Get Up the Courage to Make the Move…to France!

With most clients coming to us for a consultation, I find that I’m wearing my “psychologist chapeau” rather than my “property consultant” one. This is because regardless of what they have in mind to do, whether it be a full move to France or just purchase a “pied-à-terre” that can be used from time to time, there is anxiety and fear over the process—all those unknowns that play games in our heads.

Very often I recommend reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle to learn how to overcome and remove the fear, which is of no value. Fear is absolutely debilitating. All fear does is get in the way of propelling you forward to reaching your end goal, for no good reason at all.

I adopted the philosophy about 20 years ago and it changed my life in a myriad of ways. As a result, I live more in the present, have been able to accept the past for what it is and never let fear of the future get in the way of making things happen. Anyone who argues with me that fear is useful clearly doesn’t understand what fear is, and likely lives in a lot of fear themselves.

Fear is, according to Wikipedia.org:

“Fear is an intensely unpleasant primal emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes psychological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a certain stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to oneself. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to confrontation with or escape from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response.”

Take note of the words “anticipation or expectation…,” and “perceived as a risk…” There is no reality in these words. These are thoughts in our minds, and that’s all. You don’t fear a candle burning, because you KNOW if you stick your finger in the flame, you will get burned. It’s the KNOWLEDGE that removes the fear, so why fear something that is simply just a thought of the unknown?

During the Covid-19 epidemic, I witnessed an awful lot of fear and anxiety that created a lot of stress for people. I was never fearful. That doesn’t mean I didn’t take the proper precautions. I did, but was never in fear for my life worrying if the people with whom I came in contact were contagious or not. We all did what we could do to avoid the disease. Unfortunately not everyone was able to and many died, but many more people created anxiety at very high levels that can lead to a whole host of other problems.

According to MentalHealth.org.uk “Fear is a feature of nearly all clinical mental health problems and is a root cause of some of the most common ones. As well as anxiety disorders themselves, fear is strongly associated with depression, psychosis, and sometimes attempting suicide. Fear is also strongly linked to poor physical health. People with generalized anxiety disorder have been found to be at higher risk of coronary heart disease, while anxiety has been linked to increased incidence of gastrointestinal problems, arthritis, migraine, allergies, thyroid disease and chronic respiratory disorders such as asthma. People with anxiety disorders are four times as likely as others to develop high blood pressure, and many studies have shown a relationship between anxiety and reduced white blood cell function, a sign of immune system weakness. There is also emerging evidence of a link between stress and Alzheimer’s Disease. Anxiety is also associated with unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and poor diet.”

So, the fear may have even contributed to susceptibility to the disease!

How do you remove fear and get up the courage to do something you’ve always wanted to do…such as move to France?

Patricia Brooks, The Courage Catalyst, is doing just that. She can teach you how to “Go from surviving in a country that no longer suits you to living and thriving in a country that does!”

She asks:

Whatever happened to that dream you had of living abroad?

Maybe you got the urge to move to a foreign country years ago, and you explored the idea back then, but something stopped you.

Now every time you hear about someone’s expat journey on a podcast or in a blog post, you feel a bit jealous of them and irritated with yourself.

You think, why can’t I live that kind of lifestyle?

The truth is, you can!

But you’ve lost faith that that is even possible. So instead of taking steps to make your dream a reality, you spend way too much time pining away for a life abroad without taking meaningful steps to make it happen.

You find yourself making excuses and procrastinating. And time passed.

Now, you are no closer to living abroad than when your dream found you all that time ago. And now you feel stuck.

You are frustrated, and you tell yourself there has got to be more to life than what you are living. Anxious, annoyed, and stymied, you relegate yourself to living your dream through the stories of those who are living their lives in foreign countries. And day after day, the walls continue to close in on you.

And COVID-19 has made things even worse. Are you kicking yourself because you didn’t act on your plans and move to that place where you feel so free and alive before the pandemic struck and completely stalled your life?

Despite your dissatisfaction, you can’t seem to break out of procrastination mode.

Sadly, this is where so many expat dreams die.

But what if it doesn’t have to be that way?

This is what Patricia and I are going to explore together!

This July 2nd, at 7 p.m. France time (10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern), she and I will be discussing on a FREE webinar how YOU can overcome your trepidation and make the move to France, that you’ve been dreaming about for…how many years did you say? A lot, right!?

Patricia and I will talk about the first two parts of her program which are 1) Identifying your why for wanting to move to France (turning a casual want into a driving need) and 2) Developing the personality traits/characteristics of the kind of person who moves abroad (belief in self, commitment/decision-making ability, and deservability).

Patricia and I have a lot in common. When Patricia Brooks moved to France, she didn’t quite know why. Something took over her and she had to get there. That happened to me, too. I landed in Paris in 1979 on a two-month trip across Europe and simply didn’t want to leave. My husband and I came back time and time again until we decided to test the waters for one year. That was in 1994. Obviously, I stayed and never looked back.

Patricia admits that the woman she was before she settled in France is not the woman that she is now. She hadn’t had the courage, initially, to look at her finances to see if she could quit her project manager job, take a career break in France, and figure out her next professional move at some point in the future. She hadn’t had the confidence to leave behind that adage, “A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush,” instilled in her as a child, and replace it with the more uplifting saying, “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.”

But, Patricia did get up the courage. Having been trained as a Certified Professional Coach at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) in 2015, she had a toolbox of skills waiting for her to use them on herself so that she could go beyond what she had believed possible for her. It wasn’t easy, and at times it seemed hopeless, but she came back time and again to figure things out, muster up her courage, and make her move.

Getting to France was just the beginning. In her first couple of years here, Patricia felt self-doubt and uncertainty rise up in her, threatening to boomerang her back to the US. She felt the loneliness of being a single woman in a foreign country with only basic French language skills. And financial anxiety plagued her because while her emergency fund was sufficient enough to support her for a few years, Patricia struggled to justify her need to move to France as a real emergency.

I can relate. In 1997 when I divorced my husband, I left with a pittance in the bank, some artwork on the walls and my daughter to support. The fear was insurmountable. I hadn’t yet read The Power of Now and wasn’t used to being a single mother. But, I couldn’t bear to leave France and stayed against all odds. Obviously, it was worth getting up the courage to stay and create a life here!

Everything came together over time for Patricia, too, and now living in Céret, between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, speaking French daily, and spending time with the friends she has made feels amazing to her. So good that she decided she wanted to help other single women who were just like her find the confidence and courage to make that move abroad. And her coaching sessions, whether in a group setting or one-on-one, enhance and enrich her life even more.

MORE ABOUT PATRICIA BROOKS

Patricia Brooks is the founder of The Courage Catalyst. She’s a midlife transformation expert dedicated to supporting single women in transitioning from feeling stuck in their current country to thriving in a new, fulfilling life abroad. After leaving her corporate job at 51, Patricia followed her heart to the south of France, where she discovered the art of living life on her terms.

Passionate about instilling confidence and courage in others, Patricia is the author of two books, Live a Bold Life and Growing Bold, and is in the process of completing her third. She developed The Carefree Expat Incubator, empowering women to confidently pursue their dream of living abroad. Drawing from her six years in France, Patricia understands relocation challenges and created a program to foster resilience and self-belief in women making similar moves.

With over 15 years as a Certified Project Manager in Fortune 500 companies and more than eight years as a Certified Professional Coach, Patricia is a seasoned problem-solver, helping individuals devise and execute plans for success. When not working, she enjoys playing the flute, hiking in the Pyrenees Mountains, learning Spanish, and leading laughter yoga sessions.

Join us this coming July 2nd at 7 p.m. France time (10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern) for this FREE webinar! She and I will be discussing how YOU can overcome your fears and make the move to France, that you’ve been dreaming about. While Patricia focuses on women’s issues, I’ll bet you men out there can use a little propping up, too!

It’s free. It will be lots of fun. And you’re going to learn how to alleviate your fears and make the move to France happen. How can you say no to that?

See our website for more information. Or register now!

A la prochaine…