"MadameLee;15096884" wrote:
*sighs* I wish I could live/work abroad- but 1)I barely speak any other language(I know bits of French and Spanish and a tiny bit of Italalian) 2)I only ever been entirely alone and that was for 2 nights (Friday night and Saturday night) back in 2010. 3)My meds and checkups would probably be an issue (ie cost) in other parts of the world. 4)I do know how to do laundry but had no practice since 2012. 5)I would have to have page-style haircut since there would be no parent(s) to help me with my braid (And it would be awkward asking either a kid to do it if I was an Au Pair or if I did farming in the Outback..a fellow worker)
One of my friends really wanted to live in Europe. She wasn't able to, due to practicalities. So, she decided to make a list of all the reasons why she wanted to live abroad, but it wasn't an ordinary list!
She started by listing the experiences she wanted to have there, then next to the experience, she wrote the feeling associated with that experience. At first her list was super long. She kept crossing out the extra stuff and getting to the essential, and then eventually, she had a list that looked like this:
--See lots of art - Feeling: inspired
--Explore new places - Feeling: adventurous
--Try new challenges - Feeling: independent
--Meet new people - Feeling: connected
After looking over her list, she realized that it wasn't so much that she wanted to live in Europe, it was really that she wanted to feel inspired, adventurous, independent, and socially connected. So she set a new goal for herself to create experiences in her home town, while living with her family, that allowed her to feel those things.
She told me that it was a lot of work, and she had to try lots of things. But six months later, she was really happy! She's still working on the meeting new people, part, as that's hard for her, but since she gained so much confidence through feeling more inspired, adventurous, and independent, even that is coming along!
