Have you ever gone to the gym and worn loose-fitting clothes that almost covered you from neck down, just because you didn’t want others to see your flab, sags, and other embarrassing “assets”? Then you should probably try naked yoga.

If you think that naked yoga is about doing yoga naked, then you couldn’t be more right. Naked or nude yoga indeed is practicing yoga without clothes on. It was popularized in the west in the late 60’s when some filmmakers depicted it in their movies. And not long after, groups teaching naked yoga slowly started sprouting out. The first groups, however, had been mostly for male only and had few students. But what can one expect? Even if you belong to one of the most liberal-minded nations in the west, you probably would still know about physical personal privacy, which is, not showing your naked body to total strangers.

Today, this kind of yoga has already gained considerable popularity even among women. Most classes are just all-male or all-female, but many yogis are now also holding co-ed classes in which they don’t run out of students. So, you might ask, how could all these people do the whole mind-body-spirit yogic exercises while being butt-naked in the presence of other people? The answer: they just let go.

Different yogis have different ways of instructing students in naked yoga classes. Some let their students mingle, while some don’t, because they want to make it clear that their classes aren’t for people merely looking for romantic partners. But one thing is the same among nude yoga instructors: they will all do their best to put you at ease in their class.

Yogis help their students let go of embarrassment and any uncomfortable feeling by telling them that one’s body is a temple that contains oneself. Clothes are merely materials used to protect the body and are not extensions of the body. Thus, one should not feel any discomfort when removing his or her clothes. Clothes, as yogis say, are not really in accordance to the principles of yoga. They aren’t referring to the clothes per se, but to clothes as symbols of social division, materialism, and lack of respect for one’s body.

Well, isn’t it true? People wear clothes to show they are distinguished and have money to spend. People judge other people by their clothes. People wear and don’t wear certain types of clothes, because they want to hide their bodily imperfections—scars, sagging breasts, birthmarks, stunted manhood, cellulite, etc. And thus, people don’t accept themselves—their bodies, especially—as they are.

As for letting other people see what your mother only saw when you we’re a baby, yogis would tell you that you should not be embarrassed because we are all part of nature; we are equal, we are the same, and we are one. Thus, you should think of other naked bodies as something natural. And, just as with your own body, think of other’s bodies as sacred temples you should respect. In this way, you get to respect others’ bodies and accept your own as it is.

But aside from these “freeing one’s body” reasons, naked yoga also gives the advantage of letting the yogi see the actual alignment of the student’s body. Even with body-fitting clothes or so-called yoga outfits, the yogi might still miss what the student is doing wrong in a yogic posture or asana.

Having done yoga using only their yoga mat, some naked yoga practitioners find it indeed a better way to do yoga. So why not try it yourself? At least you wouldn’t have to worry about butt crack peeping while you do certain poses.