Following your "fascination compass"

[Gabrielle Dean]

"Each small departure from routine is, in effect, a ticket in a lottery that the cautious never enter."

Found this wonderful article in the Guardian and wanted to share it with  you all. It actually links nicely with Leighton’s reflection on Sunday about joy. The last bit I’ve included here is fascinating - showing how genuine generosity of spirit , as opposed to things done out of duty, improves our sense of joy (or what the author calls luck).  This resonates for me as when my father lived with me, in his last years I often didn’t feel generous at all. I often described it as “love with gritted teeth”. There was love, but not generosity of spirit 😔

Here's an excerpt], the full article is attached:

'What my research has revealed is that luck, far from being a roll of the cosmic dice, operates through identifiable patterns of brain chemistry and behaviour. The consistently lucky are not blessed by fate. They are running different neurological software – and the remarkable thing is that this software can be installed.

Consider what happens when someone simply declares: “I am a lucky person.” It sounds like wishful thinking. But brain imaging tells a different story. That declaration activates the prefrontal cortex in a way that shifts perception from threat-detection mode toward opportunity-recognition mode. The person begins to notice possibilities that a self-described unlucky individual, scanning the same environment, simply filters out. Over weeks and months, these perceptual micro-advantages compound. The lucky person encounters more openings, seizes more of them, and accumulates a track record that reinforces the original belief. Psychologists call this a self-fulfilling prophecy. I prefer to think of it as the brain taking your word for it, and reorganising reality accordingly.

….

I sometimes describe this as following your “fascination compass”. The topic that makes you lose track of time, the activity you would do without payment – these are not idle preferences. They are neurological signals pointing toward the cognitive state in which good fortune is most likely to find you. Lucky people also tend to score high on novelty-seeking: they try the unfamiliar restaurant, take the scenic route, talk to strangers. Each small departure from routine is, in effect, a ticket in a lottery that the cautious never enter.

….

Brain imaging studies consistently show that acts of genuine generosity – helping a colleague without expectation of return, celebrating a friend’s success without jealousy – activate the striatum, the brain’s deepest reward centre, more powerfully than receiving a benefit yourself. Help someone to create an obligation, and the reward response is muted. Help because you actually care, and it amplifies. 

[Pamela O’Cuneen]

Love with gritted teeth- I think we’ve all been there!

 One of the best things that was ever said to me was that it is good to realise that no matter how imperfect something seems,at the time, being the person we were then, and in that situation, we did absolutely the best we could. And God understands that. 

On 5 May 2026, at 06:47, 'Gabrielle Dean' via Discussion St Pauls Anglican Beaconsfield <discussio...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

"Each small departure from routine is, in effect, a ticket in a lottery that the cautious never enter."

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<Down on your luck.docx>

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