Sunday Stroke Survival: Ya Gotta Love Those Mini Tropical Vacations

I keep telling y'all, it's all about attitude. How you perceive things in and around you can make or break whether you are content and happy, or miserable and unhappy.

The way you function after a stroke is no different. You are more likely to be more productive and successful with a positive attitude than a grumpy, discontented, and negative attitude.

It's a fact of life that, if you are female, the change of life (menopause) will occur if you live long enough. One of the side effects of this is hot flashes. I look at these as personal global warming events or mini tropical vacations. They are absolutely miserable in the height of summer or a welcome burst of heat in the winter. Everybody and their sister touts a "fix" for this condition. It's that big of a thing. A huge multi billion dollar industry is devoted to relieving them.

My conjecture is... why bother? Yes, it's a physiological body reaction to the end of the productive cycle of your life, by why try to fix something that is natural and unbroken. Just like the real global warming, be it man made, or a natural occurring cycle... it happens. Accept it and move on. It's all about attitude.

For me, I look at them as mini tropical vacations. Let me grab a pineapple juice, my sunglasses, a fan, and lie back in a lounge chair basking in the heat of the sun. It's  an honest to God, me time. Nobody else can enjoy these moments with me. It's all about me. How many times can women actually say that!


It being winter in the northern hemisphere has it's advantages. When one of these moments hits, I can grab a t-shirt or tank top to wear. It could be freezing or below outside, but I'm in my own tropical paradise lounging on the beach. How cool is that? Wish I could take y'all with me while you are crouched beside a heater, in your heavy sweaters trying to get warm. My internal heater is working overtime.

I'm lying on a beach in 80 degrees weather basking in the sun. While you are turning various shades of blue because of the cold, look at the rosy, sun kissed glow on my cheeks. Your hands are cold and going numb with it? Grab hold of my arm, your hands will be toasty in no time. Have blankets up to your nose in bed and still cold? Come on over for a snuggle.

Yes, there are definite advantages to hot flashes in the winter. But summer is a different story. Everyone else is basking in a tropical sun while you are walking on it. They can be pretty intense during the summer. I take time out during these times. I lazily lounge on a deck chair with a glass of iced tea. I found citrus juices go a long way in putting fluids in your steaming radiator of a body. I'll don my swim suit (mentally) and sunglasses. If you keep running a car on a overheated car you'll kill your engine. The same goes for your body.

Fortunately/unfortunately these are not constantly occurring events. They stop as quickly as they start. Everything is cyclical in life. What goes around will come again. So enjoy the cycles in between and during.

Be Victorian

Be Mysterious

Be Sexy

But MOST OF ALL...HAVE THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.

Nothing is impossible.