Tuesday 26 February 2019

Staying mindful when studying abroad

Bethany provides tips to taking care of your mental health when studying travelling abroad.
- Bethany

You’re supposed to feel excited and full of intrigue when you first arrive in a new country, aren’t you? Well, for some people anyway. You see on Instagram all those cool adventures other people have had studying abroad, and your returning friends have told you heaps of amazing tales. So, it must just be you who feels a bit lonely, a bit overwhelmed, and a bit out of their depth upon arriving in your chosen city abroad? 

There’s no need to panic, you aren’t the only one. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed and confused upon arriving in a new country, and it doesn’t mean you’ve made the wrong decision regarding country choice or studying abroad at all. However, if your negative feelings persist, the best thing to do is to have a conversation with your family or close friends, and even visit your new university’s wellbeing centre if they have one. Another good way to share with someone what you are going through is to either phone or email the Samaritans, they’re there to just chat about how you’re feeling and it’s completely anonymously. If you’re someone who already suffers with mental health, and you’re planning on studying abroad, check out the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s advice on travelling and keeping mentally healthy.

Take Shanghai in China for an example. Shanghai is an enormous city, a truly wonderful place where western culture blends with eastern culture to create glamourous skyscrapers and lowkey local restaurants that make the best dumplings. There is so much to do when studying abroad in Shanghai, and it’s a place where you can constantly learn just by venturing out of the house. It’s a place I still consider a home, as I studied there at a British international school from the ages of 15 to 19. However, during my fourth year my family moved back to the UK. Instead of moving back with them, I stayed on and lived with an extremely welcoming and generous Serbian family.

Whilst I was surrounded by supportive friends and teachers, I was often overcome with feelings of loneliness, which I found extremely hard to start a conversation with anyone about. Living in a city as big, fast-paced and populated as Shanghai is no doubt fun, but for some people it can be overwhelming. These feelings, combined with the pressure of doing well academically, can make keeping your head above water a bit of a struggle. Additionally, living with a new bunch of people, be it a host family or other students can be awkward in the beginning and bring to the surface feelings of anxiousness.

Although I know now that the best thing for me to have done would be to talk to someone about how I was feeling, I handled my feelings of loneliness by finding a green space, or somewhere secluded amongst nature in the city, and taking a stroll around. Just being away from the buzz of the city relieved my stress and allowed my mind to relax a little. Going to the gym regularly and getting involved in hobbies, such as theatre, also helped reduce my stress. 

If you are planning on studying abroad, it is important that you are well prepared, especially if the culture you are moving to is different from your own. Being prepared can minimise stress in tricky situations involving visa, passport or health issues and the FCO have a wealth of information on these considerations for countries all over the world. Learning about the laws and customs of your intended country is also highly useful in making your transition as comfortable as possible, as you’ll know what to expect, and a great tool for this is the FCO’s Travel Aware website


Hello, I’m Bethany and I study Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Surrey. Having hid the negative feelings I experienced transitioning to living without my family in a foreign country a couple years ago, I’d now like to share my insight in order to help others in a similar situation. I was never diagnosed with a mental illness, however, I believe negative feelings are just as important to talk about.

Friday 1 February 2019

Find a Purpose to Drive Your Self Development

Ethan shares how self-development can improve our self-worth and mental wellbeing. 

Self-development is something we all strive for. The hope that, one day, we will be in some ways better than our current selves can be instrumental in helping us to endure the hard times and come out better on the other side. However, unless our efforts for self-development are rooted in goals that are close to our hearts, our attempts can often prove to be futile and demotivating.

One example of this is regular exercise. Despite the well known and limitless benfits it has for both our physical and mental wellbeing, many of us can find it very difficult to maintain regular exercise and settle for an on-again, off-again relationship with the hobby. Just the promise that something will make us better isn’t always enough to drive us.

During a time in my life where I was beginning to question everything that I formerly understood myself to be, I tried lots of different hobbies in a desperate need for something, or someone, significant to cease any further decline in my self-worth. But I often failed to find enjoyment in these activities and became further demoralised by the day.

It was around this time that I met my girlfriend of a year and a half. I was very hesitant to let anyone into my life at this time, when any love for myself did not appear to be on the horizon. Furthermore, having come out of a relationship somewhat recently at the time, I was busy trying to focus on loving myself before allowing myself to love anyone else.

When I did begin to let my guard down, I started to see a person who I thought deserved the best; from life and from a partner. As much as I wanted to be the kind of partner that I knew they deserved, it took me a long time to realise that I could. Now each day I work a little bit harder to be better for this person. Having someone to love is a powerful driving force in motivating us towards self-development; it’s the one thing I think of when I am expressing gratitude for the potential I’ve harnessed and the self-love I’ve developed since.

Finding something, or someone, that you love is imperative in discovering our purpose. These hobbies or people, friends or otherwise, may already be in your life, but you may have overlooked them. Alternatively, there could be something just around the corner and, with a little bit more patience and hope, it will arrive. To accelerate this process, encourage yourself to try new things, in search of finding an activity that you will find fulfilling and worth putting your time into. If you are instead someone who finds value in spending time with others, perhaps begin this search amongst societies and clubs within your University, either to try something new or explore an old love of yours; if the activity doesn’t interest you, the people you meet might. Finding a purpose that motivates you each day and that drives you to better yourself, produces the best results when it comes to learning to developing self love, the values that are important to you, and the life that you are living.

Hey, I'm Ethan! Having not found the past few years a breeze, as few people do, and struggling along the journey to know myself and where I'd like for my life to take me, I thought I'd share my experiences and the lessons I've learnt from for others going through similar struggles, in hope that you also get a better idea of how you want to experience life.
I'm currently studying Philosophy and Politics at UEA

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