NEED A GOOD ADVENTURE?

YOU DON'T HAVE TO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN OR GO ON SAFARI. YOU CAN ADD EXCITEMENT TO YOUR LIFE ONE SMALL TWEAK AT A TIME

- Elizabeth Bernstein

THROUGHOUT THE PANT DEMIC, we have been buried in bad news, just trudging along through our days. If we took a risk, it was often mundane: going to the grocery store, socializing with another human being in person. We spent so much cognitive energy trying to stay safe and keep up with events that we had little left to pursue the types of big, frightening-yet-exciting adventures that expand our lives.

Now, it's time to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. Anna Torgerson, a 35-year-old piano teacher in Chicago, pushed way outside of hers recently when she signed up for a local open mic night.

"Everything's felt so dim," Torgerson says. "I needed something to make me feel alive." So she made a plan to sing several songs she's written, which she'd never done in public before.

Adventures expand our world by allowing us to engage with our self and others in a new way. Research shows that novelty activates our dopamine system, which enhances our mood and positive outlook. It also may make us more creative, more motivated and better able to adjust to stress.

New situations, especially ones that seem dangerous, also force us to confront our fear. This can boost our mood by making us feel less stressed, less tired and even euphoric.

"An adventure gets us out of our patterns and helps show us our own competence," says Rachel Kazez, a clinical social worker in Chicago. "We get to see that things will turn out well, or that we can cope if they don't!"

You don't have to free solo Yosemite's El Capitan to reap benefits. Any adventure where you stretch yourself and learn something new counts. For some, it may be jumping out of a plane or scuba diving in Iceland. For others, trying a different workout or going out to dinner at a new place might do the trick.