Dear Lover... with Amy Reid

Embracing Change: A Journey of Teaching, Personal Growth, and Resilience Abroad

August 29, 2024 • Amy Reid • Episode 7

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Ever wondered how living abroad can profoundly change your life? Join me as I recount my eight-year adventure of teaching in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Spain, and the pivotal choice to remain in London instead of venturing to Costa Rica. 

This episode is a heartfelt celebration of the joy, gratitude, and personal growth gained from these diverse cultures. I delve into my experiences as a special needs teacher, the challenges faced upon returning to England, and how I’ve embraced a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity in my career. 

Struggling with depression and anxiety while living in a dream destination sounds counterintuitive, but it was my reality in Hong Kong. By opening up about my personal battle and the support from a compassionate head teacher, I highlight the importance of embracing one's true emotions and self-love. 

I share the insights gained from interviews with schools in Costa Rica, reaffirming my passion for special needs education and witnessing the positive changes in the educational sector. 

This episode is a testament to resilience and finding purpose, aiming to inspire and encourage listeners to focus on the positives amidst life's challenges. Don't miss out on this transformative journey!

Connect on Instagram and tag: @amyreidpoetry https://www.instagram.com/amyreidpoetry/

With Love and Gratitude always,

Amy

Speaker 1:

Welcome to, dear Lover, a space where we are leading with the question what's possible if we all prioritize being our own best lover? On this podcast, we are reconnecting with our true nature and awakening to our innate power. Together, we'll be sharing honest stories, insights and reflections from my own journey, as well as inspiring interviews and conversations that give you practical tools and steps to own your authentic nature and creative power. So subscribe for a weekly dose of love, creativity, empowerment and sacred self-romance. Connect and send me a DM on Instagram you can find me at Amy Reid Poetry to let me know what you resonate with and what you want to hear more of. So let's trust, breathe and believe and create magic together. Hello, welcome to this short mini-series of three episodes on gifts and lessons of living and teaching abroad. For eight years, I have put this down into three, three episodes, and on each on each episode, I'll go through, give examples of of them, of like life abroad and how I've come to this. Like gift and lesson, I mean, these are lessons that are that can be general as well, that we can, you know, gifts and lessons that we can also just learn through our process of life, but I do feel like in the process of living and teaching abroad. The reason that I want to just record this in like a mini series here right now is number one is to celebrate it, to celebrate living and teaching abroad for eight years, because, if you don't know, I've come to the decision that I'm not going to Costa Rica now.

Speaker 1:

I backstory I'm a I'm a qualified British primary teacher of 10 years. 10 years ago, 2014, I qualified at the University of East London as a primary special needs teacher and I worked in London for two years, and then I, in 2016, I moved abroad. I lived and taught in Thailand for two years and then I lived in and then from there, I moved to Hong Kong and I taught there for two years. And then I moved to Spain and I worked in a Montessori Montessori school for about eight months before leaving the classroom and working self-employed as an online tutor, and I did that for the next year and a half in in no, two years, two years and a half in in Barcelona. So I literally lived in Barcelona for three years and then the the final year I was in Spain, I moved to Menorca and then I moved down to live with my parents for three months, which was so good for me, such a challenge, but such a deep, deep point of growth and, um, yeah. So I spent that final year in with in Menorca and my parents and have decided.

Speaker 1:

I actually left Spain the 14th of June with the intention of living, of going to then teach in Costa Rica. I was having interviews at Costa Rican schools these past months and so my flight was originally tomorrow to Costa Rica, literally Saturday, the 17th of August, and I have decided to not get on that flight and you will find out in the course of all these episodes of this podcast, like why right, and you know it will become very clear through future episodes of dear lover as to why I made this decision but ultimately, just you know. To sum it up in a bow now for you it's it's more truly aligned with my higher self, my true essence, my true nature and my innate power and creativity that I stay exactly where I am and create a life in London. So that's what I'm doing. I'm currently now looking for a job as a special needs teacher in a special school in London, in South East London. South East London is where I was born, so I'm literally in this process of going home.

Speaker 1:

If you haven't listened to the Yoni egg episode previously, to this. This kind of gives a bit more in-depth backstory and feelings and emotions as to the whole coming home process and and uh, you know, and what I felt in my in that 30 days plus of using the yoni egg, and how I've like come to this decision, because it was a decision that was not taken lightly, for sure, for sure, it's been a long time coming. I feel like, honestly, it's been since August 2023. As to why and I'll explain another episode why particularly August 2023 was when the seed was planted in terms of coming to live in London. That's a whole another episode which is very exciting that we'll get into. Um, but yeah, so here we are.

Speaker 1:

I right now, like I said, these three episodes I'm going to give you now lessons in life and teaching abroad are a celebration. Honestly, they're a, they're a freaking celebration of. I'm so proud of myself and I'm so full of gratitude. I'm so full of love. I'm so proud of myself and I'm so full of gratitude. I'm so full of love, I'm so full of compassion and I want to share it, and I'm so full of joy. I'm so full of childlike wonder and curiosity. Um, I don't want to share it. You know I've kind of come face with reality, you know of coming home, of, you know kind of landing here, um, back at my nan's you know, on my literally recording this episode on my nan's floor. Know, on my literally calling this episode my nan's floor, and I've just spent, uh, about two weeks, two weeks of my self-made retreat at my best friend's house in the countryside and it's been wonderful, just what I needed. But now I'm here, so I'm still in celebration mode. So come with me, celebrate with me and let's dive right into this episode.

Speaker 1:

So this episode is focused on, like the number one. Oh, my goodness, this is. There were so many gifts and lessons. I had a whole note section on this series, but so to bring it down to three is quite a big task for me. So let's get this concisely and clearly out.

Speaker 1:

Number one is one of my favorites, was the biggest gift, was the joy and the goodness and the gratitude, the embodiment of those things, embodiment of joy, the embodiment of, like, the belief that people are good, humanity is good, and the gratitude for having this, not only having this experience and living it, but, like everything that I've received in this right, received an abundance of friendships and memories and also embodiment of childlike wonder, curiosity and joy, you know. So, within the there were, I'd say the first gift is that embodiment of joy and compassion and and goodness of humanity and, like the you, the embodiment of, like, the unity, like when we live, when I've living and teaching abroad, because you're living and teaching as well, like you're living abroad. I lived in each of these countries for a long, for two, at least two years, you know. I was in spain for four years, so I did it slowly. It wasn't like traveling when we, you know, go from one place to the other and you know it's just a different experience. It's not better, it's not what like it's, it's just different. And I do feel like living and teaching abroad, teaching such a blessing because you, you're in the community, you're in the community, you're, you know, and that's, it's such you learn so much and you just embody, like you learn so much about yourself in the learning of learning about their culture and the country you're in and everything like it's such a gift of self-awareness and self-understanding and self-compassion and self-acceptance and and that just flows out to acceptance of others, compassion for others, you know um, and self-awareness of others and such a gift. So, yeah, so number one is within the joy, goodness and gratitude, and that embodiment is embodying that I'm really bringing with, like that childlike wonder, curiosity and joy, and I really I, I am, I have a lot of this, I have a lot of this to share and you know, embodying childlike wonder, curiosity and joy, like what I mean by that is, you know, when I've just because you're living and you've got a daily life and it's relatively normal in that sense, you know you're going to work every day, you're coming home and you know, but like you're in a different country and everything is new, everything is different, and you know, you're just very stimulated and and it's just, you know, it's just the little things, it's. My memories come from those small moments, right, those small moments of, of, like that feeling of the feet in your sand, in the sand and I know that you don't have to live abroad to go to the beach, but your feet in the sand, I know that, but it's just more grounded that feeling of riding your bike home after it. You know, right, I owned my own moped in Thailand and I rode my bike and I remember, like being in the rain.

Speaker 1:

I was riding my bike in the rain and it was, and I was, it was tropical rainstorm. We used to like have these raincoats, raincoats. Like. We used to drive from our school, you know, home. We all lived in the same building. It was the closest setup I had to friends as well, um, where I lived in Thailand, and we used to like ride, ride on my pets home. And I remember this one time we, you know it was a tropical rainstorm and like and I was shivering on my bike and the temperature was 25 degrees. I was shivering, it was 25 degrees, and I was like, wow, I have acclimatized. But I also remember being absolutely soaked through, literally like pants off when you get home, bring them out, like everything comes off, literally you're that soaked, even though you've got like this supposedly waterproof thing on. Um, and just.

Speaker 1:

I remember like being on my bike and just like this is and just smiling with gratitude and like this is great. Like you know, I own my own moped. I'm driving back from the school, from work, and then I'm like going out to eat this delicious Thai food. And I used to play a lot of sport in Thailand. I used to do Mai Thai and play tennis, like you know. So I had lots of moments of that gratitude and that joy and curiosity, like adventuring in the mountains. I drove, like for three hours and across the mountains in Thailand, um, you know, I visited my childhood home in Hong Kong. I used to live in Hong Kong as a child and from the age of seven to ten years old and when I was there as an adult, I went to visit back like where I used to live as a child. So that brought out that like childlike wonder and joy.

Speaker 1:

Um, and when I was in Spain, like just having those moments of when, especially when I started working for myself, like I would, um, you know, I, I experienced sunrise, I having the morning to myself and experience sunrise and just having those slow mornings, like so much, you know, so much compassion, so much joy and so much gratitude for those small moments. And I built the meditation community in Barcelona as well, and I wouldn't have been able to do that if I wasn't self-employed and had that time and to do that. So, you know, and I was like this is my life, like I'm working right now and like this is my life and I'm so grateful for life, like I just feel so, just like thinking, feeling about it now and sharing it with you. I feel so, like, so alive and so like grateful that nothing is going to take that away like, and it's those moments, you know that, um, those moments that really matter. So which leads on to number three.

Speaker 1:

Number two sorry, number two is the joy and that gratitude like comes from those small moments. It's not, you know, I get asked a lot like what's your favorite country or what's your like you know favorite memory that you've got, and I'm like there's so many small things that are so special to me that that are the ones that truly stick with my heart, like I'm. You know, like I said, I'm back on my nines now and I was sitting on my, I was just lying on my bed just before I went to sleep last night and I was like my heart is so full, my heart is so full right now and just from like feeling and living those, you know, I just think about all the experiences I've had in these eight years and they all, it's all a collection of small moments put together that make up this wholeness of this, like just joy and gratitude, and you know that's not to say it's all fun and daisies like I'm also feeling the challenges in that. You know. Know, like I, there were so many challenges. I had relationship challenges in Thailand with my friends. I really learned a lot about friendships in Thailand, um, and also like expressing my sexuality. That came out in Thailand as well, and I learned, you know, I learned about friendship and loyalty and honesty.

Speaker 1:

And in Hong Kong the challenges came. My depression anxiety came up. Honesty, and in Hong Kong the challenges came. My depression anxiety came up for me in Hong Kong as well and within that, I learned to really focus more deeply in and learn love, learn to love myself and show up for myself, because I it was so difficult for me to experience that again, for that depression anxiety to come up for me again, because I was like, what am I doing? Like? I'm living like this, this wonderful life, like the life that I've been dreaming about. I'm living my dream of living and teaching abroad, but yet I'm here like depressed and highly anxious, like what is going on, and I could look to my outside environment. Right, I could look to. Oh, hong Kong is just not my place and I don't believe that. No, it's not about the outside environment. It's about what's going on within, right I?

Speaker 1:

I experienced depression, anxiety, because I was suppressing my own emotions. I was expressed, I was suppressing. I was experiencing depression because I was suppressing my true nature. I was suppressing my emotions, I was suppressing my sexuality. So, of course, I experienced depression.

Speaker 1:

I was, I was experiencing anxiety because I was always so worried about on what's going on the outside, what others were thinking about me. I was worrying about the future. I knew that I wasn't aligned. I knew that, you know, I had so much like I was suppressing, so I felt depressed and anxious and it in, there's the gift, right lies in there, the gift.

Speaker 1:

And within that I, you know, I experienced going back to the goodness of humanity. I saw the humanness in the head, my head teacher at the time I had to take two, two weeks off off, uh, off off work because of depression, anxiety and I saw the humanity in my head teacher and she was one strict head teacher, you know, um, but she was really supportive and really understanding, really compassionate, and yeah, those two points are very interlinked, number one and number two goodness of humanity, and and like those small moments, and like those small moments are truly what makes up the? You know, makes up the and you know, like, coming arriving in Bangkok after a holiday, you know, after visiting family back in England, you know, and you're coming back to work, right, you're going back to your daily life and you know, you get the flight to Bangkok and I always I felt like okay, I feel I feel a sense of home here, right, and the, the Thai smile, like like related back to that, that first point of the childlike curiosity, wonder and joy. Like bringing that Thai smile energy to London. Like I know it's going to be a challenge, of course, like you know what England is like in the winter, like it's dark, grey and rainy and people didn't smile that much, but like I intend to bring that with me, bring this energy of, of, like I'm going to smile at people even on a rainy day. Is it gonna be challenging? Yes, of course it is. Am I still gonna do it? Yes, I am, because I'm choosing to focus on that and that's not to say oh, toxic, toxic positivity, like no, if you know me at all, I'm all about feeling my emotions, like every single day, like every you know, but it's like it gets. It's full of negativity, full of fear, full of all of this like it's.

Speaker 1:

It's so important to choose what we focus on, and I really feel like living and teaching abroad has brought and helped me to embody this and be like. There's so much you know, because there's also so many like um, you know there's there's bad I won't say bad points lack of a better word to every country. Right, there's pros and cons of every country and you can certainly focus on the cons, but I don't want to. So it's really um helped me to choose what I focus on. Yeah, number three the last point in this, in this episode, is actually really recently and related, related to the two previous points of like the goodness right, the goodness of humanity is.

Speaker 1:

I really saw this in the interviews I had with schools in Costa Rica. Now, I was overflowing with opportunities and I'm so grateful for the abundance of opportunities I had. I had five interviews. It's um. Yeah, well, I had three interviews. I had five interviews set up. I did three of them and I had to.

Speaker 1:

I felt like I I had, I chose to go through that process because it was even though it was likely that I was, you know, I was deciding to stay in London, but I the reason I chose to go through that process until did interviews was two reasons one, to to really like honor myself, like honor myself as a professional teacher of, like you know, I really want to see if this is a line like I really want to feel like these schools and you know, professionally as a teacher, like is this my, is this a line for me in my teaching career to go to this school and and do this? And I really wanted to feel that. And although, like these schools are, you know, incredible and, like I said, I'm so grateful for the opportunity and the abundance of, you know, interview offers I got, however, within this, I actually came to the realization of what, where I wanted to go with my future teaching career as well, and that was working in a special school as a special needs teacher, and this is what I did for one year before I left abroad. I left to teach abroad and I knew it was very like it was challenging. It's very challenging but it's also very rewarding, like these kids are incredible. Like I can't believe I get paid. It's one of those things where like, oh my gosh, I get paid for this because I feel like I get so much back from these kids as well. So, yeah, and I get so much from these, these children as well, like I get paid to do this and that is incredible.

Speaker 1:

So you know the the opportunities I was getting from getting from from Costa Rica was mainly language arts, english teaching positions, which I love, like. I love teaching English, like you know, especially creative writing and presentation and communication. I love this so much. But it wasn't truly aligned like I'm good at it. I'm definitely good at it and I like it, of course, but I felt, like you know me, there was a reason I chose to work with kids with special needs, like and I'll talk about more of that in another episode but there's a reason for that and you know, and it so professionally.

Speaker 1:

In that process of interviewing, I realized, actually, special needs school is what I'm, it's where I want to go with my teaching career and that's what I'm doing. I'm looking for a special needs job, um, in a in a school in London. So, yeah, and then the other point related to those interviews is that I felt like a real big relief come off my shoulders of like it's not just my responsibility here is the really is the knowing that there are good people doing good things and our children are going to be okay. Our children are going to be okay, right, and what I mean by that is, you know, I always had this thing of oh my gosh, we need to change education. Education needs to change, like it needs to be more individualized, needs to be, you know, more focused on creativity and and it is happening. It's just really hard to see because it's a gradual process.

Speaker 1:

Little side note I took my best friend's granddad, who out for his birthday a couple of days ago, a couple nights ago. He's 84 years old and we had this conversation and you know, we just talked about like his education in the 70s compared to mine and then compared to now and what I've seen as a teacher, like it has changed. Our education system has changed. I just think it's really difficult to see when we are well, you know, it's how. One, it's happened so gradually. And two, we're in it. Right, I'm in it. I mean as, and maybe you're a parent and you've got kids, kids at school like you're in it as well. You know, we're all in it.

Speaker 1:

I feel like education is such a personal thing. We're all in education in some way or another, whether you're a teacher, a parent, or like you're connected to someone who's in education, right, and I had this thing of like yeah, like almost kind of this anger and this rage of like wanting to change education, but now I realized the best thing we can do is focus on ourselves and be. You know, that's old saying be the change, right, be the change. And yeah, and going through that process of the schools in Costa Rica really helped me to like I literally saw like there's so many, so many good schools out there in Costa Rica and not just Costa Rica, like all over the world, you know, um, but particularly those interviews in those schools in Costa Rica really just opened my eyes. It's really so much energy and passion and focus. It, um is going into education, sustainability and environmental education over there in Costa Rica.

Speaker 1:

And I saw that from the passion and energy from those, the people who owned these schools in Costa Rica and were, you know, interviewing me, and I was like it was a big relief of the kids, the children, our children, our children, like our collective children, right, are going to be okay, like more than okay. They're going to thrive, you know, because it's just all a ripple effect, isn't it? We're all connected. It's like the roots of the tree and you know, if there's people in Costa Rica doing this, there's other people doing this in England and Spain and Hong Kong and Thailand, and everywhere. There are people doing this and I think, for me, I definitely forgot that.

Speaker 1:

I definitely started to focus on, you know, I think I started to, went through a phase of watching the news of how education is is like needs, and of course, there are things you know, the things that happen that, yeah, aren't great, but, like with everything we choose, we get to choose what we focus on. Right, like, relate it back to number one, you know. So, yeah, so that's number three. Like, like the there are good, our children are going to be okay and and also, it learned I learned from that interview process Costa Rica, where I wanted to go professionally with my own teaching career. So, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you're number one to share that embodiment of childlike wonder, curiosity and joy with you and come with me on the journey of bringing this to London. It's going to be a challenge, but is it? Is it going to be a challenge or is that just my thinking? Maybe let's change that. You know it gets to be easy, but, yeah, come with me on the journey. It's going to be fun and also like, so much so that I'm writing writing my first poetry collection is going to be on, focused around this of the childlike wonder, curiosity and joy, like that, the yeah, I won't talk about so much because I want to focus my energy on it.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah, like this, I'm really like, I feel like I'm still in the process. You know, now I get to embody this energy, you know, in daily life, in in London, in the winter, in the black, dry, black, no, black, wet, cold rain, you can tell I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to it so much. But yeah, it's, you know, it is what it is Right. Um, yeah, number number two the small moments. I hope this like really invites you to remember the small moments and you know, it's those small moments that really have really make up the quality of our lives, like and within that presence, right, so, bringing presence to those small moments, really breathing into those small moments, really breathing into life and and the joy and the gratitude that we are alive and we get to wake up like every single day, you know, every single day. Let's focus on those small moments, because that's what those are, what makes up a beautiful, wonderful life, and that is incredible.

Speaker 1:

And then, number two, our education. Our children are thriving, are already thriving and they are being inspired already by wonderful educators, wonderful parents, wonderful people, and that is incredible. Like we are on a rise, humanity is on a rise. We are remembering our unity, our oneness, our like embodiment of unconditional love and acceptance and joy and peace, and that is incredible. So, thank you so much for listening to this episode. Talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening in. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me so I can personally thank you for helping to get the message out. I am so grateful to be on this journey with you. Talk to you soon.