Living far from home with Victoria Ng
When considering the lifestyle in Australia, living in Europe seems like it would be a dramatic change. The customs are different and the pace of life may be faster. It’s in these times whilst studying in a different country that Victoria Ng found opportunity. Despite the challenging aspect of her goal to develop a career overseas, Victoria developed one key aspect which ultimately transformed the way she approached difficulties. Emotional Resilience. Especially, developing emotional resilience in a foreign environment.
Aspiring to develop a career overseas
When thinking to join TCB Masterclass talk shows, our attendees often hope to learn from entrepreneurs. Victoria Ng founded her business, Extra Pinata, with the intention of sharing knowledge about the mind and its connection to attitude. It’s the advice of ‘mind over matter’ that Extra Pinata focuses on. In her YouTube channel, Victoria talks about the importance of acknowledging emotions as concepts built on past experiences. Our actions and physiological sensations give us meaning and we interpret those into emotions.
So, it’s important that we’re paying attention to how our bodies feel! Our emotional vocabulary will then build as we translate physiological sensation into emotion. If you’re looking for tips when living overseas, emotional resilience is a muscle that Victoria encourages you to build.
Simple tips when living overseas
Victoria encourages simple but powerful steps when living and studying in a different country. We’ve all heard that sleep, physical exercise, laughter and deep breathing are important for a healthy lifestyle. But the key is to not only perform these actions when you’re at rock bottom. It’s to embed it into your daily actions.
Just like how speaking English with native speakers can help nurture a sense of companionship, Victoria’s second advice is to validate other people’s experiences. The simple affirmation that “I hear you” or “I care for you” can go a long way when someone is trying to develop a career overseas, but feels discouraged along the way.
Adapting while studying in a different country
Building on Victoria’s previous point, companionship matters when you’re living in Europe. Or any other foreign environment for that matter. As Victoria appreciated during her conversation with our TCB host, simple steps like scheduling a regular Zoom call with a close friend or family member can strengthen your ability to tackle daily challenges.
As Victoria quoted during her talk show, humans can feel an emotional overdraft when confronted with too many difficult situations. This can consume a lot of energy and impede us from enjoying life! This is why it’s important to build a ‘resilience bank account’ where you are mindful of past experiences and their consequences on your behaviour. Then you can develop mechanisms to not let emotions like sadness, anger or boredom use up more energy than necessary.
We’re glad Victoria decided to join TCB Masterclass and chat to our audience. The experiences she shared whilst living in Europe, and pursuing her goal to develop a career overseas, inspired our attendees.