Education plays a vital role in the evolution of one's personality, career, and world view about things around you. Studying abroad plays a pivotal role in this process and helps it grow manifold. Studying in a foreign land makes students culturally conscious, helps develop their thinking, and makes them independent and responsible. But living in a foreign land for a better life and future involves its own challenges and pressure points. Students living in a foreign country on their own, meeting people from new cultures who speak multiple languages might face certain problems as well. The first few weeks might feel like a joyride but gradually feelings start to sink in and you might feel out of place. Staying away from family and friends can be detrimental to your mental health and students might end up feeling confused and lonely.
Mental Health is imperative to a fulfilling and fruitful international study experience. A mental crisis can jeopardize your future and affect your stay abroad. There are a number of ways to tackle mental health problems and keep toxic thoughts at bay. Here are a few ways through which you can take care of your mental health while living and studying abroad.
? STAYING IN CONTACT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
It can be overwhelming to leave your home, family, and friends. The mere thought of living alone in a foreign land can be overwhelming and challenging. To keep your mental health intact one must cultivate positive thoughts and ideas. The best way to do this is to maintain a healthy and constant relationship with friends and family back home and make them an integral part of your day to day life. It is a big challenge in itself and traveling to a foreign country is an even bigger challenge. The best way to tackle negative emotions and thoughts is to maintain a healthy relationship with your friends and family back home.
? LEARNING ABOUT NEW CULTURES
Culture shock is a common occurence when moving to a new place, especially in the West. You get to experience a number of new things and unlike your home country, these cultural differences will be difficult for you to comprehend. Most countries such as Canada, Australia, the USA, UK, France, Germany, etc have vast cultural differences that can be too much for students. The best way to get through this is to immerse yourself in a new culture, get to know the locals, read about them, interact, and let things flow. It is imperative that you increase your knowledge about the country and area you are studying in.
? LEARNING TO SPEND TIME WITH YOURSELF
The decision to study abroad is an important milestone in your life and you have to face the fact that you will have to rely on yourself and no one else many times. You must be comfortable with your own presence and must learn to spend time with yourself. You will often have no one to trust but yourself and hence, you must be comfortable in your own company. You should invest in developing skills, learning new things, and taking care of your mental health. Various activities like maintaining a journal, meditating, listening to music, traveling, etc can ease your mind and help maintain great mental health.
? PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AND EXERCISES
A healthy body breeds a healthy mind and exercising is the best form of keeping your mind healthy. You must devote time to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, through activities like exercise, yoga, vigorous physical training, and much more. Exercise is the best and most robust form of keeping your body and mind healthy. Activities like gyming, running, jogging, calisthenics, aerobics, dancing helps relieve your body of stress. When you work out your brain develops sensitive towards serotonin and norepinephrine which relieves body of stress and pain.
? TRAVELING
Traveling is the greatest form of education and a great antidote for stress. Traveling makes you enter a new world, makes you forget your issues and problems, and appreciate everything beautiful. Seeing a new place and meeting new people is important in your life and makes you realise that your problems are not as big as you think. Weekend getaways are a great way to cleanse your mind when living in a foreign land and thus, it is imperative you develop traveling as a hobby. It is a great utilization of your time and its a refreshing experience for your soul.
? CULTIVATING NEW HOBBIES
Cultivating new hobbies and developing new skills is a great way to evolve your personality. It is never too late to learn new things and skills. Such activities like painting, sketching, writing, dancing, reading books, watching movies, etc can act as a way to distract yourself. Doing activities that you like can soothe your soul and make you feel better about the world and yourself. These hobbies act as great outlets for your emotions and consequently make you feel better.
? TALK YOUR HEART OUT
Keeping your mental health in check is very important to talk about how you feel internally and how various things motivate you. Even though there are times when it feels difficult to articulate your thoughts to others, it is best if you talk to friends or a therapist and be vocal about the issues you face. Sharing your feelings is a great solution to tackle your mental health issues. Talking to someone makes you feel less lonely, and can lighten the burden on your mind.
Even though mental health issues are not widely spoken about even in the modern world, it is essential that individuals especially students living abroad keep their mental health in check and work towards it.
