Being an expat is an experience one could never forget in a lifetime. The sense of freedom, the feeling of liberty, discovering new places, new cultures and meeting new people are the most exciting thing one can do to increase the quality of life.
However, handling being an expat can sometimes be stressful; it does come with its own merits and demerits, one of which is stress.
Let us help you walk through what kinds of strains an expat has to deal with and the best techniques to overcome them.
1. Learn to Manage Work-Related Stress
At this point, there are a lot of expat men living abroad. People are moving away from their hometowns to work and sometimes in the desire to discover new places around the world. Men work at different jobs and do have their own different kinds of stresses.
Sometimes you get so much lost in the work that they do not really find time to do what they actually intend to do with their expat lives. Some expat men are posted overseas to run a branch of their office or sometimes to promote a business. In those cases, there is a lot of stress on the working men.
There is always pressure from the managers or their bosses to work more efficiently and faster in order to deliver good results. What does this do? It eventually keeps them quite busy doing this one thing all day all week, resulting in a stressful effect on the people living abroad. At a point, they find out that all they are doing at this new exciting place is work. So what happens is that the employee starts feeling depressed and unsupportive, which eventually affects his work, as well as his personal life as an expat.
2. Take a Deep Breath!
This does not sound natural, but when there is pressure to do tasks efficiently and quickly, stress is automatically laid onto you. This pressure itself puts more anxiety and tension on a worker. So, the antidote to this is to lie down and take a deep breath. By lying down, we mean rest your back, rest your head and close your eyes, put your hands on your belly.
Now, loosen up all the muscles, allow your body and your brain to relax. Push all the thoughts out for a second. Feel the rhythm on your belly, the rhythm of you exhaling and inhaling. Do this for a few minutes to calm yourself down, as you are the only one who is going to be supportive of yourself at that moment. There are no friends around you or your parents to calm you down. Tell yourself that you got this!
For more calming effects, observe the rhythm and count how many times you are exhaling or inhaling. Count to 20 and do this more than one time in a day to keep going.
3. Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as an expat is not balancing your work along with your personal life. Working all day and then coming back home just for the bed starts to give you a sense of depression. It is a feeling that you cannot come over with only your work. Even working requires some leisure time in a part of the day. Usually, women have these kinds of issues, but it’s also a big problem for men, mostly working as expats.
4. Plan your Enjoyment!
You can plan a date night with your partner that might get you out of your bubble. Go out to dinner or watch a movie or absolutely anything that you enjoy can refresh your mind, kick the stress out, and give you back your potential. You can spend time with your children, take them to a park or for a picnic. You can plan a one-day short trip with your friends that can help your body loosen up and allow your mind to refresh. All of this will make you realize that there is more to life than just work.
5. Learn to Cope with Financial Pressure and Uncertainty
Men having financial pressure and uncertainty in their career is something very natural and expected. Being an expat can multiply all these pressures. You remain in the thought of whether you can pay your bills next month or not, and whether you are going to have enough money to pay your house rent next month or not. You may be enjoying your current job at the moment, but who knows if you’ll be doing the same position next month or not, or maybe you have to receive pay cuts this month or next. Who will support you if you are jobless and stuck?
6. Networking
Making friends with unknown people in a new locality can sometimes be difficult for some introverted natured people. But it does hold considerable importance. In a new place, a contemporary society, you got to have someone who has your back when you are stuck somewhere. If you are jobless, your networks can help you find jobs that can get you through your difficult times.
Apart from networking, you basically have people you can spend quality time with. If you live far away and are unable to see your family every weekend, this new group of people will help you get by. Arrange gatherings at the weekends, plan sleepovers, plan night outs on the weekend.
It’s a new place, you don’t know what’s what – so these are the people that can help you know what to do and what not to do.
7. Exercise!
Not only in an expat life, but at your own home, exercise is a must-have in your daily routine tasks. It broadens your mind, relaxes your mind, and loosens up your body for more efficient performances. Health benefits of a daily workout are not unknown to anyone; you should better go to the gym, relax your brain, and keep the stress out, rather than piling up on your pressure with a daily medication dose.
Exercising, visiting a gym can not only increase your mind and body capabilities but also enhance your friend circle. It can help you grow your friend circle amazingly. It is undoubtedly, one of the most important things one can do to relieve depression, anxiety, and stress!
Conclusion
Being an expat does not only make you realize what wonders this world and this life is hiding beneath, but it also enhances versatility in your thinking capacity and diversifies your personality as well! We hope this article gave you some insight into what you can do to make this experience friendly for your mental health.
