5 Tips to Overcome Culture Shock
How can I work through Culture Shock?
Last week’s blog post looked at the phenomenon of culture shock. If you are currently going through the process of adjusting to a new culture, please read on, as this post looks to equip you with relevant tools to deal with some of the common challenges resulting from culture shock.
1. Focus on your goals: Prioritise understanding the topics that will be most relevant to you and your family. Understanding how the school system, taxation, or healthcare are set up will clarify your expectations, help with planning, and reduce your mental load. Start by writing out key questions and goals for the relevant topics. For example, you could have the goal to “decide on a healthcare plan for our family”. Plan in time to work on this task and reward yourself once you have reached your goal. As you learn more about how things work, you will feel more equipped to deal with day-to-day decisions. Addressing practical problems also reduces worries and reinforces the message of being in control. If you get bogged down by these admin tasks, remind yourself of the bigger picture.
💡 How about writing down 3 key goals?
2. Take care of your emotional wellbeing: While building a new life, it’s normal to experience a myriad of emotions. So it’s worth being more mindful of our mood and emotions. Notice what might be causing strong or persistent feelings such as sadness or frustration. Are there specific situations or topics that bring on these feelings? It might be completely obvious what is causing stress. Or it might be really difficult to understand your feelings. One approach to this is to use mindfulness to tune into our body and emotions, while grounding us in the here and now at the same time. You can take care of your emotional wellbeing by building mindfulness and other wellbeing strategies into your day. Relaxation exercises and breathing techniques activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms our emotional and physical responses. If you are still struggling, you could consider speaking to a counsellor.
💡 How about trying out some mindfulness exercises?
3. Pay attention to your mind: It takes an active effort to adjust one’s mindset to accept cultural differences. If we don’t understand a foreign culture, we might often start to “compare and despair”. Instead, it can be beneficial to be curious about cultural differences. What do you not understand? What would you like to learn more about? Journaling allows us to gain insight into our daily thoughts which might explain our mood. By noticing and challenging our thoughts, we can learn to switch perspectives and reframe obstacles as opportunities for growth. If you need support with restructuring your thoughts, a counsellor will be able to help.
💡 How about trying out journaling?
4. Strengthen your network: Try to remain in touch with your family and friends from home. While your friendships may evolve as you live in different places, modern technologies give us opportunities to continue speaking with each other. At the same time, it is beneficial to look for a few new connections. How can you get to know people? Do you have neighbours or colleagues you can start chatting to? Is there a local sports club you could join? Or maybe there are opportunities to volunteer? If this is too daunting, you could try to find other international people in your area.
💡 How about looking up some social clubs in your area?
5. Give yourself time: As we enter a new phase in life, it’s good to remind ourselves that some of the best things in life take time. Are you frustrated by the lack of progress when it comes to your language skills, your career, or friendships? The key might simply be to show yourself some kindness by reducing the pressure to build a completely new life in a short period of time. Try to take a bird’s eye perspective on your life and spot the progress you have made. Can you plan in some breaks to slow down and step away from the to-do list?
💡 How about planning a fun weekend?
In this blog series, we will be looking at different strategies to deal with change. For personalised support with navigating change, please get in touch. For more content on navigating change, please subscribe to my newsletter.
