New to cuddling but I found this book, Cuddle Sutra. Is anyone else familiar with the book? Is it useful for newbies? I like that illustrates every cuddle position.
I would venture to say it’s our bible;)
It's amazing, just got a copy myself. Trying to take the advice of a wise cuddler and land somewhere between lab coat wearing cuddling and lingerie wearing escort lite cuddling. So finding my own style, my own arsenal of positions, my comfort level. Think I'm on the right track and this book is amazing.
But really @NCRBDB ~ kinda an odd question, does it look useful? Advice to you from someone with many hard knocks in life and an overabundance of life experience. Be yourself, don't try and put on what someone thinks you should wear, it won't fit properly. Be an individual not a mass produced copy. If it feels right it is; for you, and you are the one you need to answer to, no one else. If you can't be completely lazed out relaxed after a cuddle session, if you have any niggly nagging doubts about what happened then mark that on the list of things you won't do anymore and move on.
That being said, it depends on how reserved or free you are with your body. Some of the positions aren't a good choice for first cuddles or for a cuddler that you may be unsure of their true intentions. Some cuddlers will never be comfortable with some of the positions in there. So leave them out and use the ones you enjoy, adapt the ones that feel a little off and throw the rest out! It's an excellent field guide along with Touch by Samantha Hess. Be warned though, there are at least 7 books titled Touch! I found that out the hard way.
I looked at the free PDF version online and I didn't feel it lived up to the hype. Worth a browse though... :-/
I was given this when I first started cuddling professionally; I feel it may be useful for those who don't know much about cuddling or haven't done it much, but for someone who's cuddled for many years and in many different situations it seemed pretty useless. The positions are either obvious for cuddling or nothing I would consider cuddling (I like physical contact and many of the positions are either no contact or only toes touching etc). Not useful for me; perhaps useful for others.
If you want to learn how to cuddle, my advice is to just start doing it and play around with positions. Have fun with it!
Good luck!
The less physical contact positions are GREAT for clients who are new to cuddling (and a bit nervous) or who are recovering from trauma. I have had sessions where all I did (after just talking for some of the session) was hold hands. The session is about what the client wants and needs, not me, so sometimes there really is little touch actually happening.