Sometimes The Internet Gets It Right, Here Are 63 Oddly Wholesome Images To Prove It

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.

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.

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