The One-Week Reentry Reset Challenge — Start Where You Are
When you’ve returned from abroad, there’s a temptation to either move on too quickly or stay stuck in the past. Both are understandable. But reentry is a season that deserves your full attention, because how you process it will shape your identity, your relationships, and your future.
That’s why I’m inviting you to take on a small but powerful challenge: The One-Week Reentry Reset.
This is a gentle structure designed to help you pause, reflect, and reorient yourself—wherever you are in your reentry journey. It’s not about fixing anything. It’s about creating space for growth.
Over seven days, you’ll engage with one prompt or activity each day. These are short, doable, and designed to spark meaningful insights. You can journal your responses, talk them through with a friend, or simply reflect during a walk.
The One-Week Reentry Reset Challenge
Day 1: Acknowledge the Whirlwind
Journal Prompts: Take 10 minutes and write down everything that’s changed in your life since returning—logistical, emotional, relational, and internal. Then ask: What’s been hardest? What’s been surprisingly easy?
Day 2: Remember the Good
Journal Prompts: List 5 things you miss from your time abroad. What made them meaningful to you?
Bonus: Write a thank-you note (even if you never send it) to a person or place you miss.
Day 3: Identify the Grief
Journal Prompts: What did you lose when you left your life abroad? Be honest. Grieving isn’t self-pity—it’s a healthy acknowledgment of change.
Day 4: Honor the Growth
Journal Prompts: Write down 3 ways you’ve grown as a person through your cross-cultural experience. What strengths did you discover or develop? What am I proud of that I haven’t taken time to celebrate?
Day 5: Name the Tension
Journal Prompts: Reflect on a way you feel “out of sync” in your current environment. This could be a value, a habit, or a way of thinking that no longer aligns with your surroundings. Then ask: How can I stay true to this part of me while still engaging well here?
Day 6: Reconnect to Purpose
Journal Prompts: What matters to you now? How has your time abroad shaped your vision for what kind of life you want to live? Write a sentence that begins, “I want to live in a way that…”
Day 7: Make a Move
Choose one small, tangible action to take this week that honors what you’ve learned and who you’ve become. Examples:
Reach out to someone you met abroad.
Cook a favorite meal from your host country.
Join a global-minded community group or online forum.
Create a short video or blog post sharing one insight from your time abroad.
Why This Challenge Works
It’s simple. It’s actionable. And it helps you avoid the trap of skimming the surface of reentry. This is deep work disguised as light touch. If you engage with these questions and activities, you’ll gain:
Clarity about where you are emotionally and mentally
Compassion for yourself in the in-between
A renewed sense of direction
Want to Go Deeper?
If this challenge sparked something in you, here are two next steps:
Download my Quick Start Processing Journal—a guided tool to help you keep reflecting.
Consider joining my Hero’s Return Coaching Cohort, where we spend several weeks walking through this process together in community, using the Hero’s Journey as our framework.
Reentry doesn’t have to be something you survive. It can be something that forms you.
Reflection Question:
What surprised you most about this week’s challenge—and what’s one insight you don’t want to forget?