Happy Amygdala

The Guardian last week, awash with dire and depressing news on the state of the British/European economy, also carried a short report on research on the brain activity of happy, positive people ... 
... when shown 'positive' images (such as kittens and  baskets of flowers), their amygdalas (that's a little nut-shaped bit deep in your temporal lobe) lit up like Christmas trees compared to less happy people, whose brains remained a black hole of gloom whether shown a kitten or a person being held up at gunpoint, or, presumably, an economic forecast. 

The cheerful people, they said, are not naively unaware or uncaring about bad events; it's just that they choose to respond to the positives where they find them. 

I don't have kittens or baskets of flowers, but I can offer an embarrassed, pathetic-looking seasonal mutt ...

... my Charlie, mortified at having his picture taken wearing ridiculous Halloween headgear ...

Aaaagh, no, not another one!

... and in alternative pose as Thanksgiving turkey


If you want to make your amygdala really happy, please go here to see how one New York pooch and his mates dress for the season, over at one of my favourite blogs, My Life by Buster.


A very Happy Thanksgiving weekend, to all who celebrate ...

Of Snow and Turkeys

We woke to a fairy dust of early snow and plenty of ice yesterday morning -

 ... just a taster of what's to come, apparently, as it spreads down from the north of the country, already deep in snow - see here - (my Scots lassie buried in white stuff! - here)


By late afternoon it had vanished, in time for a Thanksgiving celebration with American friends who live in nearby farmland

(And grateful we were that the snow had melted, having been stuck more than once on these steep country lanes)

Lighted windows and open fires invited us inside from below-freezing temperatures.

It's all about abundance, harvest, friends, counting your blessings and indulging in a jolly pig-out ...

And with vegan tofu-turkey -

 

- and Turkey-Buddha bestowing his blessings 

how could we not feel thankful?