By Dana Nelson, Ph.D. | Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Expat Counselor | Inter
The podcast currently has 45 episodes available.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Today’s episode will be a brief welcome back to the podcast. I’ll share with you a bit about what I have in mind for Season 3!
• I’ll invite you to connect with me and stay in touch as we move into Season 3.
• I’ll request YOUR participation in the podcast by leaving me an audio message! I'd love to be able to share some of your voices and stories in a future episode!
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Claudia Neiman!
Since moving away from the US at the age of 18 for school, Claudia has lived in Spain, Brazil, and Portugal. Although she has never actually lived in the UK, she has dual US/British citizenship, which lowers administrative hurdles to her living in the EU long-term, and she considers herself a global citizen. Rather than doing just a semester or year abroad, Claudia actually enrolled directly at the University of Grenada in Spain, where she completed her undergraduate degree in sociology. Still in Grenada, she is now working on her masters degree in teaching while also working as a researcher at the university there.
Claudia and her friend Dani (who we heard from in Part 1 of this series) started a website together called Sincerely Spain, where they share their experiences and insights on topics related to living in Spain and cultural adaptation for students studying abroad.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Claudia's experience of being an international student for the entirety of her undergraduate (and now graduate) studies and some of her observations about how this experience can differ from that of a student studying abroad for a single semester or year.
• Claudia's experiences of transitioning from being a student to a young professional while living abroad.
• What is "cultural competence" and how can students studying abroad work to develop their own cultural competence during their time abroad.
• Some suggestions for current or prospective international students to help them develop their own cultural competence.
Resources mentioned in today’s episode:
• The motivational quote Claudia shared with us comes from the podcast, That's So Retrograde.
• Claudia also recommended the YouTube channel, Yoga With Adrienne (which I have become totally obsessed with since our conversation, by the way!).
More about Claudia and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Claudia, you can visit her website, Sincerely Spain, where she and her friend Dani share their experiences of studying and living abroad in Spain. (You can learn more specifically about Claudia here.)
Some articles on their website that you might find especially interesting after today's discussion include this one about cultural competence, this one and this one (two-part series) on getting a degree abroad, and this one on culture shock.
Claudia and Dani also provide consulting services to students who are either currently studying abroad or planning to study abroad (especially in Spain, but elsewhere too). For more information about their consulting services, check out this page of their website.
You can also find Claudia on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and you can connect with her through this page of her website.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Dani Jauregui!
Dani is originally from the Chicago area. While studying at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois – majoring in Sociology and Hispanic Studies – she decided to do a semester abroad in Alicante, Spain. After returning to the US to finish her degree, Dani then decided that she wanted to move back to Spain, so in 2013 she moved to Granada, where she worked as a teaching assistant in a bilingual elementary school. After a brief stint also teaching in Costa Rica, Dani missed Granada and decided to move back. Since then, she has been working full time as an online English teacher, reaching students around the world from Granada, which she now considers to be her home.
Dani and her friend Claudia – both of whom live in Granada and also both of whom have studied sociology – started a website together called Sincerely Spain, where they share their experiences and insights on topics related to living in Spain and cultural adaptation for students studying abroad.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Dani’s experience of studying abroad for a semester and how this experience inspired her to move back to Spain after finishing her studies.
• Some of the common challenges that young adults face when studying or living abroad during this time in their lives (and some tips on how to navigate these challenges).
• Some of the amazing benefits of studying or living abroad during this formative time in our lives and how this experience can increase our own self-awareness and lead to personal development.
• Some tips to keep in mind when planning or navigating a study abroad experience.
Resources mentioned in today’s episode:
• Dani mentioned an article on her website about how we have different personalities in different languages. This article can be found here: “Confessions: I am a Different Person in Different Languages.” (See more below for links to a few more articles on Dani’s website that relate to our conversation today.)
• Dani also recommended The Lively Show Podcast, with Jess Lively.
More about Dani and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Dani, you can visit her website, Sincerely Spain, where she and her friend Claudia share their experiences of studying and living abroad in Spain. (You can learn more specifically about Dani here.)
Some of the articles on their website that you might find especially interesting after today’s discussion include this one about how studying abroad can be scary and challenging but why we should do it anyway, and this one on how living abroad can increase our own self-awareness.
Dani and Claudia also provide consulting services to students who are either currently studying abroad or planning to study abroad (especially in Spain, but elsewhere too). For more information about their consulting services, check out this page of their website.
You can also find Dani on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and you can connect with her through this page of her website.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Amanda Zetah!
Amanda is originally from the United States, from the state of Colorado. While she was in college, inspired by the dream of becoming a travel writer, she started traveling independently and soon caught the travel bug. As soon as she graduated, she jumped at the opportunity to start traveling full-time. Over the past 6 years of traveling independently, Amanda has been to over 60 different countries. She has spent time living in Sierra Leone, Iraq, Myanmar, and she now lives in Azerbaijan, where she works as an English teacher.
In addition travel, Amanda is also passionate about staying healthy – both physically and emotionally. From her own first-hand experience, she knows that travelers face some extra challenges in this realm, so she has started a website and blog for fellow health-conscious travelers called Health Nut Nomad, where she shares ideas and insights on ways to stay healthy and grounded while on the move.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• About Amanda’s experiences of facing the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone as well as a car bombing in Iraq — and how she has learned to both face her fears as well as continue to live in the present moment as she continues her journey of traveling the world.
• Amanda’s journey of discovering a mindfulness practice that works for her and allows her to feel more present in her day-to-day life.
• Breaking down some misconceptions about mindfulness and discussing how the simple practice of coming back to the present moment can actually get us out of our heads and back into our lives.
Resources mentioned in today’s episode:
• Amanda mentioned the book, The Alchemist, by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. This international best-seller (translated into at least 70 different languages) shares the simple story of a young man on a journey and has been widely interpreted to represent the journey we must all undertake to find our path in life or our destiny.
• The quote Amanda shares with us (which can be found here) is actually not from an anonymous source, but rather from Lebanese-Canadian poet and speaker Najwa Zebian.
• After we finished our interview (not included in today’s episode), Amanda also shared another helpful resource with me — a book written by her aunt, Terri Leichty, called Body Love Food Peace: Ten Practices to End the War, on mindful eating and developing a more compassionate relationship with our own bodies. Amanda also recently wrote about this topic on her blog, and this article can be found here.
More about Amanda and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Amanda, you can visit her website, Health Nut Nomad, where she brings together ideas from fellow travelers on how to stay fit and healthy while traveling and living abroad. Some of her articles that you might be interested in checking out include https://healthnutnomad.com/yoga-travelers-meditation-practices/this one on meditation practices for travelers, or this one on coping with anxiety.
You can also find Amanda on Twitter, and you can connect with her through this page of her website.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Claire Handscombe!
Claire is a freelance writer, blogger, and fellow-podcaster (host of The Brit Lit Podcast) living in Washington, DC. Born in London to a British father and French mother, Claire then spent much of her early adolescence in Belgium before returning to the UK at the age of 12. She later returned to Belgium as a young adult, before moving to DC to do her MFA in Creative Writing at American University. From 2005-2012, Claire taught English, French, and Spanish to adults of all levels in both London and Brussels. In 2011, she published a book called Conquering Babel: A Practical Guide to Learning a Language.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Claire's experiences of moving abroad to countries where she spoke the language, but where subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle!) language differences still impacted her cultural adaptation.
• We discuss the interplay of language and culture, including some metalinguistic cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings.
• Claire's experiences of the differences in academic cultures between the UK and the US.
• A discussion of why it's important to learn at least the basics of the language where you're living and some of the ways doing so can positively impact your life.
Resources mentioned in today’s episode:
• Claire recommended Passion Planner as a helpful resource that she uses to think about her goals for the future and break them down into manageable steps.
• Claire also mentioned the website Wordery, an online bookshop offering original editions of books from around the world -- with free delivery to anywhere in the world!
• Claire's personal essay, "How to Be British," (which we mentioned toward the end of our conversation and which is great!) can be found here.
• To learn more about Claire's book, Conquering Babel: A Practical Guide to Learning a Language, visit this page of her website.
More about Claire and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Claire and read some of her essays, be sure to check out her website, www.clairehandscombe.com.
To learn more about Claire's podcast, The Brit Lit Podcast, where she discusses the latest news int eh world fo British books and publishing, you can visit the Brit Lit Blog or visit the podcast's Facebook page.
To check out Claire's upcoming book, Unscripted, check out it's Unbound page, where it is available for pre-order.
You can also find Claire on Twitter, and you can connect with her through this page of her website.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• How self-care is really having empathy for your future self (and what this really means).
• A fun Seinfeld clip to illustrate this concept (in the inverse)
• Some ideas for what this type of self-care might mean for you.
Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
• I mentioned our wonderful New Year's episode, featuring all of the past year's Mindful Expat guests, sharing their self-care tips! Be sure to listen in for some great ideas to add to your own self-care repertoire.
• Here are a couple of articles on this same topic that you might enjoy:
- Thought Catalogue article: “This Is What ‘Self-Care’ REALLY Means, Because It’s Not All Salt Baths And Chocolate Cake,” by Brianna Wiest (mentioned back in episode 37).
- Atlantic article: “Self-Control Is Just Empathy With Your Future Self,” by Ed Yong (obviously very relevant!)
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today's Mindful Expat Guest is Carolyn Parse Rizzo!
Carolyn is a certified Child Life Specialist and Life Transition Coach focusing on healthcare and vitality abroad. From her home in Italy, she works as a health coach and consultant, supporting people who are dealing with various types of health conditions while living abroad. Through her company, Interval Coaching, she helps her clients navigate some of the challenges of managing health conditions in a foreign medical system, while also assisting them in shifting their perspectives toward their health, developing positive coping strategies, increasing their resiliency, and nurturing creativity and connectedness in their lives.
What you'll hear in this episode:
• Some of the common challenges that expats and other internationals face when managing a health condition in a foreign medical system.
• How our mindset can impact our experience of health issues and our experiences navigating a foreign medical system -- and how we can shift our interpretations in a way that can ultimately feel more empowering.
• Some concrete, practical tips for expats and others navigating health challenges in a foreign medical system
Resources mentioned in today's episode:
• Carolyn recommends William Bridges' book, Transitions, as her helpful resource.
• Carolyn also recommends, Travwell, an app designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that helps you plan safe, healthy travel.
• Carolyn mentioned a wonderful resource to improve our cultural awareness, Cultural Detective (a free online webinar).
• Carolyn mentioned her mindful morning walks as a central part of her self-care routine. To learn more, you can read this article that she wrote for the I Am a Triangle blog.
More about Carolyn and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Carolyn’s coaching and consulting services, you can visit her website, www.intervallifecoach.com.
Carolyn mentioned that she hosts quarterly Vibrant Women's Circles. To be notified about these and other related resources and events, you can sign up to receive her newsletter.
You can also find Carolyn on Facebook and Twitter, and you can connect with her through this page of her website (here you can also listen to a free sample guided relaxation that she shares there).
Stay in Touch!
Click HERE to access the show notes for this episode – including links to all of the helpful resources we mentioned.
Want to make sure that you never miss an episode of Mindful Expat? Hit the “subscribe” button in your podcast app and click HERE to sign up for the newsletter!
If you enjoyed today’s episode, please click HERE to rate and review the podcast on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will help other Mindful Expats discover the podcast too!
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Mindful Expat!
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• We'll talk a bit about New Year's resolutions and making sustainable self-care a priority in 2018!
• We'll hear from all of our Mindful Expat guests from the 2017, listening to their self-care tips from their own experiences as inspiration for our own self-care in the coming year!
Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode:
• If you're interested in thinking more about setting New Years' resolutions, check out this previous episode of the podcast, Episode 26, which I mentioned in today's episode.
• Show-notes for all previous episodes (including all guest episodes featured in this episode) can be found here.
• Thought Catalogue article I mentioned, "This Is What ‘Self-Care’ REALLY Means, Because It’s Not All Salt Baths And Chocolate Cake," by Brianna Wiest.
• Atlantic article (not mentioned directly in the episode, but very relevant!), "Self-Control Is Just Empathy With Your Future Self," by Ed Yong.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Lois Bushong!
Lois is a licensed marriage and family therapist living in the state of Indiana in the United States. She is originally from the US, but grew up in Central America (mainly in Honduras) as part of a missionary family, and she also spent 10 years working in Honduras as an adult. Having grown up as a Third Culture Kid (or TCK) herself, Lois has specialized in working with TCKs, adult TCKs, and intercultural couples.
Lois is also the author of the book, Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile, which is how I first came across her work. In addition to her therapy practice, she also offers services as a consultant and coach for TCKs and others navigating this intercultural space.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• About Lois' experiences growing up as a TCK missionary kid in Central America and how she came to want to help other TCKs find their true sense of belonging.
• How frequent moves can lead some TCKs to experience unresolved grief, which can lead to some difficulties as they get older.
• How parents and other adults can help TCKs make room for both positive and negative emotional reactions to their experiences growing up abroad and allow them to work through and process grief.
• How many TCKs find their true sense of belonging with other TCKs.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
• To learn more about TCKs, check out episode 8 for my conversation with Josh Sandoz (who we mention in the podcast).
• Lois mentioned a number of great resource books:
• Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child: Practical Storytelling Techniques That Will Strengthen the Global Family, by Julia Simens
• The new edition of Ruth Van Reken & David Pollock's book, Third Culture Kids 3rd Edition: Growing Up Among Worlds.
• Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids, edited by by Gene Bell-Villada, Nina Sichel, Faith Eidse, and Elaine Neil Orr.
• Pico Iyer's book, The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home (and his TED Talk entitled, "Where Is Home?").
• We also briefly mentioned Lois's blog post, "TCKs Make Great Therapists."
More about Lois and how to follow up with her:
To learn more about Lois' work as a counselor, coach, speaker, and writer, you can visit her website www.loisbushong.com. To read some of her blog articles, you can also visit her blog, mangotreereflections.com (the contents of which will be transferred over to her main website in the next few months).
Lois' book, Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile, is a fantastic resource especially for therapists and counselors, but really for anyone working with TCKs. To learn more about the book, you can also visit this page of her website.
You can also find Lois on Twitter, and you can email by going to this page of her website.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Why the holidays can be an especially challenging time of year for expats — whether we’re traveling home or staying in our host countries.
• Some specific tips for meaningful expat holidays when we’re far from home that you can implement in your life this holiday season!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
• I mentioned a number of ways you can stay in touch with friends and family back home over technology. Some great tech resources include Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp.
Stay in Touch!
To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Mindful Expat, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting app.
To receive monthly summaries of podcast episodes and stay up to date on other announcements and resources, sign up for the Mindful Expat Podcast Newsletter! (When you sign up, you’ll also receive a free mp3 guided mindfulness exercise to practice on your own!)
And, finally, if you’d like to get in touch and leave me a voice message with a question or comment that may be played in a future episode, you can do so here!
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The podcast currently has 45 episodes available.