Nude Retreat Photography

Hey. Hey listener.

Do you have a nude story about how nudity has been healing for you and would you like to share your story on this podcast? If you're interested in sharing your story, all you gotta do is email me@caricaricott.com share with me why you want to share your story. Two bullets of how nudity has been healing for you and I'll let you know exactly what it looks like, what it entails to be a guest on this show. I look forward to your email. Happy listening.

Thank you for tuning in your consciousness to the Naked Human podcast. I want to acknowledge your presence and what it took for you to be here today. Listening My intention for you is that you receive what you came here for and find what you didn't know you needed. This part podcast is about what it. Means to be a human being and what it really means to be naked and how our relationship with Mother Nature has the power to heal us.

My name is Cari Cai and I'm a new to nature photographer, licensed physician of Chinese medicine plant guide and wild woman embodiment mentor. I help women heal from sexual trauma, awaken their authentic voice, and distinguish between fear and intuition so they can be led by their deep feminine heart. I bring to life in this podcast my own internal wisdom. I will only share what I've learned and experienced on a personal level.

As you listen, I encourage you to take from this what you need and just trash the rest. So happy listening. Retreat Photography I am going to break this down, bring some clarity, bring the clarity to this conversation, address questions that commonly come up and just speak into this aspect of the experiences that I facilitate for the women that are interested and wanting to join. A very common question that I receive is is photography mandatory?

And I believe that I received these particular questions because we're naked, right? Like we're naked in these retreats. So I really get why these conversations show up and what is, you know, what's all included in the photography and what does that even mean? So is it mandatory? No, it's not mandatory and there's a caveat to that. And so no, like you are at freedom of choice to not partake in the photography experience.

And the photographic experience is included in all my retreats for a particular reason. It's another layer of being witnessed and being seen by another and by yourself. So it's like you leave a voice note for a friend or a voicemail or something like that, and then your friend receives that and they're able to witness you in your voice in that note, and then you listen to your. To that voice note or voicemail that you left for your friend, and then it's you being able to witness yourself.

So that was just an example, like a mirrored example of the photography piece. So it's about being seen in this really intimate and vulnerable way, and then you being able to witness and see yourself in ways that you haven't seen yourself before. Because how many of us, first of all, have nude photographs of ourselves? And if we do, were we in the moment of an experience, Were we having a process? Were we really just feeling something super, super deeply?

So there's just this really unique texture and flavor to the photography experience. The question of is it mandatory? Typically comes in connection with women not wanting their photographs to be publicly shared. So having your photographs publicly shared, like on my social media or my website or something like that is not mandatory. I've had actually multiple women come to my retreats who didn't want their face shown or they didn't want any part of their body shown.

Like sharing their face was okay, all these were had in conversations and communicated, yes, that's workable, or no, that's not workable. So if you have a question at any point about the photography piece or any aspects of coming to an event and you want to calm and you need clarity, you can always book a discovery call or send me an email, and I'm happy to connect with you about whatever showing up for you. So there, you know, if you have a request or a need or a question about that, I always.

The space that I come from is that we can create anything in conversation and we can take a look together, and I can help clarify those pieces. And the women that, for example, might not want their face publicly shown, they still want the private photographs for themselves, and so they get to partake in that experience. And some women are like, I would like to have approval, like, this photo is okay. This photo is okay to be shared. And my intention is, is.

Is not coming from this space that, like, I need these photographs because I have to share them. It's. It's just not about that. And if there's women who do want to share photographs, then that gets to be at their choice. There are typically, generally photographs that are shared publicly, but they. They're not exposing naked bodies.

They may be women like hugging, showing emotion through their face, things like that that aren't showing their full nudity and certainly not exposing on the Internet, you know, their breasts, their yonis. And so it's not mandatory.

And there are particular retreats where the photography piece is a pivotal piece of the medicine. So, for example, the Earth yoni retreat happening October 2024, there's such a pivotal piece of photography integrated into the experience. It's like a root medicine to that particular journey. And we have two women, myself and Amanda Carson, who are nude photographers. So we're really bringing in that medicine to this particular retreat.

Now, if you want to attend this retreat and not have photographs shared with you externally, that is completely welcomed in this space. But if you don't want any photographs of you taken at all, then this most likely, this particular retreat is most likely just not for you.

And also in this particular retreat, we're going to have some fun moments of taking photographs together for like, the purpose of art and beauty and expression in a different intentional way with other women, like playing and getting in these different positions and, you know, like playing with the earth and each other and making fun, beautiful art. And that all gets to be a choice. That all gets to be a choice in that participation. So it's.

It's also similar to the aspect of being completely naked. When it's a root piece of the medicine, it's the invitation to partake in it. And if you're not there yet, that's okay. And if you want to come and the photography piece is a big part of it and you don't want to partake in that, that's okay. And it also means that that particular retreat might not be the right fit for you.

Like a different journey where the photography is there and it's a part of the experience, but it's not like one of the stars or the super highlights of the experience, then one of those journeys is going to be a better fit and that is okay. I literally have had women from all sides of the spectrum of I don't want any photographs taken of me to. I'm really open to the whole entire photographic part of the journey. So just really want to communicate that.

That there's no place that you need to be or not be within the experience and also illuminating that there is medicine in the photographs and being witnessed and then receiving the photos and witnessing yourself. Because to be seen is so vulnerable.

And I have it that we're all yearning to be seen and witnessed. And this is about leaning into that uncomfortability into those places, especially being naked.

And then to be able to witness yourself and to be with the parts of you that have opened and you can see more of your beauty and you can see beauty in places that you haven't before within yourself and where you can also be with the places where you're still hurt, where you're still judging yourself, where there's tenderness and, and that's a part of this medicine, is to be able to be with that. And that can be just hella scary. I get it.

Even as someone who started an aspect of this particular part of my journey with nudity and photography, I've had to look at a lot of naked photographs of myself and some I really love. And at times there's, there's lots that I don't love and I haven't loved. And it's just about love leaning into that and being a stand for yourself to get access to your deeper truth, to get connection to more of you. And this is an avenue, an opportunity to do that through.

So it's not mandatory and some particular retreats. It is a pivotal, important piece to the journey. And as always, everything starts with a conversation and I'm here for it.

Until next time, we are complete. Thank you for tuning your consciousness to this episode of the Naked Human. However you find yourself, whether it's relieved, enlightened, triggered, or as if the past minutes were a complete waste of your time, it's perfect. Be present to it and allow it to be the medicine you need. I welcome your feedback and heartfelt reflections of how this episode impacted you.

You can share with me online@thenakedhumanpodcast.com and if you're feeling called for a more personalized experience into your nakedness, I invite you to join our community of wild women in person or online. You can find more specifics@thenakedhumanpodcast.com and until next time, bye.