Seven must-know tricks to tackle travel-related homesickness

Whether you’re away on a trip; at school; or you’ve moved to a new environment, the cognitive distress that results from relatively severing ties with home or your lifestyle routines could be pretty much intense.

Although homesickness doesn’t really count as an actual sickness on the basis of contemporary classifications,  many have reported a combination of depressive and withdrawn behavioral patterns; headaches and mood swings that are mostly insensitive of age.

Despite being widely understood as an emotional state that arises from the transition between two worlds, homesickness could, in fact, have very little or nothing to do with your actual home.

From making efforts at beating boredom and reaching out for help to creating new routines, here are seven must-know tricks to beat travel-related homesickness.

Create new routines

Whether it is the case that you’re away from home temporarily or that you have moved for good, efforts at establishing new ways of living, that mark a distinction between your old and new home, have severally proven to be effective.

As little as they might seem, non-drastic measures like finding a favourite breakfast place for the weekend or remaking your schedules in conformity with the expected changes could suffice as the new routines become commonplace.

Take a piece of home

Whether personal belonging or just routine lifestyle habits, bringing an insignia along with you that retains the ambiance of your former home could help tackle homesickness before it kicks in.

It could precisely be a teddy bear or perhaps your piggy bank and its perfect positioning on your room’s reading table. These tokens might not at all prove to be a great decor but they could bear that touch of emotion which would tell on you in the long run.

Get out of the house

Homesickness can be pretty intense; feelings of isolation and loneliness only worsens it. You should make a conscious choice to get out of the house at specific times during the day, meet new people and visit local reservations or attraction sites.

The idea is to develop a strong social network and support system even in cases of short trips to avoid obsessing over your old home. You should, however, be careful not to leverage excessively on social media as a substitute for actual people.

Beat the boredom

Boredom could be a catalyst for homesickness. Making sure you keep yourself active whether through joining the gym, volunteering, taking online classes or signing up for activities in the nearest educational institution could help.

The idea is to focus on goal-oriented activities and avoid preoccupying yourself with thoughts about home. You should remind yourself why you’re where you are, nuke the procrastination and fill the schedule holes as appropriate.

Talk to someone

Homesickness is associated with feelings of depression; anxiety; and sometimes a relative difficulty in coping with new environments, all of which rarely manifest physically although there have been cases of headaches and occasional stomachaches.

Different people might experience homesickness differently but if yours reaches a point where you find it extremely difficult to cope with daily activities, then it might be high time you spoke to someone about it. This is especially if you have pre-existing mental health conditions.

Journaling

Getting your thoughts into writing could be a great way of preoccupying yourself with something productive. But it is also an excellent strategy to help you actually work through these thoughts instead of merely worrying about them.

Journaling could make you into your own therapist and help you become self-aware by untangling the knotty details of how you truly feel and proffering logical solutions for combating the problem.

Give it some time

Adjusting to the lifestyle changes that come with moving to new environments can be considerably daunting. But you shouldn’t be alarmed if you didn’t have issues at first only to become homesick later on.

You could focus on getting enough exercise and reflective sessions or even calling and visiting home once in a while if need be. Feeling homesick is no weakness, neither is it something to beat yourself up for. So, you might want to avoid being too hard on yourself and, instead, give it some more time.