{"id":8434,"date":"2017-12-29T18:22:30","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T12:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/?post_type=post&p=8434"},"modified":"2025-06-24T16:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T11:13:51","slug":"tackle-homesickness-studying-working-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/tackle-homesickness-studying-working-abroad","title":{"rendered":"How to Tackle Homesickness When You are Studying or Working Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Homesickness\"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Tips for Dealing with Homesickness Abroad<\/h2>\n
\n

Homesickness can arise from several different factors \u2014 difficulty adjusting to a new environment, feeling lonely or cut off from your regular support system, confusion or problems understanding a new environment\/culture\/language, a perceived lack of control over what\u2019s happening around you, culture shock, and the list goes on. FOMO while abroad is a real thing, and it can be brutal.<\/p>\n

1. Create a Routine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Figure out what you\u2019re going to do as a daily and weekly routine. This means not just waking up at the same time and cooking yourself a great breakfast, but also incorporating something fun or interactive.<\/p>\n

“Studying a topic or learning every day will keep your mind active.”<\/div>\n

2. Plan a Holiday or a Festival Party With a Friend From Home<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make a festive occasion on Christmas<\/a>, Diwali or Holi. Call your friends from campus to join you. Teach a few things about your culture to your new friends at school. Enthral them with goodies from home, and cultural significance.<\/p>\n

3. Make a Bucket List for Exploring Your New Country<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do a little research about where you\u2019re living and find a few places you have to explore \u2013- the ten best coffee shops in the city, the favourite locations for local street artists or all the different places you can go kayaking.<\/p>\n

4. Learn Something New<\/strong><\/p>\n

Research has shown absent-mindedness is common in those with homesickness. Studying a topic or learning every day will keep your mind active. No better time than this to start learning a new language<\/a>, how to cook every one of your host nation\u2019s favourite dishes, or begin that yoga\/martial arts\/diving course.<\/p>\n

5. Document Your Positive Moments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Negative feelings tend to snowball: you start annoyed about a bus running late, and end up blaming an entire country and looking up the cheapest flights home. This is natural, but it can get out of control quickly if you allow it to.<\/p>\n

6. Talk to Others About How You\u2019re Feeling<\/strong><\/p>\n

It might seem like you\u2019re the only person who isn\u2019t immediately enamoured with Florence, but the truth is that you\u2019re not the first person to feel homesick \u2013 you\u2019re likely not even the only one in your program. You might feel a lot of pressure to be positive about the whole experience, especially, if you had high expectations when you arrived, or feel the need to put on a happy face when you talk to folks back at home, but there\u2019s no shame in being homesick.<\/p>\n

7. Don\u2019t Feel Guilty About Immersing Yourself in Your Home Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be sure not to over-immerse. Sometimes when we\u2019re abroad, we feel like we\u2019re supposed to be 100 per cent invested in absorbing every bit of our new culture \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean you have to completely distance yourself from your own culture.<\/p>\n

8. Always stay busy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one should be easy. Don\u2019t spend hours sitting in front of your laptop looking at Facebook photos of your friends back in the States. Staying in contact with them is one thing. Constantly wishing you were back with them is another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Tips for Dealing with Homesickness Abroad Homesickness can arise from several different factors \u2014 difficulty adjusting to a new environment, feeling lonely or cut off from your regular support system, confusion or problems understanding a new environment\/culture\/language, a perceived lack of control over what\u2019s happening around you, culture shock, and the list goes on. FOMO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,298],"tags":[116,503,569,610,655],"class_list":["post-8434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study-abroad","category-career-guidance","tag-undergraduate","tag-high-school","tag-study-abroad-experience","tag-cultural-adjustment","tag-homesickness"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20711,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434\/revisions\/20711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachivy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}