Why You Should Do 'Topless' Yoga
Participants in a Topless yoga class at the Peter Tunney art gallery in Miami. (Photo: Matt Roy)
After struggling for over 10 years with disordered eating, switching from becoming a straight-size to plus-size model, and getting liposuction more than a dozen times, Emily Nolan decided she had to finally find a way to love her body.
“I was doing things for the industry, not out of self-love,” she tells Yahoo Health. I would have a better career if I get this done, she would think to herself, “but I didn’t feel better. I felt worse. And I just kept spiraling.”
So she decided to do yoga topless. “I said, ‘I want to feel healthy right now in this body, and I know I am, but I don’t want to feel like I need to be skinny to feel healthy,’” she explains. “I got a group of my friends [who are all involved in the wellness industry] together and we went to the beach and did a yoga class and body meditation in sports bras.”
Emily Nolan. (Photo courtesy of Emily Nolan)
Taking her top off and exposing her insecurities was her way of giving herself permission to be honest with herself — an act of radical acceptance. “The practice of surrender is so scary especially when you feel the way I felt, like there’s nothing worse than looking at my body,” she explains. Little did she know her bravery would help change other women’s lives too.
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She videotaped the event and posted it for her readers on her blog My Kind of Life, to show what healthy looks like: women of all sizes, with belly rolls or without them, with big and small breasts, with thighs that stick together or barely touch.
To help women expose their insecurities and radically accept — and love —themselves, Nolan turned topless yoga into a non-profit organization, Topless. She travels around the country co-teaching hour-long vinyasa flow classes for women (men used to come too, but Nolan says she decided to limit it to women because they feel safer in that environment). She opens each one by sharing her personal struggles with body image, disordered eating, and plastic surgery — all things she used to be ashamed to talk to her own mother about. She then lets the women know that they should remove their tops only when they feel comfortable doing so. The structure of each class differs, but one thing remains the same: By the end, everyone has removed her top and is practicing in just a sports bra.
Emily Nolan leads a Topless yoga class at the Peter Tunney art gallery in Miami. (Photo: Matt Roy)
“Everyone takes her shirt off at a different moment,” Nolan explains. “Whenever you feel you’re ready to reveal your true self, when you’re feeling empowered and brave, then you take your shirt off.” Oftentimes, there are tears, she says. “Close your eyes and picture a room full of women in all different sizes, sitting in a circle staring at each other and allowing ourselves to just be in our bodies, often for the first time,” she says. “It’s so powerful.”
Whenever Emily teaches a class, she teams up with a yoga teacher in the area to lead it. Kathryn Budig, a renowned yoga teacher and author of The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga and a Yahoo Health Advisory Board member, teamed up with Nolan recently to teach Topless at Summit at Sea, a four-day summit for leaders in business and culture. “The actual result was powerful: a group of women who let their inhibitions drop, opened their perspective and hearts, and entrusted us to guide them through the journey,” she says.
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Self-love is at the heart of yoga, making it the perfect activity to go topless. “It’s about letting go of harsh reactions, and being able to step back and observe,” Budig adds. Yoga provides that perfect opportunity to step outside your head, get away from the negative self-talk, and see the big picture: “that we don’t desire this black hole of negativity and self-loathing — we all desire acceptance, self-love, and even beyond that, radical happiness,” Budig says.
All poses are helpful when the right intention is applied to them, Budig explains, but it seems that the poses that may not be particularly flattering can be the most transformative. “When you sit in yoga pants, they roll down sometimes at the waist,” Nolan explains. “Think about why it bothers you, uncover what’s true. If they’re rolling below your belly and you can’t breathe, then roll them up. If it’s because you want to look like you have a flat belly, let them stay there.” She tells students to embrace the uncomfortable feeling.
“The point of a yoga pose isn’t to look good, it’s to FEEL good,” Budig adds. “If we can remember that concept through asana, we’re gold.”
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In the end, the biggest success of Topless is the conversation it sparks. “Usually what I hear immediately after it is, ‘Thank you so much for being so vulnerable and sharing. Your story is my story.’”
Get Confident Without Going Topless
Can’t make it to one of Nolan’s classes? Here are a few other ways to boost your confidence and embrace self-love.
Remember what’s true.
When you’re flipping through a magazine telling you how to lose 10 pounds or prep for bikini season, Nolan says to stop and reevaluate what’s true. “What’s true is I’m running half marathons, I’m conscious of what I’m putting in my body, I have a great relationship with my husband,” she says. “That’s true, and I am healthy and in control of my life.”
Take a #HealthyBelly selfie.
“Some people make a big stink that social media isn’t healthy, but I think it’s great if you use it in the right way,” says Nolan. On Instagram, she asks women to post a “Healthy Belly Selfie” — an unedited photo of their bellies, explaining why they’re healthy. She says the feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and seeing women encourage and support each other (with almost no negative Nancies ruining the feel-good mojo), shows how Instagram can truly be a vehicle of change.
Admire yourself.
If the transformation doesn’t happen at the event, Nolan says it happens a week or two later. “Hopefully, they look in the mirror and say ‘I love you,’ or spend some extra time getting dressed, or putting on lotion and really appreciating their bodies.” Take a few extra minutes each day to show your body some love, either with a little self-massage, or just luxuriating with a fancy body lotion or scrub.
Nurture your soul.
“Remember that we all deserve to be happy. That we’re wasting precious time defining ourselves by how we physically look,” Budig says. Our bodies are amazing vessels and need to be cared for, fueled properly, and appreciated. But people ultimately love us for our souls. “Focus on nurturing your attitude, your sense of humor, your ability to love and be empathetic — this makes a glorious human being.”
Body-Peace Resolution is Yahoo Health’s January initiative to motivate you to pursue wellness goals that are not vanity-driven, but that strive for more meaningful outcomes. We’re talking strength, mental fitness, self-acceptance — true and total body peace. Our big hope: This month of resolutions will inspire a body-peace revolution. Want to join us? Start by sharing your own body-positive moments on social media using the hashtag #bodypeaceresolution
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