Moving abroad is an exciting and fresh experience from the start. As you settle into a new role in a new country. But, as the initial excitement wanes away, the bitter reality of the ex-pat life settles in. Loneliness itself can be hard to manage, but being lonely while living abroad and away from your loved ones is a whole new experience. Feelings of loneliness among ex-pats are a common occurrence. But with the addition of pandemic, things are different than usual. Thankfully, there are a lot of practices that you can do on your own to minimize the effects of loneliness.
Below are 5 tips that can help you overcome expat loneliness.
1. Cultivate a positive lifestyle
Under such scenarios, it is important that we don’t leave things to chance and put in effort ourselves to maintain wellbeing. Divide your day into different portions where you do specific tasks. Read books that increase your mental strength, and from time to time try relaxation techniques and exercises to calm your stress. Do something meaningful in your spare time such as tending to a hobby or a personal project. The more purposeful your free time is, the easier it will be to cope with loneliness.
2. Look after your mental wellbeing
A lot is still in our hands when it comes to how we react to situations. If your symptoms seem bearable, try mindfulness exercises, deep breathing, journaling, or any other way that can help you keep your feelings in check. If you experience something more than the occasional feelings of sadness, then there could be something else at play. If your symptoms are becoming an issue for living a peaceful day to day life, contact a therapist nearby, or consider online consultation.
3. Connect with others
The best natural remedy for loneliness is connecting with people. Stay in touch with your existing friends through social media. If you find it difficult to make friends, there are always some groups on Facebook for your native people living in that country. You can try contacting and reaching out to them for friendship and see if they host any parties or events where you can connect further with them when the pandemic cools down.
4. Don’t ignore your physical health
Exercising is a great remedy for managing your emotions. Staying in your apartment all day, alone and without anything special to do can make your feelings of loneliness worse. One of the best methods to combat this is to do some home workouts. There are tons of tutorials available on YouTube that can teach you beneficial exercises that can be done in low space. Also, try to stick to a healthy diet. Neglecting your physical health can have a bad impact on your mental wellbeing thus making your feelings of loneliness more impactful.
5. Embrace the situation
Expat loneliness does happen to almost everyone because you have made such a drastic change in your environment that getting used to things will take time. With the addition of pandemic, things can get more tensed up than usual. Understand that it will take time for you to adjust and you will experience loneliness for some time. But also, it will fade away gradually as you become accustomed to quarantine rules and the places, people, and traditions of your new home.
