There's good news, and there's bad news.
And bad news dominates the headlines. Whether it's violence, death, or political screaming matches, people are constantly being fed negativity.
According to psychologist Tom Stafford, people tend to react more quickly to negative news as a part of their fight or flight instinct. Bad news takes off like wild fire, and seems to quickly fill all of the major headlines.
Here are some of the top uplifting stories from February that you may have missed among all of the bad:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo donates an autographed jersey to help save a struggling dog shelter.
A friend of the Ronaldo family reached out to the Real Madrid superstar to inform him of their Portuguese dog shelter's plight - they were crippled in debt, and on the verge of sending the 80 dogs housed there to the kennel to likely be euthanized. Ronaldo donated an autographed jersey towards their auction to help keep the shelter open.
2. Teen suicide rates are down since same sex marriage laws passed in 2015.
Whether you agree with same-sex marriage or not, fewer teenagers attempting to kill themselves is always a good thing. The Journal of Medical Association Pediatrics released a study that monitored over 700,000 schools from 1999-2015. Within the 32 states that enabled same-sex marriage, there was a 7% decrease in suicide attempts among all teens, and a 14% decrease in suicide attempts among gay teenagers. There was no change among states that did not enable same-sex marriage laws.
3. Elderly woman finds an old £5 bill worth £50,000, donates it.
This one has a Willy Wonka feel to it. A famous engraver, Graham Short, engraved four £5 bills with a pictures of Jane Austen - each is now valued at £50,000, while only three have been found total. An elderly woman from Northern Ireland mailed the bill back to Graham Short, asking that he donate the money "to help young people," as she had "no use for it at her age." She chose to remain anonymous in her note to Short.
4. Girl scout robbed at gunpoint, police immediately buy all of her cookies.
A woman and her 12-year-old daughter were selling girl scout cookies in front of a grocery store in Union City, CA, when a hooded teenager robbed them at gunpoint and made out with all of the money that they had accumulated thus far. The local police department wouldn't allow evil to prevail, however, and proceeded to buy the dozens of unsold cookies from the girl scout. In total, the department and the local police association donated over $1,000 to the girl.
5. 200 Jewish graves vandalized, local Muslim advocates raise money to help repair them.
