You experience big main character energy when you move abroad for your studies.
Life feels like a movie then: from boarding the flight, landing somewhere foreign, meeting new people and experiencing new things.
For many international students, this moment — and the many that follow — feels like a dream come true. But for the more socially anxious and introverted, you’re probably taking that statement with a lot of salt.
Sankalp Garud, a PhD in Experimental Psychology candidate at the University of Oxford, knows this feeling too well.
“I’m from India, and I admit that I grew up with quite a lot of social anxiety,” shares Garud. There, he was often labelled as an introvert, but it was never something he quite agreed with.
His real challenge? Making meaningful connections.
The solution was simple: social training, which Garud easily admits helped him learn how to connect with people.
The training sparked something deeper — a desire to understand people and why they act the way they do.
That led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at Ashoka University, a private research university in the National Capital Region, just outside New Delhi. He quickly followed that up with UCL’s MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience programme, ranked #6 globally by US News and World Report for Neuroscience and Behaviour — the perfect place to go deeper into the workings of the mind.
Still, it wasn’t enough. Today, Garud is delving deeper into his studies in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, ranked #10 in US News and World Report by subject for Neuroscience and Behaviour.
It wasn’t the ranking that caught his attention, but the programme’s supervisors.
“Oxford has its pride and privilege, but your supervisors matter, especially your relationship with them,” Garud shares. “Even when it came to choosing the country, it’s simple; the stars aligned with me.”
Garub hosts a podcast called “Understanding Emotions” about what he learned about living a happy and healthy psychological life. Source: Sankalp Garub
The importance of cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is the scientific study of behaviour, motives, or cognition in a laboratory or other controlled setting to predict, explain, or influence behaviour or other psychological phenomena, according to the American Psychological Association.
It explores theoretical questions, often by creating a hypothesis and then setting out to prove or disprove it through experimentation. Topics often vary from sensation, perception, memory, and even emotions.
Taking inspiration from his experiences in life, Garud has chosen to focus on social connections, the formation of friendships and relationships, emotional intelligence, and how it all ties back to mental health.
“As humans, we need to figure out how to eliminate suffering and find ways to be happier,” he shares. “The most important thing to do is to live a good, wholesome, and meaningful life. When we’re looking at evolution and galaxies, the probability of us being alive is minuscule. We can say it’s a privilege to be alive.”
That kind of worldview isn’t built overnight; it takes years, especially for someone who’s made peace with science and emotion.
India, after all, currently ranks 118 out of 148 in the 2025 World Happiness Report.
“Human happiness is driven by our relationships with others,” says Lara Aknin, a professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University and an editor of the World Happiness Report. “Investing in positive social connections and engaging in benevolent actions are both matched by greater happiness.”
So, how does one become happy?
That’s the million-dollar question — and it’s one Garud has dedicated his life to answering.
“Day-to-day, there are many who suffer, whether it be from stress, anxiety, or depression,” he says. “It could be through experiencing a horrible day or feeling like life can be such a drag, but once we get in touch with the beauty of life and learn how to incorporate emotional intelligence, we can sort of eliminate suffering and live a happy life.”
To Garud, happiness is less of a final destination and more of a skill — one that takes practice, effort, and a lot of curiosity.
While he’s not claiming to have cracked the code, he has plenty of advice, especially for his fellow international students.
We spoke to Garud about managing emotions abroad and how students can tap into emotional intelligence to feel more balanced and a little more at peace.
What is a crucial thing for international students to learn or understand about emotional intelligence?
As a student, there will be many challenges that you’ll face, no doubt.
Once you’re abroad, you may find it challenging to make friends, and you’ll be away from your family, perhaps even for the first time. There will come a time when you will have to become independent and start figuring life out, especially yourself.
If we are to turn to psychology for answers, taking agency is something students need to learn or understand, especially international students.
Having a sense of control in your life, the ability to influence your thoughts and behaviours, and the belief that you can handle situations are how you take agency, and you’ll start feeling better about life.
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How should students handle emotional exhaustion or burnout?
The moment you move abroad, you’re making a trade-off. You’ll be leaving your comfort zone, but you’ll be gaining positive experiences in your education, ambition, and career.
So it’s natural you’ll be losing in some areas. You won’t be able to have your comfort food or your family and friends next to you when you’re having a hard time.
A way for you to manage or handle emotional exhaustion is to remind yourself about why you decided to move abroad in the first place.
Instead of focusing on what you’re missing, you can remind yourself that you’re here because you’re ambitious or looking to gain a specific skill set.
It’s essential to stay in touch with what you currently have as opposed to what you’re not getting while abroad.
Figure out where your focus is, and once you have that, you can actively direct your focus to the positive aspects of your study abroad experience.
Garub has built a website to test emotional intelligence. The test is to help individuals understand their strengths and areas of growth. Source: Sankalp Garud
How do you think emotional intelligence can be cultivated in students who are less aware of their emotions, especially in high-stress environments?
Moving abroad can make you feel this jolt in your system. You’re in a new, different environment, and filled with uncertainty; on top of that, attending university is a perfect cocktail for a high-stress environment.
You can often see mental health concerns rise on campus; while it’s not ideal, it’s sadly normal.
A way for emotional intelligence to help students, especially when they’re naturally less aware of their emotions, is by understanding that stress is happening in the mind and there’s no stress beyond the mind.
So, no matter what happens in external situations, it’s only stressful once you manifest it mentally.
It’s like wearing a pair of sunglasses. If you were to wear it, it would become shaded, and when you take it off, it’s brighter. As metaphoric as it sounds, the mind is that pair of sunglasses.
Whenever we stress, there is a component of it that’s manifested internally. What emotional intelligence teaches you is to switch that component.
You’ll learn how to handle external events that go wrong while managing your internal emotions. That is the art of emotional intelligence, that even when things go wrong, we’re still aware of our feelings.
As someone studying experimental psychology, how do you stay emotionally balanced and self-aware in your personal and professional life?
I have dedicated the past 10 years of my life to studying neuroscience and psychology, and what I have learnt over the years helps me stay emotionally balanced and self-aware.
However, the one big thing that helped was mentorship and coaching. Many have the misconception that you have to figure it all out alone. It’s a very long and lonely path if you decide to do it alone, but it would be helpful and more fun if you were to do life with people around you or work with others.
Having a professional to talk to and learn from is essential, too. But the question of whether you can afford it will come up. If you can, go ahead; if you can’t, it’s okay if you form a good support system.
You can also get coaching from books and even free content online; just be picky with what you read or watch.
Showering myself with positive energy is another way to stay emotionally balanced and self-aware. When the waves of life come, I have the insurance built against them, and the low points in life won’t be as hard as you think.
Am I happy? I would say so, but more importantly, it’s how I’ve gotten happier over the years.
