Anurag Kashyap more focussed after moving to Bengaluru: Is relocation good for your mental health?

Anurag Kashyap described changes in his daily life, including giving up alcohol, exercising and spending more time writing. (Photo: Instagram/Anurag Kashyap)

When filmmaker Anurag Kashyap left Mumbai and moved to Bengaluru, he was not simply changing cities. He was trying to step away from an environment that, by his own account, had begun to weigh on him. In interviews after the move, he has spoken about feeling less burdened, less stressed and being more productive. He said leaving Mumbai helped him step away from the pressures of the Hindi film industry; he also described changes in his daily life, including giving up alcohol, exercising and spending more time writing.

His experience raises a broader question: can moving to a new place actually be good for our mental health? “Relocating to a new city or environment is often described as a major life change, but psychologically, it can sometimes be an opportunity to reset,” Arpita Kohli, psychologist and counsellor, PSRI Hospital, New Delhi, told The Indian Express. Excerpts:

How surroundings influence us

When a person moves away from an environment that has been consistently stressful, it can create psychological distance from some of the triggers associated with that stress. A 2005 study by psychologists Wendy Wood, Leona Tam and Melissa Guerrero Witt examined what happens to habitual behaviour when circumstances change. The researchers found that when people moved into a new environment, familiar cues that normally triggered habits were disrupted. Some behaviours therefore became less automatic, giving people greater scope to act on their intentions rather than simply following an established routine.

That finding offers one explanation for why a new city can sometimes feel like a psychological reset. The morning commute is different. The people you encounter are different. The places associated with particular memories may no longer be part of your daily life. Even small routines can change because the cues that once prompted them have disappeared.

When familiar environment reinforces stress

Sometimes, people feel stuck not simply because of what is happening internally, but because their environment continuously reinforces the same patterns. A particular place may be associated with a difficult relationship, a stressful workplace, social pressure, an unhealthy routine or memories of a difficult period. Moving does not erase those experiences, but it can reduce the constant exposure to some of the cues that keep those patterns going.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 30 longitudinal studies found associations between aspects of neighbourhood environment and outcomes, including depression and common mental disorders, while also noting limitations in the evidence and differences between studies.

A new address helps break patterns

A person can move from Mumbai to Bengaluru, Delhi to Goa, or one neighbourhood to another and still carry the same anxiety, grief, depression, relationship difficulties or unresolved conflicts with them. A change of place can provide a fresh context, but the emotional issues a person is carrying do not automatically disappear after moving. They have to be addressed in a new enabling environment.

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The biggest psychological benefit is when relocation is accompanied by intentional changes in lifestyle. A new environment can make it easier to establish healthier routines, meet different people, create new social connections and distance oneself from situations that were perpetuating stress. A person might start walking because the new neighbourhood makes it easier. They might sleep at more regular hours, spend less time with people who increase their stress, make new friends, take up an activity they had abandoned or establish boundaries that were difficult to maintain in their previous environment.

For someone who feels that they have been living on autopilot, a move can sometimes create a sense of possibility. You are no longer surrounded by the same reminders of who you were or how you behaved in a particular phase of your life. That can give you the mental space to ask what you actually want going forward. For someone who has been stuck in a cycle of overwork, for example, a new environment may make it easier to establish boundaries.

Kashyap’s move did not require him to give up the work that defined him. Instead, changing his surroundings appears to have helped him change the rhythms around that work. By his own account, that has given him more space to write and live differently.