Welcome to The Returner Support Podcast, the podcast for people who came back to their home country after a long time abroad and realized that nothing is simple anymore.

I’m your host, Anaïs Ruel, life transition expert, and yes, probably the friend who says the things no one else dares to say during this phase of your life.

In today’s episode, we talk about something most people avoid at all costs:

How to never waste your return back home.

This episode was inspired by a sentence I heard at a business event:
“Never waste a good heartbreak.” And immediately, I knew, the same applies to returning home.

Because returning to your country is a heartbreak.
And like any heartbreak, it comes with grief, shame, anger, loneliness, and the urge to escape.

In this episode, I share:

• A very personal story about a relationship that ended, and how I avoided feeling the pain

• How distraction, busyness, and “fixing yourself” is often just emotional avoidance

• Why December was one of the heaviest months for me, and what it revealed

• How grief shows up as anger toward friends, places, men, and even your own country

• Why running to another country too fast is often emotional bypassing

• The dangerous belief that “I shouldn’t feel this way”

• Why returning home brings up old wounds you thought were healed

• How places hold emotional memory, and why your reaction is data, not a problem

• Why your country is not the issue, your filter is

• How grief softens your lens and changes how you see people, places, and yourself

I share reflections inspired by the book Belonging, including this powerful idea:
Grief is the current that carries us into our next becoming.

This episode is not about fixing your life.
It’s about feeling what you’ve been running from, so you don’t repeat it everywhere you go.

Before you move again.
Before you blame your country.
Before you blame yourself.

Want personalized support for your return journey?

🔗Book a free 30-minute clarity call here: Here

🔗Grab the Ebook Deep Dive : Here

Follow me on Instagram for daily insights and support: @The returner support

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

This end-of-year episode of The Returner Support Podcast is an invitation to slow down, reflect honestly, and stop shaming yourself for not being “where you should be.”

If you’re back in your home country after time abroad, or even just visiting, and you feel heavy, lost, misunderstood, or disconnected from yourself, this episode is for you.

We explore why December and January are not meant for big decisions or radical life plans, but for gentleness, truth, and deep reflection. We reframe winter as a necessary season, a pause that prepares the next chapter, rather than a sign that something is wrong.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How emotions like frustration, anger, and sadness point directly to unfulfilled desires

• How fear silently blocks action

• How to stop letting your past shape your present

• The power of acting from your future self instead of reacting from old wounds

• Real-life examples around friendships, values, family relationships...

• A concrete reflection practice using your photos and memories from the past year

This episode is about reconnecting to what you truly desire, naming the fears that keep you stuck, and choosing, little by little, to move toward alignment instead of familiarity.

A powerful listen to close the year with clarity, honesty, and self-compassion.

Want personalized support for your return journey? Book a free 30-minute clarity call here: Here

🔗Grab the Ebook Deep Dive : Here

Follow me on Instagram for daily insights and support: @The returner support

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

You did everything “right”.

You settled.
You have friends.
A job.
A life you once dreamed of.

And yet… something feels off.

In this episode of The Returner Support Podcast, I speak directly to those quiet months after the move, whether you’re back in your home country or you decided to stay longer somewhere else. Not the honeymoon phase. Not the one-year milestone. But that in-between moment where the excitement fades and heavy emotions show up.

I share my own experience of feeling deeply unfulfilled despite having “everything to be happy”, and the pattern many returners and long-term travelers repeat:
when it gets uncomfortable, we leave.

Again.

We talk about:

• Why sadness often appears after things stabilize

• The urge to escape instead of staying with what we feel

• How travel can become an emotional avoidance pattern

• Why it’s dangerous to make big life decisions when you’re emotionally low

• The difference between living “fully” and constantly chasing novelty

• How to stop trying to fix yourself and start listening instead

• A simple journaling practice to create safety with your emotions

This episode is an invitation to pause.
To stop questioning your entire life just because you’re having a hard season.
To sit with sadness instead of running from it.

If you know someone who’s back home after years abroad, or stuck in the “should I stay or should I go” loop, share this episode with them.

And if you want deeper support, I currently have limited 1:1 coaching spots.
DM me on Instagram and let’s talk.

Follow me on Instagram for daily insights and support: @The returner support

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.