63 Unexpectedly Heartwarming Moments Online That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

63 Unexpectedly Heartwarming Moments Online That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Wholesome images work, in part, because they remind us of this. They show connection in its simplest form. A hand held. A kindness given. Something in the brain responds to it as though it were our own, and this might just be the key to a long and happy life.

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Cute aggression is a real neurological phenomenon. It was documented by researchers at Yale University, so you know you can trust it.  The brain responds to something overwhelmingly adorable by producing an urge that mimics aggression. You know, the urge to squeeze, bite, and smother something unbearably cute.

It sounds alarming, but it isn’t. Researchers believe it functions as a regulatory mechanism, preventing the brain from becoming so overwhelmed by positive emotion that it stops functioning. Your brain is protecting itself from an excess of joy, because it turns out, you CAN get too much of a good thing. Stay humble, folks!

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The Finnish have a word, myötähäpeä, for the vicarious embarrassment felt when watching someone else’s discomfort. There is no equivalent word in most languages for the vicarious warmth felt when witnessing someone else’s joy, a sad revelation about which emotions we historically choose to prioritise.

The wholesome image fills that linguistic gap. It gives a moment of someone else’s happiness a form that can be shared, passed on, and experienced by people who were nowhere near it when it happened. This unnamed feeling travels, and it travels particularly well through a Reddit thread.

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Psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology, argues that wellbeing is not simply the absence of negative emotion but the active presence of positive ones. He says that meaning, connection, and moments of genuine joy are not luxuries but necessities for a functioning human life.

The images in this collection are not a cure for anything, nor are they pretending to be. They are just moments of something real and good, caught on camera by people who happened to be in the right place, and shared by an internet that occasionally, against all odds, gets it exactly right. So, remember, breathe and scroll slowly. Everything else can wait a few more minutes.

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Which one of these images made you utter the loudest “awe”? Tell us in the comments!

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