New experiences are the spice of life right? But sometimes we get so stuck in our routines that doing something new seems scary. Here's something that might inspire you.
I listened to a podcast this week with a health expert that was mostly about food but he mentioned something in passing about brain health that really caught my attention. Our brains love routine which is no surprise. We are all creatures of habit. But the reason behind this was fascinating.
Our brains are efficiency machines. They don't want to do any more work than they absolutely have to, which stems from our evolutionary need to conserve energy in case of food shortage. And our brains are massive energy consumers. They use 25% of our basal metabolic rate despite accounting for only 2-3% of our bodies mass. They require so much energy to function!
Therefore anything our brain can do to make its functioning more efficient, it will do. When you do the same things every day your brain prunes away all the unnecessary things like excitement, joy etc. The dopamine response is completely blunted! That's why time seems to accelerate as we get older because we are operating on autopilot.
Actually it's not that time accelarated, it's just that your life has become so routine. That's why travel is so exhilarating. We get completely out of routine and everything is new and novel.
This reinforces just how important novel experiences are for our brain! Get out of your comfort zone today. Maybe drive a different route to work, or cook something new or explore somewhere new on your walk. Or do that thing you've always wanted to do.
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