I moved from my country's biggest city to a rural town. It felt like a last resort, but improved just about everything.

"I woke up on a random Tuesday with a chunk of hair stress-shed onto my pillow, a pit of nausea in my stomach, and my mind already racing. This was becoming a daily routine. I'd lived in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, for almost my entire life. In 2020, my partner and I had moved into a small unit in the city, which we loved at first - but now, after a few years, we were starting to feel hemmed in."

"The city, the work, the noise ... it was all too much. We had a conversation later that day and realized it was time for a change. She was feeling exhausted, too, and my anxiety was worse than ever. Our finances were in the tank, and even though we were surrounded by people in a city of 1.7 million, we didn't have the community we craved."

"In late 2023, we found the place: an older, three-bedroom countryside home, sitting proudly on a huge patch of green grass. It was sun-filled, quiet, and rural, in a town with a population of under 10,000. We didn't even need to step inside. As soon as we pulled into the driveway for a visit, we saw all the greenery and looked at each other. We were thinking the same thing: This was exactly what we needed."

The couple lived in Auckland for almost their entire lives and moved into a small city unit in 2020 that soon felt claustrophobic. Daily stress manifested as hair shedding, nausea, and racing thoughts, and anxiety intensified while finances suffered and community connections were lacking. After six months of searching and rejecting nearby suburbs, the couple looked over an hour outside Auckland. In late 2023 they purchased an older three-bedroom countryside home on a large sunlit lawn in a town under 10,000. The rural setting offered quiet, greenery, and space; housing costs rose but overall living expenses fell and mental health improved.

Read at Business Insider