6 Life Lessons from We Bare Bears’ Panda

Released by Cartoon Network in 2014, We Bare Bears is a charming slice of life cartoon series that follows the daily shenanigans of three bear siblings. There’s We Bare Bears‘ Panda, who is obviously a panda; Grizz, a grizzly bear; and Ice Bear, a polar bear with a mysterious past.

A series of freak coincidences lead the bear siblings to each other. In Panda’s case, he used to live in an animal sanctuary in China where he accidentally saw a television set in one of the staff’s rooms. Thinking that one of the windows at the facility was another television screen, baby Panda accidentally escapes and ends up lost on the other side of the globe.

Relatable.

But there’s more to We Bare Bears’ Panda, or PanPan if you’re one of his sworn brothers, than meets the eye. Though the soft-bellied, hardcore Millennial bear is often seen wasting his time scrolling on his phone, there are some life lessons to be learned from his sensitive ways.

Not that you should generally be taking life advice from fictional bears, but if you insist, by all means, keep reading.

1. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

We Bare Bears‘ lovable Panda may be a bit of a nervous mess but that never stops him from trying something new.

Panda originally came from China and grew up in the U.S making it no surprise that he prefers pizzas and chow mein to supplement his diet of bamboo. But just because Panda likes things a certain way doesn’t mean he’s not keen on trying new things. Though he’s easily the most nervous bear of the group, Panda still tries Korean cuisine after meeting Chloe Park, a Korean child prodigy who the brothers met after she snuck into their cave to research them.

Panda and his brothers even learn basic Korean greetings in order to connect with Chloe’s family. Plus, to Panda’s surprise, he finds that he likes empanadas – especially the cheesy ones. Maybe try surprising yourself with something you have no idea you like yet?

2. Spend Time on Your Hobbies

We Bare Bears‘ Panda is an amateur artist. Now, is that a bad thing? Often, ‘amateur’ carries a bad connotation since it’s equated with a lack of experience or talent. But the word ‘amateur‘ comes from the Latin ‘amator’ which means ‘lover’.

An amateur is someone who does something out of sheer love for it, regardless of whether it’s financially lucrative. The whole point of being an amateur anything is to simply enjoy it the way Panda enjoys painting even though it doesn’t make a lot of money.

It sounds like a no-brainer to spend time doing activities we like, but for many people, it’s hard to enjoy hobbies just for being hobbies. We even have a word for it: ‘productivity shame‘. The term refers to a sense of emotional discomfort about not using all your time on money-making activities.

As cliché and privileged as this sounds, if you’re in the position to do so, take the opportunity to try new hobbies and pick up old ones during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The slower days many of us gained during the pandemic is the secret behind the rise of the Cottagecore and Goblincore trends, both of which focus on living a more mindful life.

3. Get in Touch With Your Soft Side

One of the reasons We Bare Bears‘ Panda is so well-loved is because of his sweet and caring nature. Panda isn’t above letting his brothers Ice Bear and Grizz and his friends know his emotional needs. Panda may be shy but he’s vocal about how he feels and has the emotional maturity to pinpoint what’s bothering him and other people.

This doesn’t just help Panda connect with his inner self but also keeps him emotionally receptive to others. Ice Bear and Grizz have sharper personalities and when the two disagree, it’s Panda who keeps the family together with his keen emotional intelligence.

But if you think We Bare Bears‘ Panda is a pushover, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

4. Enforce Your Boundaries

Friendly doesn’t equate to pushover for our favorite panda protagonist. We Bare Bears‘ Panda is more than ready to drop anything and everything to support his family and friends through tough times. But when his brothers (often it’s Grizz) start to overstep his boundaries, he has no problem pushing back against them.

A personality system called the Enneagram assigns personality types to people based on their mental hang-ups. It’s not as bright and positive as the Myers-Briggs Personality Types but it does give people an idea of what their hot button issues are.

For Enneagram Type 8s, enforcing boundaries means not being receptive to anyone, even people they care about. On the other hand, Type 2s struggle with setting boundaries because they feel like ‘meanness’ and disconnecting from people they love.

We Bare Bears‘ Panda finds a balance between the two attitudes towards people and honestly? We’re living for it. Good on him.

5. Take Care of Your Body

Compared to his more high-strung siblings, We Bare Bears’ Panda is all about caring for himself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Unlike Grizz, he isn’t always ‘go go go!’ about moving on to the next big adventure and doesn’t stress himself out about work and school like Chloe Park does.

Does this make Panda lazy? He thinks about it sometimes but he’s proven that he has what it takes to be a good artist. That said, he’d really rather focus on taking care of his body by eating healthy and getting a full night’s rest. Though Panda is a social media junkie, he’s left the influencer track to focus on what really matters to him: his family.

6. Stand Up for Those You Love

For people who only know We Bare Bears’ Panda as an acquaintance, seeing him stand up for the people he loves looks out of character. But Panda is the glue of the family and doesn’t have any reservations about pushing back against people who bad-mouth or hurt his family and friends. Famous influencer koala or not, Panda isn’t going to let anyone disrespect the people he loves.

Strange to think you could get some pretty solid life advice from We Bare Bears‘ Panda but life can be closer to fiction than it may seem.

Do you have your own fictional role models? Let us know in the comment section down below!