Why We Need to Adventure

<p>Today, we talk about adventure and being devoted to it.</p><p>Adventure is essential to our evolution.</p><p>When I was a child, I would get soooo bored. I was an only child in a poor neighborhood that had so much gun violence I wasn’t even allowed to play in the front of the house because of all the drive by shootings...let alone walk to a friend’s house.</p><p>I made a promise to myself that when I grew up, I would never—ever—feel bored again.</p><p>While this promise ended up creating a full-blown addiction to adventure, what I didn’t expect was that adventure also helped me along my spiritual path in surprising ways.</p><p>Adventure is a very personal word, and my definition of adventure doesn’t have to be yours.</p><p>You can feel adventure when climbing a mountain; you can feel it overcoming a physical challenge like a marathon, or experiencing an illness like cancer; you can feel it when you risk your heart to be with your soul mate. I even feel adventure when I go to a new city, check out a new restaurant, try a new yoga pose, or learn a new skill. Or, more recently, move to a new state.</p><p>Good ol’ Merriam Webster defines adventure as:</p><p>1: an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks</p><p>2: an exciting or remarkable experience</p><p>Adventure often involves risk – but not necessarily <strong>danger</strong>. It can be very self-limiting to confuse the two.</p><p>The main take-home is that adventure includes an element of something out of the ordinary.</p><p>Definitely not routine.</p><p>Definitely not boring.<br /> </p><p>So why exactly is adventure – and the risks we take with adventures – important to our evolution?</p><p>When things get too familiar or routine, our minds grow <strong>dull</strong>, and the negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs that we all have are harder to break.</p><p>Things feel more permanent and real. We think we have “proof” that they are permanent and real because nothing seems to be changing.</p><p>But this isn’t true.</p><p>They only <strong