My Experience as an Expat with Culture Shock

My Experience as an Expat with Culture Shock

What does it take to build a new life in a new country and the cultural adjustment as an expat woman? What does it take to go from finding your feet to thriving? I’m a love pat. I met my husband in Chile while he was travelling around the world. We stayed...
The Power of Community in Expat Life

The Power of Community in Expat Life

Why is it community in expat life so darn important? One of the longest-running studies at Harvard dealt with a question we’ve all thought about at least once in our lives: what’s the key to happiness? The answer they found wasn’t money or fame, it was relationships....
How Expats Can Manage Conflicts Better

How Expats Can Manage Conflicts Better

Experiencing conflicts in family and friends as an expat? Moving abroad is one of the biggest steps you will ever take in your life. Building a life abroad in a new country is equal parts exhilarating and scary. Exhilarating because you’re going on an adventure and...
Attachment Styles on Expat Couples

Attachment Styles on Expat Couples

Expat relationships are fun, exciting, and a new kind of adventure. But like all relationships, they come with their own set of challenges. There are, of course, language and cultural barriers, which can affect expat couples. Two people coming from vastly different...
Expats and Their Concept of Home

Expats and Their Concept of Home

Where is home? What is home? How do you define it? These are all questions that many of us ask at some point in our lives. Are you an expat finding home? Where is home for you? For many people, their concept of home is tied to a specific place – their...
ACT and Living Expat Life to the Fullest

ACT and Living Expat Life to the Fullest

An effective way for expats to learn how to live life to the fullest is through acceptance and commitment therapy principles. It’s easy for anyone to feel lost and alone in this big, sometimes scary world. For expats, a new foreign country can feel like a world...
Overcome Procrastination in Expat Life through ACT

Overcome Procrastination in Expat Life through ACT

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something that needs to be done, and it’s accompanied by feelings of guilt, anxiety, and stress. Procrastination can harm expatriates because it can interfere with their work, relationships, and overall...
How Expats Can “ACT” on Their Happiness

How Expats Can “ACT” on Their Happiness

The expatriate experience is challenging. From living in a new country, adapting to different customs and cultures, to dealing with homesickness, it can be overwhelming for expats to face the challenges of living abroad. Expats who struggle can learn how to accept...
Coping with Living Far Away from Aging Parents

Coping with Living Far Away from Aging Parents

Living far away from aging parents and family is never an easy process. Still, it’s one that many people must face at some point in their lives. For some, the day they leave home may come rather suddenly. And for others who have already left, it can be the...
How Living Abroad Affects Our Self-Esteem

How Living Abroad Affects Our Self-Esteem

In our home country, we knew what to expect, how to get around, and how to communicate. Until one day, we make the big decision to live in someone else’s native country, and even the simple things we thought we were masters of, like getting to the grocery store,...
Letting Go is Essential for Expat Life

Letting Go is Essential for Expat Life

One of the most necessary things you will ever do as an expat living abroad is letting go when you need to. Whether people, places, or things, the ability to let go can determine the extent to which you can embrace your new life with open arms. When you move abroad,...
Expat Funk vs. Expat Depression

Expat Funk vs. Expat Depression

Expat funk is a relatively new concept for me. It is a particular English language expression, and I suspect colleagues use it to make it more relatable to a broader audience. In psychology, we call it adaptive mood reaction, reactive sadness or fatigue—even...
Expat Uprooting: Belonging Within Yourself

Expat Uprooting: Belonging Within Yourself

Moving abroad is a giant leap to take in life with many factors to consider. After all, when you leave your home, everything that’s familiar to you changes. A completely new environment means a new living space, friends, job, hobbies, means of transportation...
How Cognitive Distortions Affect Our Life Abroad

How Cognitive Distortions Affect Our Life Abroad

Cognitive distortions are habitual ways of thinking that cause us to view reality in negative ways. These inaccurate thought patterns dictate the way we interpret events in our daily life. Though people often develop cognitive distortions from prolonged and severely...