Shaking it up - the key to happiness and becoming fully human?

Last night, I couldn't sleep until around 4am.  So, naturally, today is a good day for writing and thinking, and I've been up to both.
Twice recently, I've had an idea of "shaking things up" presented to me as a healthy concept.  The first was this article about a talk at Harvard, which my friend Kara sent to me.  The second was a WebMD article on happiness, which my mom sent.
To be fair, the mom-sent one is a little cheesy, and the other I've read 3 times and am only beginning to really get it, but I found a common thread between them. 

They both address the idea of shaking things up.  This is something we mostly mess up in the follow-through. Here’s the idea: Human beings get used to things quickly—piling them in the “same-old-same-old” category before very long at all. We are excited about new things, because new things either mean danger or opportunity—noticing either is an evolutionary advantage. So, in order to be happy you need to feel that there is novelty in your life.  It makes tons of sense.
I'd extend that to people's tendency to seek drama. This is why the grass is always greener, we get bored, we crave new fashion trends or TV dramas or stimulating entertainment of all kinds. This is why things like rearranging my furniture in the middle of winter, or my mom's strategy of hiding a bunch of our toys when we were little (until we forgot about them) makes everything feel new again. Having something new wakes up your brain and makes you feel alive.
Second part of this idea of shaking things up: This comes from that Harvard article that Kara sent me. You need to keep fostering the uncertainty, being ok with it, and even being NOT ok with it, because it’s the shaking up your ideas of what is desirable that fosters creativity, uniqueness, and becoming fully human.
That's a gross oversimplification of that article, but I'm still trying to digest it.

Anyway, we crave being shaken up. We want the drama. I think we just go after it the wrong way.

I guess maybe because we most often get it passively. We want the feeling, but we’d rather it not have to do with our own lives, because that involves risk and fear and probably an uprooting of things we are comfortable with (which we, paradoxically, also need). We risk losing our safety. (and I'm still trying to work this all out) There’s our bubble of safety that we cultivate so we don’t have to face anything new, because New can be danger or opportunity. But if we’re “safe” we don’t need opportunity and can avoid danger. So, is safety a way we basically avoid living at all?
Maybe it is.  But “safe” becomes boring for a lot of people, because it is in our nature to want to live…? This is getting weird. Not living rubs us the wrong way, as it should. We get depressed. We paste meaning and importance on a handful of things, so we don’t have to think about what is meaningful and important—because that always changes. It’s a lot of work to track that. (ok that’s a tangent related to that one Sunday of Kevin’s where he talked about open doors) So, we get depressed because we don’t have anything meaningful, or we put meaning on things that may or may not go stale without our noticing. We seek drama in some way. Maybe we find it on TV or in books—entertainment. Maybe we create or seek drama in our personal relationships. Maybe we get really competitive at work or school to create a drama we feel is realer than TV and healthier than having at home.
But… where’s the good kind then? Paying attention?  I keep hearing about that. Seeking new experiences, but knowing where the bedrock is—like, new experiences are: going to a different part of town and watching people and thinking different things, or talking to a stranger or joining a new book club… Not taking drugs or sleeping around, or cutting yourself.  Maybe quitting your job or changing your look… but most often it’s probably just the smaller things. The smaller things are practice for the bigger things: meeting new people keeps you warmed up for things like career-changes, or lifestyle changes, or big moves.  Humans evolved to keep moving.

Keep moving, but also keep the things… that you can’t live without? Keep your foundation. Except… you do have to challenge everything. You really do. But…all in fair time?
I dont' think it's fair to be expected to challenge everything at all times. You need to have somewhere to stand.  For example, now might not be the time to challenge my relationship with Joel. I need to give it time; it's too new. There are a lot of other things that need challenging first. Next summer I should probably challenge our relationship—at least press at it a bit to see if it’s still firming up, holding water.  Whatever it is that relationships do.