The more I ponder it, the more blatant good sense this post makes: a certain amount of organization and routine is essential for forward motion in life, but jumping the tracks and implementing some random actions now and then can have positive results as well. New experiences, people, thoughts, and ideas can move your life to a different sphere. New spheres have the potential to be positive, negative or (sometimes this happens) to have only a vaguely different sort of sameness about them. Regardless of the size of the sphere or the level of wonderfulness it brings, you will have at least opened yourself up to something new and that’s always beneficial to the instincts and the grey matter.

New images, unfamiliar terrain, and alternate perspectives are inspiring, frightening, and force your brain to work (neuroplasticity is not a word I made up). Plus, it reduces boredom and shifts you, at least temporarily, out of the comfort and safety of your ruts.

Way back, before the time of supermarkets, going out for groceries had a palpable kill-or-be-killed aspect. I think we’re still jonesing for that brain-chemical surge we get when faced with new and exciting things. The annual rearrangement of the aisles my grocery store screws me over with is nowhere near as unexpected or exciting as being an animal skin-wearing early manperson out hunting and gathering, rounding a corner and suddenly coming face-to-face with a large toothy animal.

There are varying degrees of panic-induced adrenaline surges: at the low end is having to choose the perfect kitchen paint color out of the magillion paint chips they have at Home Depot; mid-level panic is somewhere along the lines of giving an important presentation if public speaking isn’t your thing; high-level is probably something akin to being held at gunpoint in a bank robbery.

These days most of us don’t get a regular dose of the high-level stuff. That’s probably one of the top ten perks of being towards the top of the food chain and having opposable thumbs. If not for those we wouldn’t have come up with grocery stores and solid housing, and without grocery stores and housing we’d still be in the eat-or-be-eaten part of our evolutionary trajectory.

Putting yourself out there and exposing yourself to randomness for the sake of enrichment doesn’t need to involve jumping out of perfectly good airplanes or other acts of tempting fate for the sake of the adrenaline rush. That’s not quite what I’m saying. The comfort of routine and the control we have when our lives are ordered and on-time is safe and within what becomes a non-thinking bubble. Stepping out of that safe, well-known place for even an hour has to be good for us on some level, regardless of the ultimate result.

I’m not putting forward the idea that in order to achieve happiness, success and a fully-enriched life we all must strive for a daily near-death experience. I’m merely suggesting that striving for some rut-free time every so often will be conducive to the leading of a bigger life.

Rutless Reading:

Brain Plasticity: How Learning Changes Your Brain

Train Your Brain: The New Mania for Neuroplasticity

Scans of Monks’ Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Function

Brain Research: Implications for Second Language Learning

Posted by Alexa Harrington