Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello my beautiful viewer, I am Cynthia Cherish Malaran, the founder, the face and the yogi
behind Healing House Publishing, and I want you to get to know this yogi. Cindee Rifkin.
Hi, Cynthia. Hi! So great to be here.
So, Cindee and I you might have seen us and our crew recently on the Bethenny Show, talking
a bit about naked yoga, and we felt that it was a little bit, what's the word?
Incomplete.
Incomplete.
That's a really good word.
So we're here to just give you a little bit more information about what naked yoga is,
and what it isn't.
So, what is Naked Yoga, Cindee?
Naked Yoga is a practice. It's a yoga practice and it is done without our clothes on, and
it helps to heal the body, it helps to heal what's inside the body that we don't always
see, and it gives people a chance to really celebrate who they are around the same kind
of people.
So like minded people who are interested in healing and connecting with themselves in
a way that you don't normally do on a regular basis, at home, in private or in public.
Naked yoga is not a lot of things like? it's not weird. It's not a place for people that
aren't seeking a spiritual path.
Right. It's not a place for people to just *** and stare. It's not a place where you
will feel unsafe.
Right, I screen everybody prior for them to come, so everybody who comes into that room,
I have a relationship with.
That's very important, and practicing with Cindee I can attest to it's definitely a safe
space and a very comfortable space and one of the most respectful spaces I have been
in with 9, 10, 11, 12 people and we know we've been in places with 9, 10, and 11 clothed
people that was a very disrespectful space. and this is completely the opposite.
So now you'll hear from some more of us who have something to say about what naked yoga
is for them.
What kind of people practice naked yoga?
Happy, healthy people practice naked yoga.
After my first naked yoga session I felt a number of things. I felt as I said before,
very liberated, I felt taller, confident that I could do now what I am afraid to do, from
anything, from you know, learning how to swim, fear of the water, I just feel like this has
changed me and I am comfortable with my body which is fine because I know I could look
better but I wasn't embarrassed. I wasn't embarrassed and I was just showing the class
this is me and I looked at everybody and everyone was just on the same page, same wavelength,
just enjoying a yoga class, you're just doing it naked and I found it to be a good experience
for me. I just feel better about myself. I feel like I am sexy no matter how much I don't
like my belly or if my *** don't look as perky, I feel like I am comfortable, you
know, I am comfortable with me. It's not about the sexy. It's more I am comfortable with
me.
Just do it. You're not going to know unless you try something that you do not like it.
So you giving this one chance to see if you could do this, because this is a big deal
for a lot of people, but if they fear it they fear it but you they are someone who has a
fear but there is something inside them that wants to try something new this is a good
way to start because I feel that if you can conquer this, you'll conquer the next thing
that you're afraid of.
I think that if you are someone who has issues with your body or has many fears, taking your
clothes off in front of people you do not know and experiencing a yoga class, will be
so liberating for you, that if you have something inside you that wants to try it, but you don't
know what people are going to say, I would just do it, you don't even have to tell anybody.
Just do it for yourself. Do it for you. It's not about, you know, broadcasting it to everybody,
but just do it for you if you feel like there is something about you that you feel you could
do this but you're really shy or you're really insecure, I think you should just go for it.
It's a really good experience, from when I walked in, to when I walked out, completely
two different people.
Before naked yoga, shyness controlled my life.
I was afraid of doing different things. Talk to people.
Now, since, I'm not shy anymore. I do what I want, talk with people, like night and day.
Just to try. You couldn't be more afraid than where I was,
and I tried. You should try.
You should definitely try. Stop letting fear run your life.
I give permission to myself by having confidence. To try new things.
Before, shyness was controlling my life. Since, now I have control.
I recommend naked yoga for anybody who is for whatever reason, drawn to challenging
themselves, to the community, to stepping outside their normal experiences, or to continue
something that maybe they do in the practice of their own homes.
For me, personally, I spent a lot of year trying to maintain my sole residency in my
head. I always defined myself as an academic and
an intellectual, and I was always petrified of my body and the things that my body could
do, and whether or not I could handle my own body, and its own, kind of tendencies and
desires. So it was a chance for me to actually come
face to face with myself in a sense of inhabiting not just my mind but also my body and not
being afraid of my body any longer. Not being worried about what my body was doing
or how it was appearing. In the larger sense it was a chance for me
to step outside of my preconceived notions, my fears, my worries.
And redefine for myself a point of view that in the end has made me much happier, much
healthier and much more comfortable with myself. Before naked yoga, I had a cagey at best relationship
with my body. I wasn't quite sure how to hold myself. I
had this sort of internal idea of how I should be holding myself, or how I should be with
myself, and then I also had an external practical experience of how comfortable I was in those
situations. And through the process of naked yoga, through the process of getting to know
the community, and getting to know Cindee and getting to the approach that everyone
brings to their own practice of it, I've gotten much more comfortable with my body and no
longer think of it as a separate entity. The intention is not about how much can we
build our energy between each other. It's about going in.
And it's about doing it in a group setting which is really profound.
And it's not about comparing our bodies. Well, mainly, it's been really fun.
Because, I've been teaching yoga for years, and the quality of people who come to the
class when it's naked generally are looking for a deeper level of acceptance in their
body and there's a lot of celebration
when you know when you're looking around the room and you're like we've all come here to
breathe deeply and go inward with our clothes off, there's an unparalleled understanding
of trust that is also a healing aspect of the practice.
So if you're scared of trying naked yoga, it's a really great place to be because it's
a doorway then to investigate what is it that feels scary to you. Probably whatever is underneath
that is already happening in your relationship with your body and this is a doorway to start
to investigate that question more deeply. There can be a thrill. Sometimes fear is really
close to excitement and adventure and I have found that naked yoga does and awesome balance
of constructive adventure. And the fact that it does transgress what's normal and usual
is also part of its power. So when you think about a lot of the things
that have transformed your life, if you were to rewind earlier there was probably a lot
of fear and intrigue and that combination is often what I find in people before they
have a breakthrough. Naked yoga is for me personally, a spiritual
awakening. It's about learning how to embrace the body that I was born with. Embracing my
flaws, and learning to gradually, really love myself. When I found Cindee Rifkin's naked
yoga class, it was more like i started to do it and I didn't know what was going to
come out of it, but when I started peeling off my clothes, I started peeling off the
layers of an onion. So it was like all of my emotions started to come out. And through
doing naked yoga I started doing other types of yoga. I started running four days a week.
I have more hope. RIght now I am doing a teacher training program
for yoga and my inspiration was through naked yoga and Cindee Rifkin's yoga class.
I really love it. I really do. it helps me put my past behind me.
I think bullying is a really big thing. Bullying has really affected my life. I never
wanted to live. I've developed healthier friendships. Wonderful
friendships. People that I can laugh with and people that laugh with me instead of at
me. And I will continue to do naked yoga. I absolutely
love it. I would say try it once. And give it a chance.
if you don't like it. That's okay. If you do like it, please continue. It's a wonderful
journey and a beautiful experience. For me, naked yoga is part of my personal
badass self-care practice. I'll never forget the day that Cindee asked me and invited me
to naked yoga class. Yeah. Immediately thoughts of shame, fear
and worry ran through my mind. I remember thinking "how do I get out of this?" "How
do I make up a reason that I can't make it to this class?" "I can't do this class, I
don't want anyone to see my body. I hate my ***!" When I said that in my head it was
like time stood still and I realized, "Did I just say that about my body?"
Here I am, a Holistic Health Coach, coaching other people, men an women about self esteem
issues and loving who they are and here I was not doing that for myself. I really felt
like a hypocrite and I felt like I needed to overcome this. Not for them. Not for anyone.
Not for appearances, but for my own healing. And knowing that there's an abundance of breast
cancer in my family on my father's side, to hear that I was saying that I hate my ***
in my head I realized maybe this is an opportunity for me to emotionally and spiritually just
address that fear and worry that I have. I mean, there is a lot to be said about family
history, but the way we treat ourselves and our bodies and our opinions about ourselves,
I mean, this is what we can control. And I know that loving myself more is just
going to make myself healthier and maintaining that love for myself is really the best thing
I can do. So I decided yes. I'll take the class. I took
the class and it was amazing. In one class I had transformed years and years and years
of shame and I changed immediately. My subway ride home I was not freaked out
by people bumping into me anymore. I wasn't stressed out. I wasn't noticing thing like
muffin tops or slovenliness or double chins because I wasn't feeling hatred towards myself
anymore. And even thought I was already in a very good
place about myself, I still had, what you can call, I guess, remnants of that because
there's always going to be something like that for us to examine. So having that released
just after the first class was incredible for me.
I went home feeling like wow. I really accomplished something.
And in the future classes I would go to knowing that it was such a safe place and community,
and just loving who I was with and loving myself and my body and feeling freer and being
able to walk taller and knowing that I was able to overcome this, I can overcome anything.
It was such a sense of accomplishment. That if you're feeling like any sort of fear or
barriers in your life, maybe it's not the external world that are the barriers. Maybe
it's something within you. And maybe this is something that you want to try. Maybe naked
yoga will help you overcome fears and worries and make you feel like you could accomplish
things that you never thought you could. Naked yoga keeps me young.
I am 72 years old. I like the type of physical activity that yoga supplies for me.
I have never been a competitive athlete. I hated it when I had to play football. I get
really bored when I try to run and I'm just not built for running, I guess.
I have a very hard time going to the gym or exercising alone in my apartment, I just have
a hard time doing that. So, yoga provides me with very, very healthy movement and work,
physical work that as I said initially when I first took a yoga class I said I've always
been pretty limber and I don't want to lose that. I feel that's what I get because I am
maintaining it. Now, you add the naked part to it and I really enjoy the feeling of freedom
that people get when they are naked together in a non *** environment, appreciating
each other, connecting with each other, without self consciousness, and we are a very close
knit group in this class. We are not cliquey at all.
Because someone who comes for the first time, by the end of the class is very much a part
of our little community because we have been so open and so un self conscious with each
other and it's healthy and I do that because I really like it.
Well I hope now you have a better understanding of what naked yoga is and is not. To find
out more about naked yoga and the other programs that Cindee offers such as: Such as corporate
yoga, Yoga for 12 Step Recovery and Yoga for Teenage Girls, go to her site at cindeerifkin.com
Thank you. Thank you.