Living abroad can sometimes be overwhelming where your emotions and wellness are concerned. Living a well-balanced life in a new country isn’t always easy as one might think, heck, even moving from one state to another can be a culture shock!
Transitions like this can bring up a lot of unexpected feelings leaving you in doubt of your decisions thus creating space for more poor decisions and a negative mindset. Being able to bounce back from, what is called, the monkey mind can be really difficult especially if you don’t know HOW to move forward and out from it.
The simple idea of holding gratitude can help you through such a process and open up the windows to a positive mindset and so many wonderful possibilities.
If you find yourself confused about your expat life, frustrated or even angry about a particular situation or person, it’s helpful to sit with it and think about one or two things that you are grateful for. It doesn’t have to be specific to that situation or person, it can be completely unassociated.
For example, I used to feel quite guilty that I had to leave my work behind and relocate for my husband’s career opportunity. Although I was happy to do it and excited about our new life abroad together, I still struggled with the feelings of guilt and frustration that I had to financially depend on my husband. I let those feelings get the best of me at times and it definitely started to impact my relationship with him as well.
It was only when I chose to hold gratitude for all of the blessings around me like our new beautiful home to secure us, our good health and ability to take adventures together, being able to get outside and make new friends and the sheer fact that my husband was working his most purposeful job that supported the both of us. We were surrounded with such beautiful abundance, I merely lost sight of them.
When you lose sight of what’s around you, what supports you, what makes you happy and brings you joy, you can easily fall through the dark holes of disappointment, frustration, jealousy, confusion and even depression.
Just think about it, the most powerful tool that you have RIGHT NOW is gratitude. You don’t have to pay for it or even take a course on it! It’s your innate superpower! You just have to learn to tap into it.
Take a moment to re-connect with something that hasn’t gone well for you recently, or maybe it’s still there lingering in the ego waiting to be triggered once again. Once you feel it in your body whether you begin to tense up or feel anxious, that’s your ego challenging you to take back your control.
So it’s up to you, my friend. Do you want to wallow in the hurt and pain and allow the ego to succeed with its self-imposed drama? Or do you want to take the reigns and say “NO” to that nonsense monkey mind of yours and choose to be happy by holding gratitude?
Easier said than done? That’s why they call it a practice 😉 Every day is a new day to create whatever intentions you desire. It took a life-long practice to enable your monkey mind, in turn, it will also take practice to regain control of it. The choice is yours.
I'll leave you with some ideas on how you can invite more gratitude into your expat life;
Journal - expressing yourself and what you're grateful for can help you really FEEL the joy around it
Yoga/Movement - making time for movement especially in nature can also be a powerful way to invite in more gratitude
Connection - whether you connect with a friend or in a group setting, sharing your gratitude out loud can be therapeutic to the soul
You can download my FREE Daily Mindfulness Check-In Journal here for some mindfulness prompts and reflection to get you started. Hope you enjoy it!
Wishing you well and a beautiful day ahead!
With Love & Gratitude,
Angelic x
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