Listen to your body

Whenever I hear the signs of heat exhaustion, I hear something far more complicated than necessary. You can feel the heat getting to you. During the summer, I don’t go through lengthy processes to determine if I need to cool off. Instead, I respond when I feel that heat is starting to get to me. Trust me, I would have a lot more problems if I listened to the news. Their approach takes to long.

It’s so much simpler than what the news reports. All you have to do is listen to yourself when your body starts to overheat. I am sensitive to warm temperatures, but I have done a good job over the years of avoiding any serious heat-related problems.

Sunburn is a bit of an exception. I recently felt the strong UV rays on my skin on a day when I expected cloudy conditions. There might have been sun block in my backpack (I don’t know), but I couldn’t handle stopping because all the convenient benches were in the sun. As I have learned, sunlight is easier to handle when you are moving rather than when the sun is hitting the same spot. My body was telling me that I was becoming a lobster, but I didn’t do anything about it.

There was another recent day when my body was screaming at me, “Something is wrong!” I stupidly responded, “Just a few more minutes.” I don’t want to go into details, but this backs what I’m saying. Your body will generally tell you when you have a problem. Addressing these problems is primarily a matter of listening.

There have been advances in medicine over the years. We live longer lives. Obviously, there are factors to our health other than listening to our bodies. That doesn’t mean that we should ignore the warning signs. You don’t want to rely on medical science to bail you out when you mess things up for yourself.