Living in a foreign country can be a dream come true. It broadens your mind and opens up new possibilities. But it’s also challenging as you have to adapt to the new environment. And this process is often accompanied by negative emotions, such as loneliness.
But don’t worry. There are ways to cope with loneliness even when living in a foreign country.
Find the right balance when keeping in touch with your family
Keeping in touch with your family and friends is essential. They’ll be the ones who’ll comfort you and make you feel less lonely. But chatting with them every day for hours can have a negative effect, too. You’ll be reminded of things you’re missing.
So what to do? You need to find a balance between staying too close to and shutting yourself from your family. To do that, you can try to replace interacting over the internet with other types of communication. Instead, send them a parcel!
International cheap shipping can also be a great means of keeping in touch and avoiding loneliness. Since it takes longer for packages to be delivered, you won’t be exchanging them as frequently as texts on social media.
Connect with people under similar circumstances
It’s important to know that you’re not the only one experiencing loneliness. So try to connect with other emigrants. They’re going or have gone through the same circumstances as you, so they’ll understand what you’re feeling.
If you don’t feel comfortable sharing your feelings aloud, don’t limit yourself to the emigrants who’re living in the same country as you do. You can find pen pals in any part of the world and exchange letters or small parcels with them. Nowadays international package shipping has advanced so much that even delivering a shipment to Russia from the USA is super easy!
Explore your surroundings
Loneliness will be worse if you close off yourself in your living space. It’s better to get out as much as possible. Get to know your neighborhood. Once your surroundings seem familiar to you, you won’t feel as lonely.
Exploring is also a great opportunity to discover nice things to send back home. Since you’re living abroad, you’ll be sending gifts overseas sooner or later when the holidays come. So instead of musing over how lonely you might feel during them, focus on finding presents to ship to your beloved ones.
Establish a routine
People usually run from the routine. But when you’re adapting to a new place, a routine makes it easier to feel at home. You can try to recreate the schedule you had at home. Or to come up with new activities.
Even taking the same route to work every day can help to fight off loneliness. You might notice people who take the same bus or walk the same street as you. That alone may feel comfortably familiar and reassuring.
Learn to distract yourself
Loneliness gets stronger if you think about how lonesome you are. You need to distract yourself from such thoughts. It’s easier to do that if you already have friends or colleagues to go out with. But even if you’re all alone, you can come up with distracting activities.
If you catch yourself brooding over your current state, go do something. Watch a movie, read a book, take a walk. Try all kinds of activities until you find the one that’s the best for you.
It can be difficult to cope with loneliness when living abroad. But don’t let yourself suffer. Use the tips to avoid this feeling.
