Protecting Your Mental Health Abroad: Tips for Expats
Living abroad is often seen as an exciting experience—full of discoveries, personal growth, and professional opportunities. However, behind the postcards and smiling faces on social media, many expats face a quieter but fundamental challenge: protecting their mental health.
Why Mental Health Is a Cornerstone of a Successful Expat Experience
The Psychological Challenges of Living Abroad
Moving to a new country also means changing your environment, language, and reference points. Even for well-prepared and willing expats, this upheaval can trigger an emotional shock, leading to stress and imbalance.
Loneliness, Culture Shock, and Loss of Bearings: Often Underestimated Risks
Far from loved ones, and sometimes isolated by language barriers or cultural differences, expats can feel disconnected from their surroundings. This emotional and social loneliness is one of the main factors contributing to the decline of mental health abroad.
Mental Health and Professional Performance: A Strong Connection
Many expats hold positions of responsibility. But when mental health starts to waver, performance drops, burnout looms, and the joy of the adventure fades. Taking care of yourself then becomes a necessity—not a luxury.
How to Take Care of Your Mental Health as an Expat
Establish Wellness Routines Despite the Change
Stay grounded through simple, comforting habits: take a daily walk, keep a journal, engage in soothing activities like yoga, meditation, writing, or exercise. These routines—though different from those in your home country—help you recentre yourself.
Build a Support System and Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Join expat circles, connect with a French-speaking professional remotely, build relationships within the local community… Being well surrounded is a powerful source of resilience.
Reconnect with Your Emotional and Physical Needs
Away from the routines of their former life, expats have the opportunity to relearn how to listen to themselves: How am I feeling today? What emotions am I experiencing? What do I truly need? This reconnection with oneself is the foundation for restoring balance.
Mental Health and the Mind-Body Connection: A Key to Overall Balance
When Food Becomes a Reflection of Our Inner State
Stress, uprooting, and difficult emotions… It’s common for your relationship with food to shift while living abroad: compulsive snacking, loss of appetite, or an obsession with control. The body speaks when the mind is out of balance.
Expatriation, Stress, and Eating Disorders: A Common Trio
Being an expat can reignite issues related to self-image, control, fear of failure, or the need to compensate. That’s why it’s essential to reconcile body and mind during this transition phase.
Let Go of Diets to Reconnect with Self-Listening
Restrictive diets and food-related pressures only increase guilt and disconnection. In contrast, intuitive eating offers a space to rebuild a peaceful relationship with your body, one that aligns with your new life context.
What if your well-being began with intuitive eating?
At Wellness Voyages, we support expatriate women who want to rebuild a healthy relationship with their body and food—far from diet culture and frustration. Our retreats and programs are rooted in holistic approaches that combine kindness, scientific insight, and deep self-listening.