Homesickness
The biggest challenge facing a new teacher is homesickness. The homesickness will be at its worst when the excitement of a new environment starts to wear off, and the frustrations of daily life abroad kick in.
Homesickness is the direct result of you being away from your “comfort zone”. The frustration and anxieties of the new environment cause you to want to give up and return to your old way of life.
We are going to help you to understand homesickness better, and tell you ways to minimize the negative impacts of homesickness.
Comfort Zone
A Comfort zone is a familiar way of life. It is not necessarily pointing to an actual physical environment, rather more about routine behaviour. It's the part of our life where we feel like, or under the illusion of being in control. Our mind loves the feeling that everything is in order and under control. When we start to venture outside of our comfort zone, and things begin to lose control, our mind freaks out. We begin to experience different levels of fear, stress and anxiety. This is our mind's way of telling us to go back to our comfort zone.
When you search "comfort zone" on the internet, you will find that comfort zone is often portrayed as your enemy and how you must defeat it.
The Comfort zone is not our enemy. All the things we love are part of our comfort zone. Things such as our long term relationships, all of our hobbies, our favourite food, our strength and all the things that make us who we are. Yes, occasionally comfort zone seems to be getting in our way and holding us back, but we mustn't forget that our comfort zone has been trying to keep us safe and happy since we were born.
If you look at the bigger picture, you will realize that our comfort zone is not static. It is changing all the time. Our personal growth can be seen as a result of the expansion of our comfort zone.
When we were a baby, our comfort zone was probably just with our closest relatives. Then we go to kindergarten for the first time, and all of us feel different degrees of intimidation. Some of us even cried for months. All these behaviours are because we are out of our comfort zone. But in time, we all adapted to the new environment and our comfort zone expanded to include the kindergarten. After that, we started to enjoy ourselves and have fun.
The same process repeats every time we move forward. When we go to primary school, high school, varsity and eventually entering society. Every time it starts with us leaving our comfort zone, scared and stressed, to eventually mastering and adapting to the new environment, making it part of our new comfort zone.
Life overseas is far from your comfort zone. As a result, you may be, at times, overwhelmed with stress and frustration. Your mind will constantly try to convince you to return to your old comfort zone. This is the root of homesickness.
Forming New Comfort Zone
After understanding the relationship between homesickness and the comfort zone. The solution to homesickness becomes obvious. Form a new comfort zone abroad.
The following are some helpful ways to help you to form your new comfort zone quicker.
Souvenir from home
Bring a souvenir with you that reminds you of your home or loved ones. It can be as simple as pictures of your loved ones or some home decorations. The souvenir will help to bring a sense of familiarity to a strange place and to break into the new environment.
Form new routine
You should start to form new routines as soon as you arrive. Routines are the pillars of the comfort zone. They will help you to feel in control. In the beginning, you can start with simple things like morning commute routine, lunch or dinner routines. It is important not to be too ambitious with your routine choice. The key is to be comfortable. These routines will serve as the foundation of your new comfort zone abroad, a base where you can explore and expand.
Making new friends
One of the main contributors to homesickness is loneliness. New friends abroad will significantly help to reduce loneliness. It might be difficult at the beginning to meet new people, but our agents will help you to find your preferred social groups.
Homesickness is an obstacle that almost everyone living abroad has to face. However, rest assured that homesickness is very much beatable as millions have done so already. Hopefully, this article will help you to win your battle against homesickness, and start to truly enjoy your life abroad.