5 Tips To Build Your Resilience After Moving To A New Country
Change is big and adapting to that change can be tough. The past couple of years have tested our resilience to a great extent and it can be a struggle to cope up with them and emerge stronger. Putting up a brave face seems to be the go-to option for many people when facing a stressful change and difficult conditions.
As scenic as a new country can be, it often presents you with situations that test not only your mindset but can also have the potential to disturb your motivation and peace of mind. Furthermore, you may often come across things which you cannot control or change.
In such instances, it is pivotal that you channel your inner self and develop your resilience. Building resilience is a personal process that varies from person to person. What works for you might not work for others.
Irrespective of how resilience works, having a strong sense of resilience remains crucial for everyone. And this article will brief you on the different ways to train, build, and develop your resilience.
What Is Resilience?
Over the years, the word “resilience” has varied in definition. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has a completely new meaning. However, what has remained constant is that resilience refers to how we cope with the challenges, difficulties, and adversity life throws our way.
In simple words, resilience is the ability to adapt, recover, and bounce back from setbacks, challenges, disappointments, and changes in life. An average human being demonstrates resiliency in small parts every day.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the human being is marred with sadness, emotional distress, or any other life calamity. It could simply be a response triggered by the onset of stress or strain.
Following are a few character traits that a resilient person exhibits
- Self-Efficiacy
- Commiment And Enhanced Dedication
- Patience And Tolerance
- Engaging In The Service Of Others
- Sense Of Humor
- Optimism
- Action-Oriented Approach
- Faith
How Do I Stay Motivated In A New Country?
Resilience is often brought about by sadness, stress, strain, and other emotional or traumatic life experiences. Humans are known to learn and build up their resilience along the way. Thoughts, behaviours, and actions act as the three crucial frameworks that are vital in developing and building resilience.
Resilience builds motivation, something which cannot be found that easily when we move to a different country. Staying motivated, whether at home or overseas, includes first building and developing your resilience.
A resilient mind is a motivated mind and these 5 tips will arm you with the tools that will not only help build your resilience but also build and improve it of the ones around you.
1. Seek The Outdoors
When you move to Australia, the first thing that hits you hard is the weather which makes you realise that no matter what the forecast says, you have to expect the exact opposite. It is always cold down under and the possibility is high at any given time of day.
All these are enough to keep an individual confined to the walls of their house. As cosy and comfortable as it sounds, staying indoors for prolonged periods can lead to one feeling depressed and bored, both symptoms which are enough to hamper your creativity, productivity, and overall motivation.
To tackle this, you need to attack the root and get out more often. Whether it is a scoop of ice cream post lunch/dinner or a day in the city’s outskirts, make it a point to enjoy the things that are right in front of you.
2. Develop A Set Of Core Beliefs
An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again but the toppled from within is dead. Similar is the principle that applies to a person’s set of beliefs. A strong foundation encompasses a set of core belief nothing and no one can shake no matter how hard they try.
The key to building your resilience is inheriting or developing a set of core beliefs that will serve as a personal mission statement. This personal mission statement will then automatically determine the values around which your life revolves such as integrity, honesty, kindness, and so on.
With these beliefs and values, you can ultimately view every setback as temporary.
3. Optimism Is Key
When I first moved to Australia, beer was to be found in abundance. As much as I enjoyed exploring new places for a cold one, the search for positivity and optimism took longer than expected. Maintaining a positive outlook is easier said than done.
But developing a positive frame of mind is pivotal in developing an optimistic mindset. This can be done by enjoying and appreciating the little things in life that aren’t necessarily appreciated enough. The more you enjoy the little joys in life, the higher your appreciation for life is.
4. Start An Exercise Regimen
For many, an exercise regimen is a new year resolution that happens to work for only a week or so. However, tough times call for stress busters and exercise is perhaps one of the best. But getting started is where people falter and eventually give up altogether.
Before you can develop an exercise routine, you must start. And to get the right start, we recommend you map out smaller goals, including going to the gym thrice a week or losing 5 pounds in a month.
Stick to the routine until you realise you’ve made progress. An exercise regime, once set, has the potential to act as a stress buster that you can resort to whenever dealing with traumatic or other stressful experiences.
5. Own, Accept, And Acknowledge
Every person has a unique set of skills that are either acquired over time or are lucky enough to be blessed with. The point is the skills everyone possesses are unique and you need to recognise and acknowledge the same.
When you acknowledge the other person, the chances of the other person similarly acknowledging you are high. In addition to accepting and owning people’s skillset, ensure that you are acknowledging yourself first.
Keep adding to the list of things you are proud of and acknowledging it occasionally. Everything you jot down will help you keep track of your accomplishments and add to your strength, self-discipline, and promptness.
The Bottom Line
How you adapt to difficulties and other life-changing experiences is important in the long haul. While no one expects you to be highly resilient, adequate resiliency works just fine in keeping us motivated. For it teaches us how to recover from setbacks while simultaneously and consciously helping us build our resiliency skills.
Keeping yourself motivated in a foreign land is important and empowering as it empowers us to find joy in life even when adversity lies in our faces. The more we thrive under pressure, the more we can be of service to society to help it cope better in the face of adversity.