I love roller coasters! Well not all of them . . .

Have you ever felt like your life abroad can be an inspiration for a great high-sensation roller coaster?

Well I have.
You'll go in, sit down, get your security belt on ready to ride, big smile full of excitement on your face. Than BAM! before you know it, you'll be upside down, going up then back down super fast! It will be harder to breath, you might be screaming, your heart rate rises while you'll be asking yourself "am I too old for this?!".
Then you'll get to the end of the ride, catching your breath and your smile actually will come back. You'll be happy this ride is over, but somewhere deep down, you'll know you'll do it again.

As you can imagine by my metaphor above, I (Gal) love roller coasters!
I love the sensation it brings to my body, the adrenaline rush through my veins, the excitement and childish feeling. BUT! and here's a big but.
I love roller coasters when I'm in an amusement park, visiting Mickey or other characters - not so much during my day to day.

For many women living abroad, us included, life is good. If you'll ask me how's my journey in France so far, my answer will be "great".
We had (and I'm sure you too) our fair share of challenges but generally speaking we're happy to be living where we are.

The thing is, if we would look with a magnifying glass, we'll see that the day do day, sometimes isn't that great.

This is the roller coaster I mentioned before. It's those ups and downs that stresses us, disturb our sleep, makes us scream, loose it, break down. . . Before we manage to get back to "normal".

We call them the 5%.
For some it might be 10%, others 15% - but the idea is that it's only a fraction of our life; yet this percentage tend to overshadow the rest, and bring us down.

This happened to me last week, when I got a gas bill that really surprised me.
Back in Israel I didn't even had gas in my apartment, so when I came to France and settled in my house I did plenty of research regarding gas companies.
I thought I know what to expect, but I had no idea!!!! how much keeping my house warm this past winter will cost.

This bill caught me by surprise massively, my heart rate skyrocket, I felt anxious, lost, overwhelmed, and unsurprisingly I started to cry.
All of a sudden my entire week, which was quite positive up to this point turned grey.
I immediately realized how the negative thoughts and words are taking over.
(it was quite obvious based on the WhatsApp messages I sent)

This is what we mean by the 5% that are taking over, tinting the rest.
Those moments can really throw us off balance, makes us doubt ourselves, and brings us down.

Thankfully both Maayan and I already know how to balance ourselves back, bring the energy back up (most of the times haha), and not letting those 5% take too much of our entire journey. But guess what, we had to learn those things, and practice them constantly.

One tool we can already give you right now is:

✨ Taking a Pause.
Whenever you're dealing with a stress factor (which is inevitable) - take a pause. Acknowledge the situation and how you're feeling. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen. The pause will help you balance your emotions and see more clearly and rationally what can you do about this situation.
Then you'll be able to shift your attention to other areas in your life - and see that it's not all black.

This might sound obvious, but we know it isn't easy to do - and it require practice (a lot of it).

Once you'll master the Pause - you'll be able to distance yourself from the situation and decide how you want to act (instead of impulsive reactions). 

If you feel like you'd like to chat with us a bit more about this roller coaster, and discover additional tools to balance those moments - let's book a short friendly call together. We're here for you, really! 

Sending positive vibes your way ✨

Maayan & Gal

Photo by Gabriel Valdez on Unsplash