In this episode, we talk to the amazing Mayaan & Gal from Smoozitive who specialise in helping people take that first scary step from comfortable home life to a strange, exciting and brand new world as a Nomad or Ex-pat.
Join us as we talk about belonging, making friends, reverse ex-patting (where you go back to your home country) and the ‘Fire Game’ (Not as dangerous as it sounds).
You can find Gal & Maayan on Instagram (@smoozitive), their website and you can join the waitlist for their brand new program here.
Let’s get stuck in.
PS. The sound at the beginning is Al knocking his microphone over… that lunchtime wine probably wasn’t the best idea…
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The roadmap we mention can guide you through the questions you need to ask before starting your own adventure.
Want to get involved? It’s completely free – just go to ASidewaysLife.com/roadmap.
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As ever, get in touch on Instagram (@asidewayslife) or email asidewayslife@gmail.com. We genuinely would be thrilled to hear from you.
The Transcript
Remember – this is done using a machine, so it’s not 100% accurate.
[00:00:08.410] – Al
Hello and welcome to A Sideways Life, the honest guide to living and working Abroad. This is episode 72 and I am Al. I’m Leanne and we are a married couple who’ve been travelling pretty much full time since 2000 and 1013. So today we’re talking to another couple, although they are sisters. Is that right?
[00:00:26.830] – Leanne
That’s right.
[00:00:27.870] – Al
And they’ve got a great interview with these two ladies. They’ve got some great insights. So give us the background on our guests today.
[00:00:34.760] – Leanne
Sure. So our guests today are Gal and Mayan. They are co founders of Smoothative, which is all about helping women living abroad to grow their positive mindset. So the basic idea, we all experience challenges. They’ve got a statistic on their website. Approximately 80% of women experience frustration during the first year of relocating overseas. Lord knows I’m one of those 80% and still do beyond the first year. So they work with expats with Nomads. Gala is a positive psychology coach. Man is a mindset training specialist. She’s also a yoga instructor and knows a lot about mindfulness.
[00:01:19.250]
And they work with experts to help them prepare themselves mentally and crucially before they move overseas.
[00:01:27.790] – Al
So let’s just give you a bit of context how this fits in. So you should know now that we have a roadmap of how you can live and work abroad in 2022 or 23 or 24, whatever you’re listening to this in, but how you can actually do it. So if you go to a sidewayslife. Comroadmap, you’re going to see how we’ve set it out. And it’s basically in three sections. It starts off with the how. No, sorry, the why I should know. This starts off with the why. Why do you want to live and work abroad? Then it goes into the how are you going to live and work abroad? And finally goes into the question that most people start with, which we think it should be number three, which is where are you going to live and work abroad? So we’re firmly in the why in the why.
[00:02:07.440] – Leanne
Yeah.
[00:02:07.950] – Al
So we’re in the step one with this particular interview. W put off of your mail because there’s lots of good stuff. I listened to this interview and there’s lots of good stuff in there for men as well. It’s for anyone really who’s thinking of living or working. And they’ve got some great experience. So let’s introduce them.
[00:02:23.420] – Leanne
They are Gal and Mayan from Smoothative. So welcome to the podcast, Mayan and Gal. Hi.
[00:02:31.430]
Hi.
[00:02:32.020] – Gal
How are you doing?
[00:02:34.030] – Leanne
Good. How are you? Cold. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. I know you’re very busy when we’re in with lots of things going on, but yeah, it’s brilliant. I think our listeners are really going to enjoy hearing more about you. So to kind of give a bit of context, as you know, we kind of got this why, how we’re set up with our roadmap and supporting people to live and work abroad. And we’ve known each other for a little while about our Instagram and we thought you’d fit in really perfectly into the why. So can you give us, our listeners, just a bit of a bit of context information into how you think you fit into the why?
[00:03:15.800] – Maayan
First of all, we love the fact that you created a roadmap based on questioning, because we are a big believer in asking the question and the only way to progress and to move forward is by saying it out loud and asking yourself the questions and then you can find the answers. So we love it. And I think we fit like we fit inside the why. Because there is this emotional questioning and mental preparation to life abroad. And when you’re asking yourself why you want to move abroad, you need to think about many things. Why will you feel better in a certain way or why will it please you? Or what will you find there that you don’t have where you are right now? And this is a lot of things that we’re talking about about well being and enjoying your life and finding your happy place. So mental preparation is very important when you’re starting to think about living abroad.
[00:04:17.070] – Gal
And I think we are big believers in getting prepared ahead before you move and to practise everything that we say where it’s easy and comfortable, rather than practise it where it’s really hard already and you’re already abroad reaching a lot of challenges. So if you go and get proper preparation, emotional preparation, mental preparation before, and you can practise everything that we say when your life is comfortable and maybe easier before you move, then you’ll get to this point of moving abroad more ready.
[00:04:59.150] – Leanne
Yeah. I mean, we’ve talked about that a lot on the podcast about how it really is the most disruptive, one of the most disruptive things you can do to your life. And if you’re not in a good place, it’s just the risks that things could go wrong. Tell us a bit more about you both and your business Smoothative, which has been founded very much to help expats my writing, saying expat women primarily in terms of managing this kind of getting a positive mindset to live and work abroad.
[00:05:26.790] – Gal
Yeah. So we created smoothly, first of all, as a community, a place that will support women that are living abroad. There are many terms of women living abroad. You can call them expats or immigrants or women living abroad. It doesn’t really matter the fact that we are talking to women that chose to live their life, to settle in a different country. It’s not the travellers or we really want to keep in touch and support the women that are living in another country. So the first thing will be the support that we give them. And we come from different backgrounds, but we really about the positive. Girls come from positive psychology she studied, she has a master degree and I come from mindfulness and yoga and we combined both of them, the positive psychology and the mindfulness. The mindset work and training, all those theories and practical tools to guide those women to make them create a more calm and more balanced life abroad.
[00:06:38.900] – Maayan
And I think I’ll add to that and it’s important to mention. So first of all, we are sisters and second of all, we’ve been a very young age. We first moved when I was only two years old and my son was six. Our parents moved quite a lot, so we lived in different countries, different cities, different places, and we had to adapt and have this flexible mindset, let’s call it to change a lot. We’re used to this, but one thing we realised is that the change doesn’t get like the challenges don’t get any easier. Even though we’ve been like experts for so many years, we still face challenges, we still face struggles, we still have moments where reality kicks foot in the face and the only thing that really changed is that we got stronger. We got used to knowing how to deal with it better. And part of it is mindset is our mindset. I’m coming from positive psychology, so it’s those tools that we use on a daily basis and practising constantly that really helps us deal better with everything. And when you deal with situations like you talked about in other podcasts about your business situation and housing and differences, there are so many things to deal with as experts.
[00:08:01.450] – Maayan
So I think that when we created smoothly, our idea was for a smooth and positive life abroad because we really wanted to share our personal experience, spread the positive vibe and give practical tools for those women abroad.
[00:08:19.610] – Gal
We hear so many women around the world that don’t really enjoy their life and don’t see it as an opportunity to have a better life and we really want them to see that it’s a great opportunity.
[00:08:33.150] – Leanne
Yeah. I find it really interesting that you said that you have all this experience since being children, travelling with your parents and living abroad, but the challenges still remain. It never gets easier. Tell me a bit more about that. What challenges do you find continue to come up?
[00:08:52.730] – Maayan
I’ll give you an example. I moved about like eleven years ago. I was a student in London, so it was one part of my expert experience and I decided to go back to Israel, our home country. And it was supposed to be easy because I am Israeli, I know the language, I know the culture. But then I arrived and I didn’t know how to open a bank account. I had no friends. It took me so long to find myself there. The culture I thought I knew I was like having a reverse expert experience. Now I was like, okay, well, I can do that, but it doesn’t work and I cannot find an apartment without having a bank account. But I cannot have a bank account without having an apartment. And I was like, where do you start? And funny enough, ten years later or nine years later, I decided to leave Israel and move to France. And I had exactly the same thing. Once again, I was like, again, okay, so bank account, where do we start? It’s a completely different procedure. What am I doing here? Friends and social networks again, I left my friends.
[00:10:03.610] – Maayan
I need to create new social life. How do you even do that? And the older we get, it’s harder because when we’re younger, it’s like, yeah, well, I go to the bar, I’ll find someone. But now it’s not the same.
[00:10:15.830] – Gal
And I can tell you that we talk a lot with each other and to other women. That the feeling of belonging to someplace. It never gets easy because every time you move, you have to create new relationships. You have to understand how the culture works and it doesn’t get easy. And for me, I moved this year to France as well as the mother. And this one is new for me to make this move as a mother, everything that’s connected to children, childcare schools, I never dealt with it before. So I know the language. I think I know the culture and the people, but I really didn’t know how to do everything was new to me. I didn’t know how to approach other moms, for example, in the park. And it’s something that I used to know before, like I did it before. And so the challenges are always there. Every time there’s a different situation. But the challenges are pretty much the same.
[00:11:19.110] – Leanne
Yes, challenges are inherent. And I think that’s a funny thing, isn’t it? They’re inherent in any life. I think it’s just they can be slightly more complicated or a bit more nuanced perhaps for people who live and work abroad. So with that in mind, you talked about the kinds of lots of practical challenges there that people need to overcome. But your business is very much steeped. And you say positive psychology, the positive mindset and emotional side of it. What’s your take on the importance of people being in a positive state of mind before they take that leap to live and work abroad?
[00:11:54.950] – Maayan
What we realise is that when you feel stronger, when you have greater resilience, when you are in a more positive state and you are able to use your mind so that it serves you best, then when you move abroad and you face all those challenges that are you’re going to face them whether you want it or not, everyone will face them differently, but you will face them. It will be a little bit easier. It’s not that the challenge won’t exist. We always say we don’t minimise the struggle. The struggle is real for a lot of experts. And actually it’s not only when you’re lending abroad. The challenges were going to be like in many phases during your time abroad. If I look at you like you’ve been experts for a while, but now you’re facing a new challenge because whether deciding to stay in the same country or moving to another one and changing apartment, there’s always something going on. But when you’re strong enough, when your mind is strong enough, then you can feel better. Then those surprises can keep you down a little bit less. When you feel good.
[00:13:00.300] – Gal
When you’re not that stressed, when you’re not struggling so much, when you can prepare yourself and prepare your mindset to be ready.
[00:13:11.270] – Maayan
It’S just like we’re always comparing it to any muscle. So moving abroad is a little bit like that. It’s a big challenge that you’re going to face. It’s a change that you’re going to do. You can be very proud of yourself. It requires a lot of courage and energy. But then you need to have your mindset ready for it.
[00:13:32.500] – Leanne
You mentioned there that it’s about getting in that mindset before people move. And we agree, and that’s where that first step was. That why what’s wrong with your lifestyle now? What are you hoping for and why can’t you get that now? For people who are going through that stage on their journey to live and work abroad, is there any practical tips that you can give people about how they can build their mindset, their resilience?
[00:14:00.510] – Gal
When you’re asking yourself, Why am I doing this move? And why do I want to live in a certain country? Try to go deeper and ask yourself again and again, why am I doing this? And until you get to an emotional answer, it’s really deep. It’s usually seven levels deep when you ask yourself again, so I want to move to this country. Why? Because I want to have a happier life. I don’t know. Why do I want to have a happier life? Because I want to be free. Why do I want to be free? And when you ask yourself this again and again and you find this emotional reason that make you do this move, then a few months later, when things will get hard, you will remind yourself, this is why I’m doing it. And it’s true that now things might be hard, but I know why I did it. I have my reason and it’s so strong because it’s emotional that I will keep going on. I will because I have strong why?
[00:15:06.810] – Maayan
I know why. I do feel more confident. I think, again, it’s not going to make the challenges go away. But when you’re going to face them and you’re going to sit on your sofa and ask, why the hell am I here and why did I move and why did I leave? You remind yourself that you had a wife and it’s a very strong wife. And when you say go deep into the emotional wife, you’ll feel there is a physiological thing happening to our body when you get into this emotional way.
[00:15:38.940] – Gal
So that’s one tip we want to do another one. I think something that you need to prepare yourself in advance and to get used to prioritising yourself. And what we mean by that is taking care of yourself physically and mentally because you will see that moving abroad, it’s easy to lose yourself to things you have to do. There’s so many things challenges, tours, everything. And it’s really easy to lose yourself. So practise now to prioritise that it’s very important to take care of yourself and once you know those things about yourself.
[00:16:19.060] – Maayan
The other day I had a call with an expert living in Spain and she said, I know that when I’m going out and I’m seeing the sun and I’m spending like half an hour outside.
[00:16:29.120] – Gal
It changes my day.
[00:16:30.280] – Leanne
And I was like.
[00:16:30.660] – Maayan
Okay, why are you not doing it?
[00:16:32.190] – Gal
She’s like, yeah, good question.
[00:16:35.630] – Maayan
So when we said practise beforehand while you’re living abroad, especially the first couple of months are always a lot about the to do list, the logistics. You need to take care of so many things that you completely forget yourself. And then you find yourself very easily in this negative loop of frustration and stress and anxiety and self doubt and second guessing yourself. The only way you can bring back and go back up is if you know yourself enough and if you prioritise yourself before your move so you know how to take care of yourself. Self care is very important and it doesn’t have to be like a crazy thing. It can be the fact that you will take a ten minutes morning routine that will make you feel like you have the capabilities to deal with whatever you have to deal with today, then you will be able to keep on doing it later on.
[00:17:36.580] – Leanne
Definitely. I think there is that trap that I know I’ve fallen into in the past where I just think, oh well, when we’re there, once we get there, then I’ll start doing this or I’ve not got time for self care right now. I’ve got too much, too much to do. I got work as well. I’ll figure that out when I get somewhere and that time creeps away and your resilience, you can feel it just Airbnbing away in the meantime. I mean, if you say for women who are busy, they’re juggling work, family, potentially moving everything that comes with that, it’s all well and good sale. I need to find time for myself. What can you do to actually really find that time and make sure you utilise it?
[00:18:17.570] – Maayan
First of all, like we said.
[00:18:18.790] – Gal
It’S understanding that you have to be your own priority. Nobody is going to give you this time, okay? You have to take it. You have to make time for your stuff. First of all, by understanding that it’s really important. If you’re not taking care of yourself. How could you help others? How could you do those to do? List all the things that you have to deal with. You won’t be able to do that, and you won’t be able to just prepare your move if you’re not in a good place with yourself. So first thing, it’s understanding that it’s the awareness.
[00:18:54.650] – Maayan
It’s a little bit cliche. But if someone tells us I don’t have time for myself, well, if you don’t have five minutes, then take an hour.
[00:19:02.970] – Gal
Then you need an hour.
[00:19:05.570] – Maayan
And then you force it. Because the thing is, at some point, if you don’t do it constantly and in small doses, you don’t have to go, like for 3 hours of self care. You need to have ten minutes here, 15 minutes there practise when it’s easy.
[00:19:21.420] – Gal
Take care of yourself. When everything is good, why wait for the things to get hard?
[00:19:25.720] – Leanne
Absolutely. And it makes me smile on you saying that I’m just finding those moments and she doesn’t have anything significant. I know for me, I always say, well, Alison her, and we’ve been married for almost ten years. And he knows what the rule is, that until I’ve had my first cup of coffee in the morning, you don’t speak. I’m either.
[00:19:43.690] – Maayan
All right.
[00:19:43.960] – Leanne
I might be checking my phone, going through Instagram. I might be journaling. I might just be staring at the ceiling with my cup of coffee. I might be sitting in the garden. But you don’t talk to me until that cup goes in that sink. My time. And it might be ten minutes. It might be an hour, depending on what’s happened that morning. But I think just those boundaries can just help a little bit to just give you almost that physical and emotional space that you need to just breathe.
[00:20:10.230] – Maayan
And we need it super important.
[00:20:11.800] – Gal
We all need it. Not only women, we all need it.
[00:20:16.060] – Maayan
And we need to make sure that we have it. Now, the problem is that a lot of us think that when we prioritise our stuff, it makes a selfish oh, I’m speaking of my stuff. But note, as Mayor said, it’s exactly like the oxygen. When I am in a better place with myself, when I am fulfilled with my own needs and I’m the only one who can take care of my needs, then I’m actually nicer to others. I am more compassionate to others needs. I can deal better with what’s going on. I can come with the right energy to this Visa Bureau office and come with a big smile instead of being cranking because I haven’t slept for four days as we’ve been.
[00:20:57.750] – Leanne
I think we’re particularly guilty of not prioritising ourselves enough. And it really is. As you say, a case of being our best selves means that we can be the support system we need to be for the people in our lives. We’ve talked about self awareness, really understanding your why and getting down to the emotional level. We talk about self care and finding those environments for yourself. I know a lot about what you talk about as well as about positive thinking and shifting, like negative thoughts into positive ones. And it’s something that I’m not a naturally funny person. I’m sure we’ve said it before. I have to work really hard to stay positive. If there’s anyone out there who feels the same, we just kind of default position. Is that more negative stance? What tips can you give people to try and think more positively?
[00:21:43.130] – Maayan
Actually, I’ll share with you one thing. Our brain is super negative and it’s not you and it’s not anyone. Our default if you think negatively only because I’m not going to get into the scientific thing here. But just in a couple of words.
[00:21:59.570]
Our.
[00:22:02.210] – Maayan
Area of the brain, the one that is able to analyse the situation in the fastest way, is the one that is looking for the danger. And this is why it protects us against the flight or flight situation. It’s like what is going on? And we see the negative. And actually the slowest part of our brain is the creative thinking and the positive. And that’s why it’s much harder for everyone to keep a positive mindset and a positive thinking. But this is what requires practise. So the more you practise it and the more you create habits to see the positive, then you shift your attention little by little. It’s easy to say shift your mindset, but it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to constantly practise. And guess what? The moment you have something that’s wrong in your life, your mindset will go back to the negative thinking and you need to keep on balancing and forcing it back.
[00:22:56.090] – Gal
So it’s not you and it’s not anyone who is listening to us here.
[00:23:00.030] – Maayan
It’s important to understand that it’s everyone and it’s a constant practise. We need to work on it at all.
[00:23:05.650] – Gal
I think it’s important to understand as well that having a positive mindset doesn’t mean that everything is good in your life. It’s seeing the negative things and learning to look at them in a different way. Okay, so for example, we always say to our community, try to see challenges as opportunities. So you face a challenge. What is the opportunity behind it? What can you learn from me?
[00:23:31.910] – Maayan
This example, I’ll give it to you for those who are thinking of moving. We talked about it with an amazing woman from our community the other day and she was talking about how challenging it was to pack her house from the US when she knew she was moving to Europe smaller houses. How do I get rid of all my stuff? She said that she didn’t sleep for a whole week because she was so stressed about how can she be without her sofa, without her clothes, without her shoes? What can I do here that will help me get rid of my stuff and not feel super excited about it. Okay. So it’s an opportunity to donate. It’s an opportunity to see.
[00:24:13.700] – Gal
What do I really need? And ask yourself again.
[00:24:16.050] – Maayan
It goes back to those questions. I said, what do I really need? Do I really need this pair of shoes? And then she played the game I’m going to share with you. I’m not taking credit. It’s her idea.
[00:24:29.550] – Gal
She played the game.
[00:24:31.610] – Maayan
If there was a fire, what would be the things that you take out of your house? And it’s like, basically, this is the only thing we need to take, because if we can get if at the moment of danger, you would run without taking everything, you can deal with that. So it’s a lot of moving broader.
[00:24:50.410] – Gal
It’s a great opportunity for new things, new style for your home, new style for clothes. I know that when I packed and moved this year, I left 60% of my things in Israel. I took only clothes that I really love, only books that I really love, toys for the kids that they really love. We donated so much things and I think we could have done it even more.
[00:25:16.540] – Leanne
Absolutely. It’s very much getting to know yourself, isn’t it? And as you say, reflecting and communicating, especially if you’re travelling with somebody that Al and I will do as a little game sometimes is kind of say, can you think of a time where we’ve been really unlucky? Things have gone really wrong, being really unlucky. And we struggle because we kind of like, we challenge each other. It’s like, well, okay, so we’re really unlucky. For example, this week, if you listen, last week I went in with an Akita that was unlucky, but was it because now that got us out of the flat to find other areas in Split, we’ve now got an area that we think we’re in love with. We’ve just got enough time to spend ten days there before we have to leave. So if that wouldn’t happen with the dog, then we wouldn’t have maybe gone to a new area, and that could fundamentally change where we live in the future. So it’s not really unlucky.
[00:26:13.850] – Maayan
It’s about seeing the opportunity.
[00:26:15.750]
Yeah.
[00:26:16.300] – Maayan
It’s okay to say, well, I had a really rough week. I had a lot of things to deal with, but what was okay, for example, what is not on what isn’t?
[00:26:25.910] – Leanne
Yeah, definitely. As you say, it’s a muscle, isn’t it? It needs to be worked, it needs to be practised. Is there anything else in terms of you talked a lot about what people, the work they can do on themselves? Is there anything else that you think people should be mindful of or wary of when they’d come to live and work abroad? In terms of socially, emotionally?
[00:26:48.830] – Maayan
I think one of the things we talk a lot about these days is understand that you don’t know, understand that you’re not fully prepared. There are certainly surprises that are going to come along the way, things you thought you knew, but you don’t. And it will happen. And I think once you understand that it’s going to happen, there’s going to be some surprises where it’s a little bit easier to like when they’re going to arrive. And they will arrive.
[00:27:17.760] – Gal
They’ll say, like, oh.
[00:27:19.030] – Maayan
This is what they talked about.
[00:27:20.780] – Gal
It’s not about you. It’s like this move. It’s surprising sometimes, and you can’t be fully prepared to it. The best preparation you can do is understand that things will happen that you are not prepared to, and it’s not personally your fault.
[00:27:39.350] – Maayan
You could have done anything differently. I think that’s the key. It’s not that in a couple of months, you’ll say, I’m so stupid, I should have checked this. I should have read more. I should have prepared. No, there are things that as much as you think you’re going to prepare yourself and you will. But know that there’s always a small percentage of things that are going to really surprise you. And those usually are the ones that really kicks us down because they’re like, how did it I know that. How did I not prepare to be like, what am I supposed to do right now? Here’s a challenge to see as an opportunity.
[00:28:13.500] – Leanne
If there was one piece of advice and he’d give to somebody who sat there who wants to live and work abroad, it’s their plan to do this year. Is there a one piece of advice or one golden rule that you give to them?
[00:28:25.880] – Gal
Do it. It’s so scary sometimes and it’s so challenging, but it’s so amazing and it gives you so much and you get so much stronger and you get so much more connected to yourself. And I think it’s an amazing opportunity and an amazing experience. I’ll tell you a quote.
[00:28:47.360] – Maayan
I don’t remember the name. I’m sorry. It’s been my mantra for so many years. If it’s both terrifying and exciting, then you should definitely pursue it, because this is life abroad. You can always go back home. There’s always a possibility to go.
[00:29:03.650] – Gal
Life only happened once.
[00:29:04.880] – Maayan
Life is only once. Live your life to the fullest. But come prepared.
[00:29:11.630] – Leanne
Absolutely. I love that. I love that. I say prepare and then just do it and things will go wrong. But you’ve got this. You’ve done the work. You’re prepared. You’ve got this. You’ve got this amazing mind. Ga, thank you so much for your time. If people want to find out more about you and about Smoothie, where will they find you?
[00:29:35.450] – Gal
So basically on our Instagram page, it’s Smith. And we also have a website.
[00:29:43.560] – Maayan
Smith.Com, to talk to us. That’s what we do. We talk with experts from all over the world about those things. Exactly. The emotional and the mental state and how to create a calm and balanced life.
[00:29:59.030] – Al
Well, they were lovely ladies, weren’t they?
[00:30:00.730] – Leanne
Yeah. Really great. Such a lovely energy. I think I was talking to him about an hour and all and it flew by.
[00:30:07.310] – Maayan
Yes.
[00:30:07.620] – Al
I think what I liked about them was the fact that they talked about this belonging, which I think is a big thing for anyone who wants to live and work abroad. I have a theory that if you don’t feel like or if you’re always looking for belonging, then you either become an entrepreneur or you move and work abroad. And I’ve done both. So that probably says a lot about my mental situation. But I like that. What did you get from that as well?
[00:30:32.690] – Leanne
Yeah, it’s similar thing. It is one of the hardest things and it’s across all the blogs and groups, finding friends, finding that sense of belonging is tricky. And I think one of the things that they’re really primarily is that belonging isn’t just about where you are in the world, it’s how you are in yourself. So, yes, the more you understand yourself, the more you’re self aware, then finding that sense of belonging might be a little bit easier.
[00:31:01.940] – Al
Now they did talk about something called the Fire game, which one of their clients was playing.
[00:31:08.040] – Leanne
Yeah. So they were saying the fire game is basically when you’re looking at kind of downsizing your life or what’s really important. If you have some fire, what do you grab? What would you grab on you?
[00:31:19.200] – Al
Our dog, my laptop and these microphones. The world needs to hear us, Leah.
[00:31:29.220] – Leanne
They do. How would they hear us without a microphone? I don’t know. I don’t know.
[00:31:33.850] – Al
What about you?
[00:31:35.310] – Leanne
Yeah, you peanut my phone, probably my laptop and your makeup, maybe a couple of skincare and makeup pieces. But even then, you know, you can buy that shit all over again, can’t you? What are the most important things? Your family, your health, the podcasting apparatus?
[00:32:02.490] – Al
I think what’s interesting is that we’ve done this and that we basically had a fire sale almost ten years ago when we left Manchester and we sold everything. And there’s barely anything that I look back on and go, God, I wish we kept that. Really?
[00:32:15.940] – Leanne
Yeah.
[00:32:16.160]
And I think we probably mentioned before we’ve still got storage unit in Spain from when we left nearly five years ago to go nomadic for six months and they never stopped.
[00:32:25.590] – Leanne
And honestly, beyond a bit of jewellery, photographs, maybe some wine that would not have aged well. No, I honestly couldn’t tell you what’s in it.
[00:32:35.090] – Al
No dining board in there. Possibly a plant that might need a bit of water. But anyway, so we’ll wrap this up because I think the key things I got out of this was that first of all, we are wired to be negative. And again, we won’t go into science that. But you can obviously message Leanne and she’ll tell you all about the science that being a psychologist. But we are wired to look for danger.
[00:32:57.630] – Leanne
Danger danger. Fire. Danger. What was that from?
[00:33:03.210] – Al
Danger. Danger. High voltage?
[00:33:05.110] – Leanne
No. Some kind of film or something. I can’t remember. Anyway, so I carry on. You were saying? Yes.
[00:33:09.550] – Al
Ruined my flow. So don’t beat up on yourself too much when you get somewhere and you go, oh, I can just see all the shit. I can see all the bad stuff because that’s what you’re wired to see. And also just shit is going to happen. You are going to have problems with visas, with bank accounts, with whatever this is going to happen. So don’t think moving abroad is going to solve all your problems. It’s going to give you different problems, but hopefully better quality problems potentially in the sun.
[00:33:37.890] – Leanne
Indeed. Indeed. Yeah. Shit will go wrong. And I think the whole philosophy of Gal in mind and the work they’re doing, it smoothly, it’s all about building your positive mindset. And that in turn is going to build your resilience. And we talked about that before. The podcast of a podmous. I think so, yes. Some really practical tips as well on their website if you want to cheque it out. Smoothive.com.
[00:33:59.620] – Al
Can you spell that?
[00:34:00.700] – Leanne
Smooth. It’s a good word, isn’t it?
[00:34:02.940] – Al
Smooth.
[00:34:03.650] – Leanne
Smooth. Smoozitive.com.
[00:34:10.950] – Al
It’s smooth on Instagram.
[00:34:12.360] – Leanne
It is yet. Same handle on Instagram. Also on YouTube as well. They’ve got some cool videos up there, I think. As I mentioned, I’m not sure if you’ve cut it out. I haven’t listened to the edit yet. But if you did, then their Instagram feed is great. They do so many reels with like funny little things that are entertaining and then practical tips as well. So cheque that out. They’ve got an ebook, they do coffee talkies or little groups to kind of meet other people going through similar challenges. They’ve got some free training. They’ve also got a coaching programme that you can sign up to. So much cheque it out, smutif. Comitive on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook and everything else.
[00:34:54.660] – Al
Cool. Okay. Right. We’ll call it a day there then. And if you’ve got any questions or thoughts or whatever, just go to well, two things you can do. First of all, go to asidewayslife.com/roadmap. That will give you the roadmap that we’ve developed which will help you totally free. And I think nothing to sell you. Not yet.
[00:35:16.530] – Leanne
No, not really.
[00:35:17.710] – Al
And that will give you the roadmap of how the question you need to ask before you live and work abroad. And secondly, if you want to get into jump on Instagram and search for a sideways life, if you’re not on Instagram, then go to Gmail or go to your email and email us asidewayslife@gmail.com. Okay.
[00:35:34.480] – Leanne
Indeed. And what we talk about next week.
[00:35:36.880] – Al
I think we’ve got an interview lined up, but it’s not confirmed yet, which is going to be quite cool. If that doesn’t happen before publication date or publish date, then we’re just going to have to make it up. We might just do what we could do we could just get drunk and just riff about stuff we don’t that’s we could do in an episode on stuff we have no writing talking about like me hip hop a white chubby middle aged man talking about the origins of black music. That’s what I will do. What will you do?
[00:36:07.530] – Leanne
Well, I can’t wait for that. I would tune in for that I will talk about the predictive power of star signs in life success. Yeah, cause I’m sure that’s a thing, right?
[00:36:24.460] – Al
I’m sure it is a thing. It’s just funny listen to the psychologist even just pretending that you believe that for a second sure anyway, right? See you soon, guys. Bye.