How to Deal with Homesickness

Homesickness is a natural and expected emotion we all experience at one point. When we feel homesick, we often feel insecure, emotionally disconnected, and uncomfortable since it’s a new environment. We as humans want something comfortable, consistent, and stable, so moving away from home is a significant shift in our mental health.

But there are plenty of healthy ways to control that homesickness, which is one of many emotions students may be experiencing every semester. Parents and families can assist their children, while you can do many things to help yourself when not having good days. 

Dealing with homesickness in the beginning as an international student

Moving away from home and beginning a new life is a huge step and needs a lot of courage, but who doesn’t want a new life in a foreign country living your best life? Remember that you are bound to feel homesick, which is not always bad. Just remember not to let yourself soak away in it thoroughly. Here are some tips for you to overcome them with some ease. 

• Acknowledge your emotions.

Acknowledge your feelings and accept them. Much of what you know and feel comfortable with is at home. Keep reminding yourself that it’s okay to be homesick. It is a natural response to the sense of missing out.  

Let yourself feel homesick for a bit living in big cities and new country is not easy so, don’t suppress that emotion. A good cry helps let out feelings, and it is natural. But limit your wallowing. Don’t let it consume you completely.  

Give yourself a day or two and sulk all you want but get up and go out with your friends or treat yourself fancy after. 

• Materialise your surroundings.

Bring familiar things from home to your new student accommodation. Photos, decorations, and even stuffed toys can help to give a sense of routine and ease the overwhelming feeling of new surroundings.

Whether it’s a toy or your favorite pillow, just pack it and take it with you. It helps you feel closer to your roots. This is extremely important while studying or traveling abroad since you are constantly around new people. It enables you to feel a little closer to home. 

You don’t have to be ashamed about having souvenirs from your hometown; chances are your roommates have something like that with them too. Suppose you are living in Nottingham student accommodation. You need to go shopping around in the Nottingham market, where you will find many decorative items for your student housing for a lot cheaper price. 

• Stay Positive 

 Get up and do something fun; stay busy. Buried feelings often emerge as migraines, weakness, or lack of motivation to get through your day. Try to maintain a positive attitude and keep that spirit up.

Staying positive can help you look at things better and sometimes make things easier to deal with. 

But we all know too much positivity is toxic positivity, so try to analyze your situations and keep yourself positive according to your conditions. 

• Have a proper schedule. 

Eat, move, and sleep the way it is helpful to your body, mentally and physically, and have a timetable and try to stick to it. Balanced exercise, rest, and self-cooked meals will help your body and brain function to the best of your abilities. Make a schedule and follow it.

 Plans your day in advance to have something to look forward to, plan something like a day out with your roommates, a flower shop visit, or a nice hot bath. 

• Interact with new people. 

One of the primary reasons we feel homesick is we shy away from meeting new people and starting a new bond we might feel a little uncomfortable with. 

Being in unfamiliar places takes us more time to adjust and start a conversation. So try to overcome that fear slowly as you have to start talking to new people at some point because you are in a new country, and you need to get things done, and you will need their help at some point. 

For example if you live in student apartments Manchester you can form a community of your favourite books or a favourite series, content brings a lot of people together so find your crowd or look fo your crowd. 

Dive and meet new people. Making friends and forming a supportive bond will help ease the loneliness. 

• Stay in touch with your friends. 

Keep in touch with people back home; however, it is easy to access them. Talk to them about your activities and experiences with pictures and videos. Keep texting them and keep them in the loop. A WhatsApp group or regular video calls will help you stay in touch with what is happening back home. 

But talking too much and depending on the people away will also make you feel the distance a little more and might end up making you miss home even more. 

So, plan and schedule your calls and dedicate a specific time for them. While you also manage your other chores. 

• Make time to journal.

Journaling is known to be one of the things that helps many people stay in touch with their emotions. It enables you to keep track of your feelings. It holds you accountable. 

Try to make this a habit. Having things scheduled for days is excellent as they become a habit slowly. 

Your experiences and feelings on a blog or in your diary. Journaling is one of the ways to keep in touch with your feelings and be aware of them. 

• Plan your visit home in advance. 

Plan your flights and visit home in advance to save some money and have an idea of when you will go home. It helps you feel content when you are gonna see your family and friends back home. 

Plan a date to visit home, look for holidays, track your college timetable, and see if you can go home during the off days. Keeping track of your dates can also help diminish unnecessary expenses on flights. 

• Have a clean and neat room. 

Keep your surroundings clean and neat, and messy rooms will lead to fogged minds, bringing you down even more on the days when you’re feeling your best.

Make it to a point where you have to make your bed every day right after you wake up, wash the utensils the night before, fold your laundry, and change these small habits. This makes a lot of difference in how you deal with your day. 

About amber 

Amber is a student accommodation provider that helps you reduce your hassle during home hunting in a foreign country. amberstudent is a one-stop destination for all your accommodation to airport pick-up requirements while you move abroad. Amber helps with prices and accommodation booking, airport pick-ups, and luggage shipping amber aims to provide a stress-free move abroad to students that are making the big move away from home.