Accepting and embracing life as a strokie


I’ve often mentioned in the past how disabled people understand naturism better than the able-bodied because they aren’t judged on how they look.
It doesn’t matter if you walk with a limp, or you’re in a wheelchair, or you have a slightly wonky arm, or you talk funny, or wear a stoma bag because naturists don’t judge you on things like that; we judge you on who you are and what you do and what you’ve achieved. It’s one of the things that attracted me to naturism in the first place. 
This week, I’ve been having some fascinating conversations with an amazing lady who epitomises that attitude. Anna Higgs had a life-changing stroke at 24, just a month after her son was born. Her stroke was due to hormones from childbirth. I was 49 when I had my ‘life-changing event’ and I thought I was among the younger category of stroke-survivors until I started looking into it.
As she puts it: ‘’my right arm doesn’t do much, I walk with a limp after spending a few years in a wheelchair and I am partially sighted in both eyes.’’
But Anna, who is now 38, has decided that, like me, she will not let the stroke win. In a fabulous blog post for the huffingtonpost.co.uk website (read it at https//www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/anna-higgs/sex-after-stroke_b_18439022.html) she says: “I spent five years suffering from depression and anxiety – too scared to do anything sexually. Then, one day, I accepted that I had had a stroke, that I was now disabled and that my life had changed dramatically. But I felt fine about it. I was going to try things that people thought I couldn’t do. I was going to try everything and I have. There are still things I want to try’’.
Indeed. The first time we spoke, Anna hadn’t met or spoken to anyone who was a naturist. She found the fact that I write this blog ‘amazing.’ I think she is intrigued by social nudity……
Among the many things she has tried, though, is burlesque. If you Google ‘Cinnamon Cheeks’ which is her stage name, you’ll find any number of stories about her successes in that world. I recommend you seek out some of the videos - amazing stuff.
 Anna is a prime example of having confidence in yourself as a disabled person. As she says in that HuffingtonPost.co.uk blog: “You need to accept what has happened to you. You need to like and love yourself because if you don’t, you will find it hard for others to love you.’’
Which is, of course, exactly the naturist philosophy of life and what distinguishes those of us who understand it from those who won’t try naturism. How many times do we hear people say: “I couldn’t go nude in public because my bum’s too big/my boobs are too saggy/I’d be too embarrassed/my stomach’s too big’’? Anna is also what she unashamedly calls ‘plus-size’ by the way.
Talking of being unashamed about things, my conversations with Anna have also included the M-word: Masturbation. “It’s just another way of finding out what you do and don’t like and learning to love yourself’’ said Anna. “It’s so important, as is talking to your partner. Things are going to fail but that shouldn’t put you off trying.’’ Again, there is an analogy with naturism. How many of us just assume that our partner won’t share our love of naturism, so strike out on our own? Have we asked? Have we encouraged in a sensible way? How many of us try somewhere once, decide naturism wasn’t for us or our partner (maybe we went to the wrong resort/club/venue/event?) and don’t go again?
I must give Anna the last word. In her Huffingtonpost.co.uk blog post, she says: “I don’t care that I am disabled and overweight – I embrace it.”
Which surely is the philosophy of naturism, which so many people agonise about, in just 12 words, isn’t it?

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