Man to Man topics

For many years I occasionally had unpleasant dreams where I was out in public and discovered that I was naked! What could I do to keep on going and have nobody notice the fact that I had no clothes on, how could I get out of the situation? These started when I was about 10 years old and I would find myself in an aisle of the 5&10 without a garment to my name! Over the years I came to understand these dreams as expressions of insecurities about something or other -- not about nudity itself, that was just symbolic.

A few years back I began doing some daytime nude hiking at a long clothing optional beach. I enjoyed the solitude of the walks but did encounter other people, most of whom were nude as well although sometimes some were not. The area was secluded and well-known locally for it's being clothing optional. People wouldn't just come into it by mistake and not know where they were. So it was no problem for me the first time during a hike when I met two middle-aged couples, fully clothed, hiking towards me. I stopped, exchanged pleasantries and headed on. I felt I had been assertive -- a nude male is assertive in his nudity -- and the exchange had gone well with neither side feeling particularly funny or acting as if anything unusual had taken place. Actually I felt really good that I had been so comfortable in being nude in front of them. And that apparently it had been no big deal for them, either.

Apparently the event was a big deal for my subconscious: I haven't had a single dream since about being nude in a public place and feeling threatened and inadequate. In fact these days I really do feel much more comfortable about myself, my body and my relationship to the world at large. I don't attribute this positive change entirely to nude hiking -- but I guess it must have helped!

Have any of you had experiences which were something like this one I had? Would be interesting to share thoughts.