Have You Lost Your Faith in Humanity? Learn How to Restore It

• Remind yourself of the good in the world. Do things like spend time with children, look for positive news stories, or start volunteering.
• Shape the world to reflect your values by performing random acts of kindness, being compassionate, and sharing stories of bravery or altruism.
• Identify and work through the root cause of your loss of faith. Reasons could include consuming too much bad news or being let down by people you trust.

Ways to Restore Your Faith

Seek out good news and virtuous stories on purpose. Take control of where you focus your attention and energy and look for reports about people leaving lucrative careers to support a good cause or passersby jumping into rivers to help people or animals who are in danger. Focus on the warm feeling (called moral elevation) you get when you witness morally courageous acts. Check out sites like the Good News Network, Happy News, The Huffington Post Good News, or Daily Good. They focus on positive news stories about good things humans do. For a quick mood boost, try searching “random acts of kindness” on YouTube and watch a short video compilation of heartwarming stories.

Spend more time with children. If you don’t regularly see children in your everyday life, make time to see your nieces and nephews, grandchildren, or visit friends with kids. Notice how children are born naturally receptive and trusting—it’ll help you shed cynicism, defensiveness, and mistrust. Really listen to what kids say and watch what they do. Being more childlike and acting playful like them can help you enjoy the world more. Watch how kids get creative when they solve problems and are always in awe when they learn new things. There’s always something new to see in the world!

Spread kindness and positivity on social media and online. Share kind or silly anecdotes from your everyday life, repost uplifting messages, and advocate for the positive change you want to see in the world. Throw some compliments to your friends and followers to make their day, too. Follow accounts that make you happy (like a page devoted to cute animals or cool art) to make your social media sphere a positive, rewarding place. Balance your feed with news and happy content. It’s good to know what’s going on in the world, but “doomscrolling” won’t help your mood. Sharing good news will make you feel better and spread positivity to other people, too.

Start volunteering and help people less fortunate than you. Check out local community centers, animal shelters, or charities in your area and ask about how you can get involved. Help run fundraising events, organize donations, or make food deliveries to people in need—you’ll feel healthier, happier, and more optimistic about the world. Explore your passions and interests with your volunteer work—you’ll have more fun and your work will feel more important and fulfilling. Volunteer work will make you feel less stressed, anxious, or angry and gives you a new sense of purpose. Volunteering helps you make new friends and improves your social and relationship skills so you’ll feel more connected to your community. Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie, Actress & Humanitarian Live empathetically and help others to the best of your ability "We have a responsibility to be aware of others. We need to make justice the norm, not the exception."

Practice gratitude for the people and things you value most. Look for things you appreciate in life, even on your most pessimistic days—maybe you love the way your bed feels at the end of the day, or you’re thankful you got to visit a sibling. Focus on the things you value and that bring meaning to your life to drown out the bad news. Write in a gratitude journal each night before bed. Turn off all distractions and write down at least 3 things you’re grateful for from your day. Look for public gratitude journals online to get inspired by what diverse groups of people are thankful for.

Be a role model to inspire faith in humanity in others. Think of the Gandhi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Pursue your work and projects with passion to show others meaningful dedication, and act according to your beliefs and values. Be other-focused and improve your community through donations, volunteer work, or community organizing. Act selflessly when it comes to helping others. Selfishness and isolation are big contributors to the negative aspects we see in the world today. When you personify the world you want to live in, it shows other people that a kind society is attainable and encourages them to spread positivity, too.

Practice random acts of kindness to inspire others. Do nice things for people (they can be something big or small) whether the recipient notices you do them or not. Reflect on how you feel—chances are you’ll feel better about yourself and the kindness in the world, and the recipient is likely to pay it forward. Look for instances of other people helping each other, too. It’s a reminder that there are good people out there you can be grateful for! Do a variety of nice things so your kindness doesn’t start to feel routine or compulsory. Write down a sentence or two about what you did and how it made you feel to cultivate feelings of happiness and optimism. Examples of things to do are paying someone’s parking meter when it’s empty, letting someone cut you in line, or helping a stranger carry a heavy box or bag.

Do your best to be compassionate toward others. Broaden your perspective beyond yourself and get energized by helping and collaborating with people—let an elderly person have your seat on the bus, or make an effort to work with your entire team on important projects. Seeing the humanity in others will make you feel better, and your positivity will inspire others, too. Try loving-kindness meditation—take a few minutes each day to meditate and silently repeat mantras to send warmth, kindness, and goodwill to others. Seeing someone help or elevate another human being is incredibly inspiring and often creates a ripple effect of compassion from others.

Tell stories about goodness to help people see humanity better. Share your personal experiences or relay others’ stories to inspire people to look inward and become better. Tell your stories in person, or use a blog or social media to reach hundreds or thousands of people. Emotionally engaging stories are good for connection, brain health, and altruism. Share articles or videos you find that highlight heroic or kind acts—this counts as spreading stories, too! Celebrate awe-inspiring things people do like throwing a race to help an injured athlete or rescuing a pet caught in a burning home. Storytelling stimulates the neurochemicals associated with empathy and literally brings people’s brains together.

Restore faith in yourself. Remember that you are part of humanity—believe in yourself to believe in others again, too. Forgive yourself for past wrongs and learn to trust yourself by following through on commitments and doing what you believe is right. When you see the goodness in yourself, it’s easier to see it in others and affirm the kind world you want to live in. Remember that faith in humanity isn’t something you lose or find. You can empower yourself to be optimistic and make positive change in the world.

Ask people to tell you about the happiest moments of their lives. Provide the space for people to open up about their happy moments—it helps them articulate what matters most to them (which inspires them even further) and helps you see the lighter, brighter, and happier side of the people in your life. People love talking about what they care about, what motivates them, and what makes them happy, but it doesn’t come up in conversation very often.

Targeting the Cause of Your Lost Faith

You’ve been consuming lots of bad news: Watching too many negative news stories can make you feel more concerned about your own personal issues as well as the state of the world. Studies show that the more news you consume during and after traumatic events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters, the more likely you are to feel stress, anxiety, depression, and pessimism. Limit your social media use to stop “doomscrolling.” Only check the news once a day to stay informed without taking a toll on your mental health. Look for uplifting stories to balance the coverage about pandemic updates, climate change, war, and more.

You’ve been betrayed by a person or system you trusted: Maybe you were let down by a parent as a child, or you feel neglected by the social and political systems in your community. These experiences can put a wedge between you and the rest of the world, making you feel isolated and unable to trust others. It’s difficult, but remember that there are trustworthy people out there and that you deserve to have trustworthy people in your life. Invest in your relationships with others and gradually open yourself up to them to work on building trust with new people.

You were conned or scammed out of money or belongings: Being the victim of a scam leaves you feeling helpless, anxious, embarrassed, angry, and unable to trust. It’s easy to feel constantly skeptical and on your guard since scammers (especially online) take advantage of vulnerable people or tragic events. Remember that falling for a scam does not make you stupid or gullible—everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and scammers are good at what they do. Accept your emotions to move past them. Let yourself feel angry or sad—those feelings will fade away faster if you don’t resist them. Lean on your friends and family while you recover. There might be scammers out there, but you have many times more good people in your corner.

You’ve been discriminated against: When you’re constantly treated differently, unfairly, or badly, you’re more likely to develop low self-esteem, stress, anxiety, and a pessimistic view of society. Hate crimes or discrimination against someone in your community, even if it didn’t happen to you, can have a ripple effect that reduces your faith in humanity. Focus on your strengths, core values, and beliefs. This will help you to succeed despite other peoples’ biases and make you resilient to future challenges. Open up to your support system about your experiences and to prevent internalizing other people’s beliefs about you. Try not to dwell on episodes of discrimination. Instead, create a plan for how to cope with future incidents and go on with the rest of your day.

You witnessed or experienced past cruelty, abuse, or violence: Seeing or being the victim of cruelty, especially as a child, can make you feel unsafe, anxious around strangers, or depressed. Naturally, it becomes hard to see the good in the world and in people when abuse has been a major part of your life. The abuse can include sexual violence, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, or even animal abuse. Remember there’s no right or wrong way to feel. It’s understandable that you’d be angry with humanity, so let yourself feel it in order to work through it. Try not to relive the experience in your head or consume media about similar incidents. Take a break from news outlets that remind you of your trauma. Volunteer to connect with others and feel helpful and friendly. If volunteering feels overwhelming, simply help out a neighbor or hold a door for a stranger. Be patient with yourself—recovery from abuse or violence takes time. Give yourself time to heal and mourn any losses you’ve experienced.