B.C. yogi exposes Vancouver to naked yoga.
Before they drop $98 on a pair of Lululemon pants, a British Columbia yoga instructor is urging Vancouverites to try this new trend in the ancient spiritual practice: naked yoga.
Chandra Lokah, who teaches yoga and meditation in Kelowna, is bringing her women-only clothing-optional yoga class to the Sacred Space Community Studio in Kitsilano on Saturday.
She said the workshop is designed to inspire yoga practitioners and help uncover their “authentic being.”
“Getting naked is a metaphor for taking off layers, not only physical clothes but also the mental and spiritual aspects,” she told Metro. “It’s about realizing that the external clothes that we wear are not important. When we take off our clothes, we realize that we are all the same. “
Nude yoga is not a new trend in B.C.
Fellow Kelowna yoga instructor Suzie Doratti has been leading nude yoga classes since 2010. In the coastal community of Metchosin on Vancouver Island, Skyclad Yoga has also offered clothing-optional yoga closes for both men and women since 2006.
But Saturday’s class, which is being offered by donation, is believed to be the first women-only naked yoga class to be held in Vancouver. (Nude Dude Yoga offers a tantric workshop at its West End location in Vancouver, but that class is for men only.)
Lokah said she came up with the idea to teach clothing-optional yoga after reflecting on her own personal experience feeling uncomfortable in the nude.
Growing up overweight, she said she lost weight as an adult and became incredibly self-conscious about her body. It was only after she started embracing nudity at home and eventually at nude beaches and in the yoga studio that she started to feel confident in her own skin.
Last summer, she said she was hiking in the buff with a friend when the idea came to her.
Realizing how commercialized yoga has become, with many students becoming more concerned with how they look, instead of how they feel, she said she wanted to help yogis realize that wearing expensive brands like Lululemon doesn't define them as a person.
At her first nude yoga class in Kelowna, she said many women at first said they would be keeping their clothes on. But once they were in a “safe space” with only women, they all quickly stripped down for the class, she said.
“It’s hard for people to take their clothes off and be vulnerable,” she said. “But when everyone is in the same boat, and it’s female only, we realize that we’re all just here expressing and doing the postures and the breathing in order to become healthier and happier and more peaceful.”
In a world where women are often bombarded with images of unrealistic beauty standards, Lokah said naked yoga can help many women accept their bodies and gain confidence.
“Everyone has had a lot of amazing experiences realizing their own beauty and realizing that there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “They’re just as beautiful and human and weird as everyone else.”
Naked, a female-only yoga class, starts 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Sacred Space Community Studio on West 4th Avenue. Guests are asked to bring a paper and pen to take part in a journal meditation exercise. Yoga mats are not necessary, and the class is by donation only.
Before they drop $98 on a pair of Lululemon pants, a British Columbia yoga instructor is urging Vancouverites to try this new trend in the ancient spiritual practice: naked yoga.
Chandra Lokah, who teaches yoga and meditation in Kelowna, is bringing her women-only clothing-optional yoga class to the Sacred Space Community Studio in Kitsilano on Saturday.
She said the workshop is designed to inspire yoga practitioners and help uncover their “authentic being.”
“Getting naked is a metaphor for taking off layers, not only physical clothes but also the mental and spiritual aspects,” she told Metro. “It’s about realizing that the external clothes that we wear are not important. When we take off our clothes, we realize that we are all the same. “
Nude yoga is not a new trend in B.C.
Fellow Kelowna yoga instructor Suzie Doratti has been leading nude yoga classes since 2010. In the coastal community of Metchosin on Vancouver Island, Skyclad Yoga has also offered clothing-optional yoga closes for both men and women since 2006.
But Saturday’s class, which is being offered by donation, is believed to be the first women-only naked yoga class to be held in Vancouver. (Nude Dude Yoga offers a tantric workshop at its West End location in Vancouver, but that class is for men only.)
Lokah said she came up with the idea to teach clothing-optional yoga after reflecting on her own personal experience feeling uncomfortable in the nude.
Growing up overweight, she said she lost weight as an adult and became incredibly self-conscious about her body. It was only after she started embracing nudity at home and eventually at nude beaches and in the yoga studio that she started to feel confident in her own skin.
Last summer, she said she was hiking in the buff with a friend when the idea came to her.
Realizing how commercialized yoga has become, with many students becoming more concerned with how they look, instead of how they feel, she said she wanted to help yogis realize that wearing expensive brands like Lululemon doesn't define them as a person.
At her first nude yoga class in Kelowna, she said many women at first said they would be keeping their clothes on. But once they were in a “safe space” with only women, they all quickly stripped down for the class, she said.
“It’s hard for people to take their clothes off and be vulnerable,” she said. “But when everyone is in the same boat, and it’s female only, we realize that we’re all just here expressing and doing the postures and the breathing in order to become healthier and happier and more peaceful.”
In a world where women are often bombarded with images of unrealistic beauty standards, Lokah said naked yoga can help many women accept their bodies and gain confidence.
“Everyone has had a lot of amazing experiences realizing their own beauty and realizing that there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “They’re just as beautiful and human and weird as everyone else.”
Naked, a female-only yoga class, starts 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Sacred Space Community Studio on West 4th Avenue. Guests are asked to bring a paper and pen to take part in a journal meditation exercise. Yoga mats are not necessary, and the class is by donation only.
