If The World Feels Like A Terrible Place, Here Are 50 Of The Most Wholesome Things People Shared Online To Make Each Other’s Day
The idea behind feel-good stories is that it's important to counteract the negativity of bad news.
Of course, there will always be skeptics who say maintaining optimism in the long run is impossible and that every attempt to prove otherwise is just a form of escapism, but every now and then something happens that puts a smile on your face and makes you believe that we're all going to be OK.
So we at Bored Panda put together a new collection of such moments to remind you that there's still good in this world. Whether it's someone beating an illness or caring for an animal in need, we people are strong and have an endless capacity to love, and we can't forget that.
Continue scrolling to check out the list and if you need more positivity, fire up our earlier publications of the series here, here, and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
This Is The Way
The Breathtaking Bravery Of Russian Citizens Who Know Theyāll Be Arrested For Protesting The War And Do It Anyway
Good for them! I hope that Putin finally realises his madness and puts a stop to this terror.
Sometimes, the impulse to consume negative news can be difficult to resist. "We are evolutionarily wired to screen for and anticipate danger, which is why keeping our fingers on the pulse of bad news may trick us into feeling more prepared," says Cecille Ahrens, clinical director of Transcend Therapy in San Diego, California.
Following the news may be necessary to stay informed, especially during a crisis but according to Ahrens, the feelings of fear, sadness, and anger triggered by negative headlines can keep people stuck in a "pattern of frequent monitoring," leading to worse mood and more anxious scrolling (doomscrolling).
One Year Ago They Gave Me A 30% Chance Of Survival. Today I'm Still Standing Through My Last Day Of Chemo
My Son Is Autistic And Loves Cats, So For The Past 4 Years He Has Volunteered To Socialize The Cats And Kittens At Our Local Animal Shelter To Help Get Them Adopted
I Made My Own Wedding Dress. I Feel Just Okay About It, But I Thought I'd Share Anyway
Ddoomscrolling can take a toll on mental health. Studies have linked the consumption of bad news to increased distress, anxiety, and depression, even when the news in question is relatively mundane.
Graham Davey, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Sussex, says exposure to bad news can make personal worries seem worse and even cause acute stress reactions and some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that can be quite long-lasting.
I Donāt Usually Like To Smile For Photos, But This Month Is The One Year Anniversary Since My Overdose And The 6 Month Anniversary Of Being Sober
I figured I deserve a smile.
I Can Finally Stand With No Hands
A Ukrainian Man With Down Syndrome Bakes Bread To Feed Ukrainian Soldiers Fighting The War
That's Amazing
The root of our interest in bad news may be the result of feeling vulnerable or helpless or overwhelmed.
"Let's say you are feeling stressed out at work and you disengage from your tasks to pick up your phone and doomscroll. Once you catch that compulsive behavior, check in with yourself and ask what it is you are thinking and feeling,” says Megan E. Johnson, a licensed clinical psychologist and researcher specializing in trauma and brain-behavior relationships.
"Once you understand your need, then you can find a realistic and appropriate way to get that need met, rather than compulsively turning to doomscrolling."
Hikmet Kaya, An Engineer From Turkey, Standing In Front Of A Land Which He Afforested For 41 Years
I Volunteer At The Humane Society And Fell In Love With This Girl. I Cried When I Found Out She Had Been Adopted. Two Weeks Later And She Was Returned For Being āToo Lazyā
Took her straight home to her new couch where she is the cutest potato. Don’t know her name yet but just look at that face.
This Dad Has One Great Son
This Man Spoke With Every Parent In Uvalde, Texas To Build Personalized Caskets For All 19 Children Who Were Shot. His Name Is Trey Ganem
Trey Ganem should not have to customise coffins in the first place. :(
Turning to your phone might just distance you from the colleagues and friends and family who could help.
"All it will do is temporarily distract you from your uncomfortable emotion," Johnson adds. "But those unpleasant feelings are there for a reason, and they communicate to us our needs, so we cannot just silence them with distractions. Once you become aware that what you actually need is support, then maybe you can reach out to a colleague and delegate some tasks.”
An Incredible Turnaround
The First Portrait I Ever Did Back In 2011 vs. The Most Recent Portrait From 2021, It's Been A Long Journey
12-Year-Old Kid Is Adopted By The Family Of His Best Friend
We don’t know which is sweeter: Andrew and Joc’s love of KelloggsUS PopTarts, or the bond these two share! We are thrilled that Andrew has found his forever family with his best friend and new brother, Joc, and the Gill family
Iām A Father! My Wife Didnāt Want Me To Share Any Pictures With Family Yet But I Canāt Hold It In. He Is Perfect And Since None Of You Are Family, Iām Just Hoping I Can Spread My Joy
"We believe that if we have all the facts, we can make better decisions and protect ourselves from danger," Johnson says.
"This illusion of control and safety is a fallacy, though. There is a never-ending supply of information to consume, so we never feel like we have all the information—because we don't, and we can't."
My 9-Year-Old Found This Rock A Month Ago And It Became His āLuckyā Rock. He Takes It Everywhere. Today I Have An Important Job Interview And I Found His Rock On My Seat
This Goose At My Hospital Laid Eggs And Is Nesting In A Large Planter, One Of Our Maintenance Guys Built This Umbrella For Her And Set Her Up With Nearby Water
During The Memorial Day Siren, An Holocaust Survivor Is Being Honored By Her Granddaughter
Dam onion ninjas. The granddaughter looks so happy to salute her grandmother.
Awww
Given that avoidance might not be practical, experts suggest these three ways to make your experience on the internet more positive:
- Be mindful of what you consume on social media. If you log on to connect with other people, focus on the personal news and photos shared instead of the latest headlines;
- Seek out the content that makes you happy to balance out your newsfeed. This may be images of cute kittens, beautiful landscapes, drool-worthy food videos, or something else. You could even follow a social media account dedicated to sharing only happy and positive news;
- Use social media to promote positivity and kindness. Sharing good things that are happening in your life can improve your mood, and your positive mood can spread to others. You may also like to compliment others on social media. While this might sound awkward, people will appreciate it more than you think.
6 Months Ago, Our Psycho Neighbor Trapped Our Cat And Released Him 12 Miles Away. Today, We Found Him! Welcome Home, Iggy
I hope you also paid a friendly visit to the neighbour with a baseball bat in hand.
These Are What We Stay Alive For
After 170 Hours I Finally Finished My Drawing
A Round Of Applause To This Lady
You might also want to consider doing something nourishing for yourself – such as being outdoors in nature or making your favorite meal. This might help shift your mind from troubling news and create a more positive and resilient mindset that can better deal with worries.
At the end of the day, we have to accept that some things are just out of our control and focus on the ones that we can, in fact, change.
An 80-Year-Old Who Showed Up To Join The Ukrainian Army, Carrying With Him A Small Case With 2 T-Shirts, A Pair Of Extra Pants, A Toothbrush And A Few Sandwiches For Lunch
He said he was doing it for his grandkids.
Had Me At The First Part For Sure
A Very Proud Dad
My 18-Year-Old Donating Stem Cells Today To A Stranger With Blood Cancer. Proud Is An Understatement
Ukrainian Soldier And A Rescued Dog
My Radiotherapy Treatments Worked! Most Tumors Has Reduced In Size And Are Less Painful
Our Neighbor From India Asked If We Have A SautƩ Pan For Him To Lend. We Had And This Is How He Returned It
I Cleaned My Depression Room
My Son Got His First Pair Of Glasses
Found Out Today My Great-Uncle (Right) Is Dog Walking Buddies With Stephen King
Members Of The Un Council Walked Out On The Speech Of Russia's Minister Of Foreign Affairs
A Pic I Took Of My Husband With All The Books He Wrote
Ooh, I read two I think. Sci-fi is not my favourite genre, but these were really neat! 100% recommended to any space and sci-fi lover.
Shout Out To The Parents For Being Wholesome And Inclusive
I Think I Found My Favorite Photography Genre
My Father, 67. Finally A Us Citizen After 17 Years Of Processes And Paperwork
Seeing My Husband The Day After Donating 68% Of My Liver To Him
Facts: Livers can regenerate, and you can donate a portion to someone else and still have enough to survive with, and the rest will regrow in time. Amazing thing she did for her husband. :)
Look At This Guys
This Restaurant Not Only Welcomes Dogs, It Offers Dog Portions For Cheap
Blessed Family
My Wife Receiving An Anonymous Donor's Bone Marrow That Can Potentially Save Her Life
Just Landed My Dream Job... To Teach People About Dinosaurs And Prehistoric Animals At A Natural History Museum
For My 18th Birthday I Got A Tattoo Of My Dad's Laugh On My Arm, He Passed 3 Years Ago. I Have His Smile And Joy Wherever I Go Now
Iām Opening A Brewery/Taproom And Modified The Men/Women Restrooms To All Gender
They should but since he doesn't have a men's bathroom, in this particular case, it would be pretty hard to put a changing table in the men's bathroom.
Load More Replies...I'm in my thirties so maybe I'm old fashioned on this one, but I would be SO uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with men. It doesn't feel safe to me, my family member was assaulted in a toilet and the only reason he was caught was because someone saw a man follow a drunk woman into a female toilet
All of the gender neutral bathrooms Iāve seen are single person use, not multi stall.
Load More Replies...I would prefer bathrooms still being separated by gender (most people clearly identify on one, male or female, and those who donāt - I guess they can do for 5 minutes), but with changing tables in both.
Same here. The boys tend to tinky on the floor and I don't like stepping in it.
Load More Replies...This is great, but I prefer not to use a restroom with menā¦I donāt know why but it makes me uncomfortable.
This overlooks women's legitimate concerns regarding safety. For example, survivors of sexual abuse/violence may not feel comfortable using bathrooms wih men. Older women may feel uncomfortable too, as will women from religiously conservative backgrounds. Are teenage girls also supposed to use the same bathrooms as men?
Well, since men are supposed to not be disgusting freaks, yeah. Itās not much of a problem here anyway, in the places with a shared bathroom.
Load More Replies...Woman's spaces being erased is sad and what's even sadder is there is barely a whisper of disent about it
Great except for the women who want to change their tampons/sanitary pads and not be in a restroom with men for safety or religious reasons, but at least there are now two options for men YEY men!
Wha..? Why in earth wouldnāt they be able to change their tampons or sanitary pads? That the bathroom is shared doesnāt mean there is a crowd of people in the bathroom with you, you use it one at a time. Or thatās how we do it. No problems.
Load More Replies...Y'all it says "urinal" not "urinalS" so it is most likely a single bathroom. (Don't downvote me to suspension just for trying to be logical)
Oh, that's a good point. Many places have one toilet and a sink per room, not stalls. It does seem pointless to gender a bathroom if it is single occupancy
Load More Replies...why not just wrote Bathroom (with changing table) and bathroom (with urinal) ?
Maybe because people are so used to the idea of the urinals being in men's room and the changing table in women's that they would assume the bathrooms are gendered unless it's specifically said they're not.
Load More Replies...This is intresting. I hope i don't get downvoted for this but is it safe? this is something we don't normally see in the usa. and honestly i dunno if usa anyway is a good place for it since unlike most contires we aren't the most trust worthy ^^; i'm even nervous to use the woman's restroom these days
so women's safe spaces are taken away.. how is this good? the separated toilets reduced the sexual harassment a lot. why give it up?
My apologies to whomever I'm about to offend, but, the men's bathroons tend to be smelly, dirty and have urine all over the place. It's like they have no control. I really don't want to use their bathrooms.
I've been cleaning toilets at a medical center and I watched the opposite: female toilets always were worse cleaning bc of the mess they left behind. (Female writing)
Load More Replies...In any place I've been in with any gender bathrooms, it's not bathrooms with multiple stalls but instead a row of small rooms with just 1 toilet, sink, change table, etc
My doctor's bathroom has 3 genders, an amputee, a wheelchair and an extra terrestrial
Call me a bigot but I'm not too sure about gender neutral toilets. As a guy, I couldn't care less about being surrounded by women but I don't think it works the other way round. There are gender neutral changing rooms at my local swimming pool and already they've caught 10+ men peering over or trying to film women in the adjacent cubicle. On paper, a great idea, in practice, not so much.
There is a restaurant in my hometown that got it right (I like to think) by posting gender-neutral restaurant signs right below the traditional Menās-Womenās labels. I personally l think thatās only fair to both those who want to experiment (out of inclusivity) and those who are made more comfortable by the traditional designations :)
To everyone talking about safety issues: I live in an area where gender neutral bathrooms are common. I have never seen an instance where there are multi-stall gender neutral bathrooms. They are always single person open door and lock it behind you bathrooms.
I see those in my area too, and think they're fine. Except I still don't like stepping in the dribbles that the guys leave on the floor in front of the toilet.
Load More Replies...As a non-binary feminine person that gets misgendered this would scare me becuase a lot of woman and nb people get sexually harrased in bathrooms which is an issue with bathrooms like these. The best and most safe bathrooms are the bathrooms that are just one room with one toilet and sink which dong need to be gendered
changing tables should be in front of the restrooms - so any parent could have access and baby wouldn't have to be in so non hygienic place
That is awesome. First time I went in a large bathroom with stalls that was all gender, I didn't think anything about it. because the doors reached the floor etc. Still was odd to be standing next to a man while washing my hands. It may have not had urinals. I don't remember. I cannot see how they could easily accommodate that.
Isn't violation to women's privacy? Any man can jusy walk in and identified himself as a woman. Just like that transwomen in women's sport?
All those people who complain about safety: you're aware that what separates the usual female/male restrooms is a simple non-locked door, right? In most restrooms I've been (bars, restaurants, cinemas) there's a door marked "restroom" and inside there are usually two more doors, marked "women" or "men", that are very close together, and inside each there's a couple of toilets. To enter either one or the other you just walk in, no locks, no ID requested, no guards... If a man would want to enter the women restroom, he would just do it with zero effort. So, making restrooms gender neutral wouldn't be more risky. My suggestion would be installing a button or an alarm in every restroom so if you ever feel in danger (or have a heart attack or something), you ring and a staff member comes to you. Also: another button you can push and it makes a repetitive sound that covers the occasional "bathroom noises" and another one that sprays some pleasant smell. Thank you in advance.
I wouldn't want to share bathrooms with a guy sorry. This isn't right. Make one for just women and just men. Not all people are for the whole gender s**t!
Yes but what about people who are a different gender than male Or female, should they pee their pants
Load More Replies...All gender with a urinal is a great idea. They save water and provide for a better aim, especially after taste testing the brew.
You donāt even know how much this means to me. I am a trans man. ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
We have these at work some are all gender and both men's and women's have changing tables. It works well and makes everyone feel included.
If you have room, you are in need of a wheelchair-accessible stall. Beyond that, guys need changing tables, too. Many places, like my doctor's office, have one huge bathroom with a handicapped-accessible stool and a separate sitting chair, and a huge counter with a sink. They could have easily put in a changing station and a urinal, but didn't.
You could also do bathroom for ppl with two X chromosomes and one for ppl with XY and XXY chromosomes.
Sooā¦ we should test everyoneās chromosomes before they pee? Or their genitals?
Load More Replies...No feminist think only women can change diapers. The problem is men not having access to diapers changing station. It's about fathers/fatherhood being ignored. Don't turn it into "oh no feminism" sh*t.
Load More Replies...Not All Heroes Wear Capes (Bottom Right)
This Is Somehow Super Cute
Note: this post originally had 121 images. Itās been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
What are the chances? Hay fever kicking in when I am cutting onions. I'm not crying, you're crying!
Here's hoping humanity gets our shite together and lives up to the examples within this article/post.
not much hope for us as a species but one on one there are a lot of kind people :)
Load More Replies...What are the chances? Hay fever kicking in when I am cutting onions. I'm not crying, you're crying!
Here's hoping humanity gets our shite together and lives up to the examples within this article/post.
not much hope for us as a species but one on one there are a lot of kind people :)
Load More Replies...