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By Anthena
WHEN YOU’VE BEEN away for quite a while, it’s easy to find yourself missing your life back home. This is especially true on important occasions like birthdays, festivals or tragedies, when families traditionally gather together in celebration, or in sorrow. With the ongoing pandemic, the once (relatively) simple process of flying back home has become a minefield of complications. For those able to travel at all, trips have been characterised by health risks, quarantines and an ever-changing set of rules, making it nigh on impossible for the majority of us to even consider.
Months have rolled into years, and with the season upon us for big celebrations like Diwali and Christmas, that growing feeling of sadness can become more pronounced with each passing day.
That’s why it’s important to learn how exactly you can manage your homesickness. This will help you cope during this difficult time, while allowing you to appreciate both your current base in Hong Kong and your home country.
Here are a few tips to help along the way.
1. Remember: it’s okay to be homesick
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been working in Hong Kong for only a few months, or more than a decade — if your family is far away from you, you will still be missing home. There is no shame in that. You don’t have to feel bad for missing your friends, your family, or your life back home. On the contrary, it’s important to acknowledge this feeling.
However, acknowledging something is different from wallowing in sadness. It’s only natural to miss home, and often you’ll notice it in the littlest of things, be it mama’s home cooked dinner, or watching your favourite soap operas. However, you should never let your homesickness control you, as your happiness remains paramount. You can’t let your feelings impact your daily work, or prevent you from functioning day to day.
2. Build a great support network
To help you cope with the sadness of missing home, you should definitely find a good support system to brighten up your days. Luckily, Hong Kong has a vibrant migrant community, where you can easily make new friends and find the help and encouragement you need. Remember you’re not alone; these people fully understand the struggles of missing home, especially amidst the pandemic. Now, more than ever, you should turn to each other as a source of strength, to help each other through this difficult time.
3. Call home... but not too often
An unexpected by-product of the pandemic is that, thanks to technological advances, connecting with our loved ones remotely is now easier than ever. While no substitute for personal interaction, video calls offer a quick and (mostly!) hassle-free means of keeping in touch with family and friends. Granted, older generations sometimes need a little more guidance, but when Grandma connects to that Zoom call unaided for the first time, it can’t help but make you smile about how far we’ve all come!
That being said, you should also make sure to call home in moderation, as calling too frequently only serves to magnify your homesickness. It’s a similar case with social media; we now live in a world where we’re in touch with people from all four corners of the earth on a daily basis.
But even in the best of times, limiting your daily use of social media is good practice, as endless scrolling through posts from friends back home, often presents a misleading and rose-tinted version of reality. If you ever find it negatively affecting your mental health, it might be time to step back and take a short break.
4. Keep yourself busy
Keeping yourself occupied with enjoyable activities during your free time is a great way of keeping your mind positive. Even simple activities such as short walks around the neighbourhood or catching up with friends in the park can offer a welcome distraction, with the additional benefit that they don’t cost a penny.
Likewise, there are numerous migrantfocused community groups to get involved in, whatever your interests; beach cleanups, hiking groups and photography collectives, to name but a few. Visit our Community Groups & Initiatives section on the Pangyao.HK website to find out more.
5. Find ways to channel your feelings
Sometimes, when the feeling of sadness is too much, no hobby or activity can distract us from longing for home. In these moments, the best approach is to find a way to channel your feelings in a healthy manner. You can talk it out with a friend, or try keeping a diary, as writing down your thoughts and emotions can often help to put them into perspective. Reflecting on your feelings gives you a more in-depth understanding of yourself, teaching you how to better cope with such situations in the future.
Remember, homesickness is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it’s proof of how strong you are for facing the struggles of living abroad, just to provide for your family. It’s human nature to miss our homeland, and to look for small snippets and reminders in a foreign country.
But, homesickness leads to longing, and longing leads to sadness! It’s important to recognise this, as you should never let such feelings deprive you of happiness, or prevent you from living your best life abroad.
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