12 Facts We Can All Enjoy

Our days aren’t always so bright. We may find ourselves under a lot of pressure, stuck in an unfair situation, or in the midst of some fresh heartache. While it’s natural to feel defeated and downcast when it seems like everything sucks, it’s not a feeling many of us want to linger on for too long.

Instead, we look for something to take our minds off our problems and stresses so we can help ourselves feel a little better. And what better way to help yourself get into a more positive mindset than some pleasing facts about our world you didn’t know before?

Some of these facts are just funny things about life and others are surprising things known to lift our spirits, but all 12 of them are focused on making you feel good.

COMMENT and tell us what you’ve heard today that made you smile.

1. The more new things you try, the more likely they are to create positive emotions.

At least that’s what Rich Walker, a psychologist at Winston-Salem State University, found after studying 30,000 memories recorded in 500 diaries. He concluded that a variety of experiences makes you more likely to hang onto positive emotions and minimize negative ones than doing the same thing all the time.

2. A tower in Stockholm, Sweden, lets anybody control its lights with a smartphone app.

It’s called Color By Numbers and it was built as a statement on the power of democracy and of the public. Even those without a smartphone can call a free number and control the lights on each floor with the keypad.

3. It rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn.

Lightning strikes turn the methane in the air into carbon soot, which hardens into diamonds thanks to the pressure these bits of soot experience as they fall. Saturn alone creates 1,000 tons of diamonds every year through this process.

4. Baseball managers will sometimes only pretend they’re arguing with umpires.

Umpires have reported that these managers will yell about the bad wine they had at a restaurant or how badly their team is doing instead of actually arguing about their calls. Managers do this to boost team morale without getting kicked out of the game and will get legitimately angry if the umpire breaks character and laughs.