A brand new year ahead

Stepping outside of your comfort zone and giving something different a go can have incredible health pay-offs. Try these routine disruptors on for size.

- ASHLEIGH AUSTEN

Can you remember the last time you did something out of the ordinary? Maybe it was trying a different cuisine or exploring an unfamiliar area; it could even have been reading a book you usually wouldn't.

While most of us don't do it often, getting out of our comfort zones has several proven benefits. Learning a new language, musical instrument, or skill, for example, can create new neural pathways and strengthen existing ones, essentially rewiring the brain. Although, as humans, we're creatures of habit, preferring to choose the familiar option.

"The behaviours we do, day in and day out, become strong neural connections in our brain, so trying new things can feel strange because those neural connections are often not there yet, hence why we often stick to what we know," explains Marny Lishman, psychologist and author of Crisis to Contentment: The Getting of Wisdom, Mid-Life.

A host of emotions can be felt when we try new things- fear, stress and anxiety-all of which we generally try to avoid feeling. Trying new things often pushes us outside our comfort zone, which makes us feel quite uneasy as we step into the unknown.