5 Ways Moving Can Benefit Your Mental Health - Movers USA (2024)

Moving can be taxing, frustrating, and extremely stressful. Whether you’re moving locally in the McLean, Virginia area, or across the country, moving is a big deal.

But it’s not all bad. In fact, there are many mental health benefits to moving which can be surprisingly beneficial – at least, once the packing, moving, and stress are out of the way.

Let’s take a look at the top 5 ways that moving can benefit your mental health.

1. You Get A Fresh Start

While this can be terrifying to some, the act of moving does give you a fresh start – you’ll likely be starting a new job in a new area or a new city, and meeting lots of new people. Moving gives you an opportunity to reinvent yourself – to become the person you always wanted to be.

When you live in the same place for a long time, you develop a network of friends, family, and connections – but also have the tendency to get stuck in ruts.

You’ll go to the same bar, see the same people, and go to the same job – and that can get boring. Boredom is bad for your mental health, and though moving is certainly a radical way to get yourself out of a rut, it can be very helpful.

Obviously, you don’t want to move just to alleviate boredom – but moving does have the benefit of changing many aspects of your life, and allowing for some very exciting moments.

2. You Can Experience Life Differently

Where you live is a major factor that contributes to who you are. Moving to a radically different place – a big city, a more rural area, or even the suburbs – can have a dramatic effect on how you live your life, and allow you to experience a novel, interesting lifestyle.

This effect becomes more pronounced the farther away you move – someone moving from Boston to Rhode Island may not experience much of a culture shock or a different lifestyle, but someone moving from San Francisco to McLean, VA would be in for some pretty radical changes.

Positive changes after adversity, such as enjoying a new city after a stressful move, can have great benefits to your mental state, and allow you to experience your life in new, novel ways.

3. New Friends Give You New Perspectives

According to a study in Think Positive, meeting new people and befriending strangers leads to a multitude of mental health benefits, such as increased cognitive capability and enhanced mood.

When we live in the same place for a long time, we usually stay close to our circle of friends. That’s natural – you love these people, and are comfortable with them – but forcing yourself to meet new people and get outside your comfort zone is often tough.

But you don’t have a choice when you move. You’ll have neighbors, coworkers, and people in your neighborhood to meet and befriend.

Every person is different, and the chances are that these people will have unique perspectives on life, relationships, religion, and other interesting subjects that will stimulate your mind as you get to know them.

Getting a new perspective on life can be really valuable for your mental state, and making new friends after moving to a new city or a new part of town can help you as you grow as a person.

4. Moving To A Better Apartment Or House Can Help Improve Your Mental State

It has been shown that living in a small, dirty, or otherwise unsatisfactory apartment or house can negatively influence your mental state.

The reasons for this seem obvious – no matter what you do, you can’t clean your apartment, or it’s just not a comfortable or nice place to live, and you may dread coming home to it at night.

This is especially true of smaller apartments that are shared with roommates – even though you may like the people you live with, they can become tiresome, especially when you’re forced to be in close proximity with them.

New families run into similar problems – a small apartment may have been okay when your child couldn’t walk, but now you have a 3 year old who is running around and bouncing off the walls – and you need to upgrade your living situation.

Moving out of a small, squalid apartment can be extremely helpful for your mental health – when you get a new apartment or house that’s clean, modern, and fits your needs perfectly, you’ll find that you are much more satisfied with your position in life.

5. Moving Gives You Time For Self-Reflection

In today’s workaday world, it can often be hard to take time for yourself to reflect on yourself, your accomplishments, and where you are in life. There’s never enough time, so you just keep on going about your business as usual.

This is not the case when you move. Your entire routine is disrupted, and if you’re moving a long distance, you’re probably going to have a long trip ahead of you, alone with your thoughts.

Moving gives us a sort of psychological “breakpoint” that makes it easier to think about where we are in life, and do some deep self-reflection. While deep self-reflection may be scary, it has many benefits.

You can step back from your day-to-day life, and begin to understand more about yourself – positive or negative habits, toxic relationships, fears, desires, and more. Simply taking the time to understand more about yourself can be extremely valuable, and help you build a happier life and a healthier mental state.

Conclusion

oving is stressful. There’s no doubt about it. But it’s not all bad, and these above examples are proof that even though moving can be tough, there are benefits that can be gained by working through this difficult process.

And moving doesn’t have to be an ordeal – full service movers like 1mover are specialists when it comes to moving, whether you’re going across the country, or just moving locally in the McLean VA area.

Our professional movers are top-notch, and can can help you through every step of the process, reducing your stress levels and allowing you to focus on the positives of your move.

Call us now, or contact us to learn more about us, our approach to moving, and our services.