I did some personal grooming before attending my first Naked Yoga class. Appearing unkempt in the buff was just one of the things I was anxious about beforehand: I went to the gym four times in the week preceding to feel confident I’d look my fittest in full view, and even still, I couldn’t help but think about the eyeful my classmates might get in my more contorted moments. Other than that, I had no hesitations. I’ve been doing yoga for almost a decade, so I imagined that, other than being bare as the day I was born, it would be yoga as usual. And I was mostly right…

Naked in Motion is a yoga group that holds a two hour yoga session on Saturday afternoons at La Luz, the beautiful multi use studio space on Thames Street between Porter and Varick avenues. The group, which is currently comprised of three instructors (but is looking for additional ones, according to its website), also holds a Wednesday night class in north Chelsea, as well as a monthly women only (and notably non-trans exclusionary) yoga class at a secret location “around the the full moon.” The Bushwick class, which costs $15 (a standard rate for yoga in the neighborhood, for those unfamiliar with pricing) starts with 45 minutes of flow-oriented Vinyasa yoga and wraps up with pose-oriented Yin yoga. All attendees need to bring is a mat, a towel and a water bottle.

The room the class was held in was a normal space for a yoga class with a large street-facing window in the front. There were no eye level buildings across the way, and no way to see inside from the street. So while a big window onto my nakedness might normally be uncomfortable, all the natural light was actually comforting.