Life changing

Migrating to a new country - no matter what the reasons for it are - can be a stressing event that can affect our physiological wellbeing. Today, we are going to speak about the reasons why adapting to the life in a new country can affect us physiologically, and what can we do to have a smoother and happier transition.

When we migrate lots of aspects of our life are going to change

It is obvious that when we migrate lots of aspects of our life are going to change, and in some cases we can have this feeling of ‘having lost our previous life’. This is even more likely to happen if the reasons for migrating weren’t chosen by us. It is very normal that at the beginning of a migratory process we start developing some feelings of sadness, loneliness, nostalgia and even anger. This is because in a bigger or smaller scale, we are probably passing through a migratory grieving process.

Leaving behind our old lives

This grief is associated to leaving behind very important parts of our lives, such us family and friends, our language, our culture, our job, and even our daily routine. So, knowing this, what can we do to pass through this grieving process on a healthier and easier way?

Work on our Expectations

Work on our expectations to understand that the migrating process is not linear and that there will be hard periods, as well as positive ones. Make sure we have a support network around that can help us navigating through the difficult times. It is very important to have a few people around that perhaps have passed through a similar process and that can give us advise and understand the situation we are living in. If you do not know a lot of people in the new country you are arriving, you can always look for communities of people that most likely will be delighted to welcome you and support you.

Access to the right information.

Have access to the right information to avoid common and very unpleasant mistakes. When adapting to new country and culture, we very often do not know how things work, and we take ages until we figure things out. Documenting ourselves in advance, or once we we are already in the country will avoid stressful situations. We hope the information in this post has been useful for you, and do not forget to share it if you know someone that might need it!

22 December 2022