own skin. We are going to go to that Naturist Beach and “be Romans” for a while. We are going to face this poor self-image head on and love ourselves. OMG, I am so not sure we can do this. Talk about getting out of your comfort zone. This is a new comfort zone planet for me. I don’t even feel comfy wearing a bathing suit at the beach! It is difficult even typing this and knowing you are reading it.
Tell us your thoughts below. I know this isn’t like us, so be honest. Is this crossing the line for a family blog? Do you think we can really do it? Do you think it will change our perspective on things? Are we just being stupid? Would you do this? Have you done this?
Please do tell us your thoughts. Within the next week or so we will submit a follow-up post, with the complete Naked Truth about our experience (G-rated) of course.
UPDATE: We did it!
Do you want to know what we thought? We each tell you what was going on in our crazy minds, so check it out!