What kind of online content you consume and how frequently you do it matters because adult life is already stressful as it is, and human beings are hardwired for negativity bias.

There’s work to think of, as well as studying, doing housework, staying on top of your health and fitness, taking care of the dozens of family responsibilities, and somehow still finding some time for your hobbies, social life, and proper relaxation.

If you can’t regularly find some time to rest, recharge, and disconnect from everything going on in your personal life and around the world, you might find yourself chronically stressed, overwhelmed, and suffering from empathy burnout.

According to Choosing Therapy, empathy burnout is what happens when an individual deals with ongoing stress, especially when they frequently provide emotional support and guidance to other people.

People who are most at risk of this include caregivers and healthcare workers. In short, when you frequently care for the emotional well-being of other people, you yourself can end up exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally.

If left untreated, empathy burnout can lead to cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety, and depression.

Some signs of empathy burnout include a lack of energy, troubled sleep, a decline in compassion, emotional exhaustion, as well as changes in beliefs, values, or views of work and the world.

Choosing Therapy explains that various factors can contribute to empathy burnout. Many of them relate to “the absorption and over-personalization of another person’s emotions.”

For instance, living during a time of distressing events (wars, pandemics, etc.) can lead to empathy burnout. In an increasingly well-connected world where traditional and social media are so easily accessible, you increase the risk of empathy burnout simply by having constant access to current news.

So, if all you ever watch and listen to are distressing news updates, toxic social media posts, and disheartening content, it will affect you. It can warp your worldview and make it feel like there’s nothing good in the world.

And, yes, life is challenging and the world often isn’t a fair place. But this doesn’t mean that there’s no hope, kindness, or positivity out there. It’s a reminder that human beings are wired to give more weight to negative events than positive ones. That’s called negativity bias.

“The negativity bias is our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise,” Verywell Mind explains.

Generally, human beings are wired in a way that they’re more likely to remember traumatic experiences than positive ones, react more strongly to negative stimuli, recall insults better than praise, and think about negative things more frequently than positive ones.

In short, we all tend to be biased and give more attention to the bad things that happen in life than the good ones. It’s with this in mind that everyone should strive to intentionally focus on the positives as well.

This doesn't mean that you should hide away from the news or anything like that, but it's a reminder to take breaks and look after your mental health.

The ‘Wholesome Memes for Kindhearted Homies’ Facebook group is very popular and widely known online. At the time of writing, it has nearly 783k followers on the social network from all corners of the world. According to the team of administrators and moderators who keep the group running smoothly, the community is dedicated to wholesomeness, in order to uplift and support everyone.

The admins and mods explain that everyone deserves to smile and be happy and that even “something as simple as a wholesome post can do that, even if it’s just for a moment.” They also urge everyone to “be a good bean” and “spread the luv.” Cute animal pictures (“especially doggos!!”) are encouraged, but you should stay away from posting content that is “nowhere near wholesome.” Members are also asked to give artists credit where it’s due if they end up sharing artwork and comics.

The group centers around creating a welcoming environment where everyone’s treated with respect.

“Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required,” the team in charge of the community says, adding that everyone should “give more than you take from this group.”

Which of the memes that we’ve featured today did you enjoy the most, dear Pandas? Which ones made you smile or laugh the most? Were there any that you couldn’t wait to share with your friends?

What do you do to disconnect from the news and rest from all the stressful things that happen in your life? Let us know in the comments below!