June 22 until August 1
I moved 23 times in the first 22 years of my life. Most of which was in warm climates, before air conditioning was common in most homes. I have always loved playing outside. Staying cool enough to play outside for as long as possible is a lifestyle art form. The local children taught me their cooling off tricks. I still use them every summer.
The grown up thing to advise is to wear a hat to keep the heat off your head. Wear loose, light colored clothing. Air flow around your skin keeps you cooler. Light colors repel the heat of the sun. Dark colors absorb it. Wear light shoes so your body can expel extra heat through your feet. Wear sunglasses to reduce glare. Glare stresses your eyes, and alarms your mind. Stress increases the effects of heat. Avoid anger. Watch less news, more comedy. Lighten up your life in every way possible.
None of those things are surprising. The tricks I learned as a child were more regional. Strong mint tea reduces your body heat almost immediately. No caffeine, no sugar, keeps you hydrated and the effect lasts for hours. Southern kids didn’t drink water. They drank mint tea.
I make my mint tea at night so it can be cold in the morning. Any kind of mint will do. A small fistful of fresh leaves or 2 tablespoons of dried tea per quart of water. Steep it for 20 minutes, remove the leaves and put in the fridge. If you need sweetener, use honey or maple syrup. Processed sugar makes you hot, and makes your sweat stickier. Ew.
We didn’t drink a lot of water. We played in it. Washed of the heat with it, day and night. If we got hot while playing we found a puddle, fountain, water hose, water balloon fights, slippery slides, creeks, rivers…anything wet to rinse the sweat off of our bodies. Then back into the sun to play some more. Playing was key. The happier you are, the less you feel the heat.
The heat didn’t make us tired, stressing about it did. We adapted our play to the weather. The nights were hot and sticky. All the windows were opened every night to let as much of the heat out of the house as possible. By morning, the house was cool and we closed all the windows and curtains to keep it that way as long as possible. Creating a cave effect during the day made air conditioning unnecessary most of the time. I’ve never owned an air conditioner.
A folded wet washcloth was kept on the window sill by my bed. If the heat woke me, all I had to do was take the cool washcloth and wipe it off my face, arms, legs and torso. Putting it behind my neck cooled my whole head. Waving the washcloth in the air a few times cooled it off again. My slightly wet skin could feel the breeze again, and I slept. I still do this. I keep a wet washcloth, in a sealed plastic bag, in my purse for the same reason.
If the heat, or stress, of summer overwhelms your body, mind and/or spirit…symptoms happen. Excess heat causes alarm bells to go off in your body. Symptoms are different for each of the five kinds of bodies. If you ignore them, they get worse. Your body gets very nervous about heat stroke. It can kill you. Your body knows that.
The following are common ways your body will tell you it’s time to cool off, or play. If you can’t cool off or the symptoms are getting worse. Call a doctor. Especially if you are dizzy, ringing in your ears, blurred or hypersensitive vision, get a quick severe headache, or your blood pressure is fluctuating, higher or lower than normal for more than a few minutes. Those are all symptoms of heat stroke.
Cooling off is different for each of the five kinds of bodies, too. Go to the specific Common Sense blog for how you can get yourself back to normal. Enjoy the summer like you did as a kid. Be your own parent so you can be healthy enough to enjoy it. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat well and make yourself go outside and play as much as possible.
The Common Sense of Touch symptoms include: Anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, talking too much or faster than normal, nervous laughter, more sweat than normal, flushed face, irregular or rapid heartbeat, painful urination, strong but erratic pulse, mouth sores, tongue sores, blistered lips, dry painful eczema, headache, still feeling hot when it really isn’t
The Common Sense of Sight symptoms include: jaundice, hot flashes, distractible, obsessiveness, substance abuse, migraine, quickly healing rashes, fever, burning eyes, insomnia, controlling others, jealousy, emotional violence, manipulative, sexual addiction, frustration, lacking creativity, chronic fatigue, sexual repression, rigid self-denial, always trying to fit in
The Common Sense of Taste symptoms include: digestion problems, sleep problems, mildly unhappy but not depressed, belief that honesty is an option, uncomfortable with frank conversation, unreliable, resentful, preoccupation with other people’s lives, sudden fatigue, cravings, twitching, joint pain, weight management, anxiety, unable to finish anything, loneliness, fear of loneliness, feeling unloved, unable to forgive, emotional numbness, people pleaser…to a fault, clinging to people, afraid of not being liked
The Common Sense of Smell symptoms include: spacey, sighing, judgmental, compulsive, respiratory problems, coughs, dehydration, skin problems other than rash, pins and needles feeling in hands or feet, general unhappiness but not depressed, paranoia, fantasize a lot, self-absorption
The Common Sense of Hearing symptoms include: depression, sluggishness, lots of colds and flu, sinus congestion, bronchitis, pneumonia, water retention, eating disorders, don’t feel good enough, doubt spiritual beliefs, ignore physical needs, skin outbreaks, self-isolation, judgmental
