Expat Skill: Balancing Stress And Recovery

Posted on 17. Oct, 2008 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Tools & Resources
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One of the challenges that my expat clients often bring up during coaching is that they have too much to do. This is particularly true at the beginning and toward the end of their international assignments. In addition to the demands of everyday life, they have to deal with extra paperwork, packing or unpacking, getting their bearings in a new location… the list goes on.

It is tempting to assume that we cannot get everything done because there are not enough hours in the day.
However, once we dig a little deeper, it turns out that in a majority of cases, the issue is not lack of time, but lack of energy.

Figuring out a new culture, learning a different way to do things, adjusting to the awkwardness and ambiguities of living abroad, all of this takes a lot of energy. Other factors, such as living in very crowded or noisy cities and coping with extreme temperatures, can deplete your energy reserves even further.

After spending your entire day running errands in a foreign language, getting lost several times only to end up in a huge traffic jam, you most likely feel too stressed out and too drained to start unpacking. So the boxes keep sitting there, unopened.

When you are operating under a lot of energy-depleting stress, do you make time for periods of recovery? I am not talking about going to bed at 8:00PM or vegetating on the couch for hours- this is likely to leave you feeling even groggier.
What you need are tools to recharge your batteries. Think recovery and renewal. It can be a short nap, a quick jog in a nearby park, a 30-minute meditation or yoga session. It does not have to take long, but it has to leave you feeling refreshed and energised.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, when your schedule is packed, take time off. Take your mind off your to-do list. The renewed energy, focus and engagement you will bring to your tasks after your battery-recharging break will make a world of difference.

Emmanuelle