Homesickness is nothing but an emotional state of mind wherein, staying away from home causes one to long for it. This extends to the attachment one may have to certain corners in their house, specific objects and ambience. If you are staying away from home, perhaps studying at a university abroad and feel your energy sink and stomach churn, every time you get up from your new bed or workspace, you might be dealing with homesickness. Before we find out the ways to deal with homesickness, let’s first diagnose it.
What Are The Symptoms of Homesickness?
- You feel lonely inside your accommodation and reminisce on the time you spent at your favourite spot, back home.
- The feeling of detachment from the present environment is very strong.
- You prefer living in isolation without talking much. This may be temporary till you find your confidence again and adjust to the new place and people.
- You have caught yourself staring at pictures of your home, neighborhood and friends on your phone.
- The feeling of nostalgia is frequent and gets stronger each time you think about your home.
These are the most general and common symptoms of homesickness typically observed with first year students. The symptoms of homesickness depending on the duration you have been away from the house or the distance between you and your home. In addition to that, since all of us are unique, the intensity with which homesick might affect one may differ from its effects on someone else.
Ways To Deal With Homesickness
Feel The Moment and Let It Go!
We all have experienced homesickness at least once in our lifetime. We know how the feeling that’s in your stomach comes and goes in waves. Homesickness is not a constant state of mind but a moment of weakness. The more you resist the moment, the longer it will stay in your head and the more difficult it will become to let that feeling go.
One way to deal with the feeling of homesickness is actually dropping everything and drowning in sorrow…only for the moment it lasts. It is always better to just feel the moment, completely live it and then just let go. Once you cry your guts, make a few calls back home and wipe your tears, you will realise you actually feel a lot better.
Explore New Places, Discover New Surroundings
One of the best ways to deal with homesickness is getting out of the room that you’ve isolated yourself in, put out the trash that’s piled up for 2 weeks, wear your trainers and step out of your house!
Strolling around the new neighborhood, finding out new shops and restaurants will help you feel a lot better about yourself and your situation. There’s a different feeling associated with discovering new places, it makes you feel hopeful about the future. I like to believe that the surprise of discovering a new place is almost like finding out an opportunity you didn’t know existed.
Wake Up With A To Do List
Each night before retiring to bed, make a list of the things that need to be done. This may include household chores like buying the groceries, doing the laundry or study related engagements. You can make this list after waking up as well. The point of it all is to give yourself targets throughout the day. When you are engaged in completing your tasks, the chances of nostalgic thoughts that make you feel homesick are less likely to creep in.
To make things interesting, you can reward yourself with the things you like at the completion of your to do list such as buying yourself dinner or eating a homemade cake (mind you, a homemade cake is made at home, so it’s you who will bake it!
Engage In Physical Activities
Working your mind is not enough to sustain your grades at the university. If you find yourself regularly feeling homesick, it may be time to engage in a body sport. The beauty of a physical sport is that it helps you improve focus as well as performance. While sports were intrinsically made for enjoyment, they are a sign of a healthy lifestyle.
In addition to keeping your body healthy, sports are also a great way to meet new people and become a part of the larger groups. It can be difficult to make friends in a place and in a new environment but if you take part in team sports, your chances of making friends will be higher. As opposed to solo sports such as running or cycling, team sports encourages a spirit of teamwork and healthy competition. However, while team sports are a good way to socialise as well as work out, solo sports are suited for students who enjoy their own company.
Talk To Someone
Sharing your feelings with someone such as a flatmate or someone at the university that you trust will help you reduce some emotional baggage. Talk about the things you miss, about what’s the first thing you will do when you get back home and discussing the intricacies of your life back home.
When you share the things that are bothering you with someone who is willing to listen, you will see how the negativity leaves your mind and there is space created to be filled with positive things.
If you are unable to find a person in your immediate surrounding, you can always contact the student counseling services of the university you belong to. Every college or university has a special cell for students that guides them through various challenges of life. This may include making career progress, dealing with toxic classmates or dealing with homesickness for international students. Get a hold of this department in your university (it might be recognised by some other name) and help yourself by talking to someone.
Thanks for reading this blog on 7 Ways To Deal With Homesickness. If you are interested in learning about the universities abroad that you can study in, scholarships available and tips to study abroad, the following may be of interest to you:
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I have done Bachelor’s in Culinary Arts from India and completed my graduation in the year 2022 .I am 22 years old. After graduation, I have done 1 year paid internship from USA .Now, I would like to take occupational experience and learn culinary skills and also do masters in Culinary arts.How can I find the college n best course / country where I can persue studying further