Reverse home

Hints for how to deal with reverse homesickness - how to deal with returning home.

I am still not sure whether we are competent to give advice on this topic ten month after my return from a one-year world tour. Honestly, when I stop to think about it, I'm sure I'm still afflicted with what's often referred to as "reverse homesickness" or "reverse cultural shock".

Adapting to everyday living was much more challenging than we initially expected, and not a single passing moment goes by without one of our heart jumping back to one of our many unforgettable memories. A thing that made the sense of separation even tougher after our arrival was that no one seemed particularly interested in our story or photo - we had a vision of coming home and creating a slideshow for all our families and people.

However, in fact, every talk about our journey seemed to last about 5 seconds before the regular routines of their daily routines regained their importance. Our travel experience had totally transformed many of our personalities, especially our attitude to living and the thoughts, beliefs and emotions we had about the outside worlds.

It has not been simple (and is still an on-going process!) to reintegrate the "new us" into our "old" life, but we have found that the best way to handle it is to ensure that our life is never "normal" again! To use our travelling experience to make a difference in our old life, we have promised ourselves not to let the boredom of our everyday work water down the astonishing things we have seen and done over the past year.

Our aim was to put together some handy "tips" for dealing with reverse nostalgia - some of which we have already implemented, some of which we have yet to implement and some of which have been suggested by our friend and other people. Check out the What's On section to see what's going on in your hometown. - Try to go to shops, pubs or taverns where you have never been before.

If you were traveling, you did it by default, so why should you be afraid to try something new at home? It also contributes to restoring the singular "feeling of the unknown" from which one benefits as a traveler. - If you are going to visit another destination (business or pleasure), we have found that the decision to spend the night in a youth hostel rather than a nearby resort is a good way to keep the traveler in you safe.

Equip yourselves with travelling cushions and earplugs, just like in the old times! We always knew, for example, that a stream was flowing through our hometown, but we hadn't thought of it until one time ( when we felt the impact of reverse homesickness) we chose to discover the banks of the rivers.

We walked past information panels about the locals, showed us the city from a new angle and gave us the chance to trip over a really fun outdoor artwork we never knew was there! Simply one thing like this was enough to make us again feeling like travelers and revive those old emotions of anxiety!

• Far from being an alibi to staring at the walls and wishing for the past, gluing your trip pictures inside the home will actually help keep you motivating and provide continuous inspirations for your next venture. Much reverse nostalgia mixes with the worry of "forgetting" your travelling experience - you may think that the longer you are at home, the more your memory fades.

As a result, you may feel depression and unmotivation, which will impact every other part of your lifetime. Try to include the aromas of your journey in your culinary repertory each week. Especially in our hometown there are many specialized grocery shops, which deal, for example, with the sale of polar or asiatic foods.

Again, doing something you have never done before is a big part of traveling, and there is no need to go back to old routine just because you have gone home. - Try harder to see your mates. Feeling a little odd can be to meet old acquaintances after returning from a long journey because so much will have changed since the last of them.

Maybe you have the feeling that you don't really know them anymore or that you don't have anything in common anymore, but often it only needs a little trouble to get to know yourself again and to recall why you are a friend at all. - Sometimes, however, you may find that you no longer have anything in common with your old mates.

Deciding to get in touch with new acquaintances whom you know have things in common is one of the fastest ways to alleviate some of the signs of the reverse cultural shocks. You will probably find that it is almost impractical to tell your travelling experience to anyone who hasn't been there, and that can be frustrating if you just don't let them comprehend what all those stunning times were like!

The memory of your fellow travelers can be truly catartic and will abandon you with hot, blurred emotions and not with darkness and desperation! We' d be happy to listen to your own tales about nostalgia and how long it took you to get over it. Some of their own experience you can find in their blogs: