Mindfulness & Compassion for Living Abroad
Because life abroad is harder than it looks, and you can learn to ride its waves
Some things require a lived experience to be understood.
Living abroad is one of them.
Life abroad comes with all its beauty and terror: expansion, adventure, and novelty, as well as loneliness, identity shifts, setting up from scratch, endless admin, and uncertainty. What makes it uniquely hard is what's called Disenfranchised Grief: your losses and struggles are not seen or validated by the people around you. When grief isn't witnessed, it goes underground, compounds, and later surfaces as numbness, anxiety, depression, or doubt: is something wrong with me?
Mindfulness and compassion are the skills most needed in exactly this moment. They help you meet your experience with curiosity, honesty and kindness, rather than pushing it down or criticising yourself. They help you accept your life as it is, find your way back to calm and happiness, and show you that this life, with all its mess and pain, is liveable.
If you are...
A foreigner, expat, or refugee in Europe, feeling lonely and disconnected from support systems at home, adjusting to a new country’s system and values, navigating multiple cultures at home, at work and in larger society,
Navigating a major life transition such as break-up, divorce, estrangement from family, infertility, pregnancy, expansion of family, moving, burn out, coping with trauma, loss of purpose, career change, unemployment, retirement, obtaining a visa or citizenship, sickness, death of a loved one, the loss of democracy, safety or dignity in your home country, anxiety about the climate crisis,
Feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from your body, heart, and inner resources,
Intellectually curious, emotionally self-aware, and growth-oriented (you want to do the work),
Open to or experienced in mindfulness & compassion, but need support integrating it into real life,
Has, has had, or would like to have a movement practice, such as walking, dancing, or yoga, to integrate with mindfulness,
Seeking safe and authentic connections (spiritual friends) where you are seen, heard, and supported.
Based in Europe or available during European timezones, Then...
You are one of us!
Is This You?
You live abroad as an immigrant, refugee, on temporary work visa, student, trailing spouse, digital nomad, or other similar status.
You sorted the visa, learned the language, found the apartment, made the friends, and you still feel overwhelmed, exhausted or stuck in a way nobody around you understands.
Your struggles are not seen or validated by the people in your life.
Loved ones back home care but don’t get what this life costs and like to remind you “well, you chose this life”.
Loved ones here are kind but don’t know you deeply enough or their culture doesn’t exactly translate to yours.
Your partner/family member who moved with you is in the thick of their own struggles.
Your therapist or coach doesn’t get it because they've never lived abroad, and are steeped in the dominant culture that doesn't quite translate to yours.
On top of the usual abroad struggles, you're navigating a big change without feeling fully supported: moving, break-up/divorce, estrangement from family, infertility, parenting (pregnancy, adoption, early childhood), a traumatic event, work difficulties (burn out, career change, loss of purpose), aging, sickness, death of a loved one, or the loss of democracy in your home country.
You are experiencing anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges due to the difficulties of your life abroad.
You appreciate life abroad, and you want to be honest about its challenges: losing proximity to loved ones back home, strain on your closest relationships, finding a new sense of self in a new language, culture and system, finding a home, job, community from scratch, endless admin, uncertainty, and discrimination.
You have some mindfulness & compassion experience, or are open to exploring it.
You are curious and growth-oriented. You want to do the work it takes to feel calm and happy again.
You seek safe and authentic connections where you are seen, heard, and supported, without unwarranted advice, judgment or criticism.
You are tired of commuting, and want to connect online from the comfort of your couch or bed.
You're in the right place.
About Me
I’m a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher and Coach shaped by many homes and life transitions. I bring 13 years of personal practice, and in depth-training from renowned teachers like Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. I help people navigate big changes when living abroad, survive and celebrate life away from home. Mindfulness changed my life. I hope it supports you, too.
My Approach
Testimonials
Resources
Free resources on mindfulness & compassion for all levels of practitioners.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness meditation is the practice of being aware of what is here and now in a kind, non-judgemental way, rather than being somewhere else like we often are - in the future, in the past, in our to do list, in our pain or in our stories. It is simple, but not easy. Like any sports or music practice, mindfulness is a skill we learn and it strengthen over time.
Hundreds of scientific studies show that mindfulness:
- decreases symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety, pain,
- improves sleep, focus, memory,
- decreases illness related distress,
- decreases the use of abusive substances,
- slows down cellular aging.
Practitioners report that a regular practice helps them:
- find an experience of inner safety, stability and resilience,
- be more present, positive and joyful,
- slow down and find an inner calm in the midst of chaos,
- get to know ourselves, and like who we are.
My Meditations
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