Today i went to a women’t group for my own support…with a ‘spiritual’ componet attached to it. I was a bit nervous before going and felt similar during. I think i need a lot of support to manage all my transitions and the need for belonging came out strongly when in the group. I was familiar of the feeling of wanting to be ‘known’ and ‘met’ amongst strangers, a topic that comes out also as a theme in the research. It was also interesting to have different cultures in the group (english, greek, spanish). Let’ s see how it develops…this is part of the person’s/counsellor’s/researcher’s self care…

I spent Easter day with 7 greek friends of mine here in Manchester. We had arranged to meet and cook together ‘greekstyle’, as a way of connecting with our own culture whilst being abroad. We spent the whole day together, from early afternoon until late at night. There were a lot of converations during the whole day around our lives in the UK, the way our move abroad has impacted the relationships with the family back to Greece, the ways that personal relationships have developed, our work/study opportunities, the dilemmas around returning or not returning back to our home country, which does not feel like ‘home’ anymore…there were many emotions in the atmosphere and some of us admitted that they felt quite exhausted at the end of the day, as a result of discussing about those issues. … Read more »

1st of April today…time flies so quickly. I am going through a deep process at a personal level at present, not easy at all…trying to re-define myself, relationships, things i do, the research, my life…it’s a lonely journey and i many times ‘talk’ to myself, trying to connect with the spirit as well. I have been reading this book by N.D. Walsch (1995). I record some interesting quotes that have touched certain chords inside: … Read more »

Whatever the tasks, whatever i do, i know i can not produce any work,any research, any relatonship etc without being able to just be….there is so much emphasis in the ‘doing’ that things do not flow after all…it’s been a while i have been feeling ‘stuck’, hence not much entry lately in this blog…i just need to BE for now…i just found the following poem that ‘speaks’ some of this truth, it is by widesmiles.org (1996): … Read more »

On Friday, 2nd March, I wrote the following emai to some of my friends who also live abroad, the sojourners that battle with cultural identity, the cultural adaptation, the dilemmas around going back to what used to feel like ‘home’ but not anymore etc…:

“Dear friends,

… Read more »