POSITIVE THINKING URGED AMID PANDEMIC

With the Year of the Ox arriving next month, Qi Yao cannot wait to celebrate Spring Festival.

"We had our annual meeting recently, and business for the past year has basically come to an end. I've bought a rail ticket back home to Fuxin, Liaoning province," said Qi, who is the operations director for Yunhsi Travel in Beijing, which will switch to a holiday working schedule next week.

It has been a tough year for Qi and tourism, one of the industries most affected by the pandemic.

Looking back on the past 12 months, she said she felt a great amount of stress.

"This was mainly due to my work, as the overall environment had fundamentally changed. Business at the company almost stagnated in the first half of the year, the work rhythm was completely disrupted and my income was significantly affected," Qi said.

The company, known for its customized travel services for corporate clients, had to find new avenues of business.

Qi said she experienced her worst time at the end of August.

"Our business hit a bottleneck, and it was particularly difficult to develop in a new direction. I also had to move house and find a new apartment within days," she said.

Pressure from work, along with a sense of crisis in her personal life, were Qi's main sources of anxiety.

"I felt very sensitive and fragile. Even the smallest things could cause me to break down. I felt unable to help myself," she said.

Qi is among millions of people worldwide who have experienced stress as a result of the pandemic.

In May, three months after the outbreak hit the United States, nearly 50 percent of US citizens reported it was affecting their mental health, according to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco.

In April, calls to a federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress rose by more than 1,000 percent year-on-year. The previous month, some 20,000 people texted the hotline, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Meanwhile, strict lockdowns, self-isolation and an unstable employment market have weighed heavily on the minds of people around the world.

Yu Feng, a professor of psychology at Wuhan University in Hubei province, said such pressure and stress, if not managed properly, could further affect people's daily lives.

"We often joke that breakdowns among adults begin with a small thing, such as accidentally spilling the coffee. Most of the time it's because we have accumulated too much pressure in everyday life," he said.

Excessive pressure can result in people experiencing "fight-or-flight"－a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack or threat to survival, Yu said. Remaining in such a state for a long period causes harm, both mentally and physically.

"At this point, something has to be done to address such negative emotions," said Yu, who focuses on positive psychology, an area of research centered on well-being and effective interventions related to improved health.

Positive psychology, which emerged as a new domain in 1998, is concerned with eudaimonia, an ancient Greek term for "the good life" and the concept of reflecting on factors that contribute most to a well-lived and fulfilling life.

It also fosters well-being and positive emotions to encourage resilience and protect mental health in difficult situations.

Easing worries

Qi, from Yunhsi Travel, said her anxiety started to ease after she settled in her new apartment. She continued to exercise regularly, no matter how busy or tired she was, as she said she had to remain positive about life.

"At work, I had many in-depth discussions with my colleagues and also tried some new working methods. This was really effective, and things gradually improved," she said.

Psychologists said others can learn from the ways in which Qi handled her stress.

Negative feelings can be triggered by events such as the pandemic or a sense of being rejected.

"However, in general, they are due to a loss of self-esteem, which makes people feel they are not good enough or even worthless," Yu said, adding that in such cases social support should be sought.

"You can either talk to people you are familiar with, such as friends and family, or turn to those you don't know very well, or even strangers. They may help you find a solution, or just provide you with the chance to vent your feelings," he said.

When friends need social support, Yu said simply telling them they "will be fine" should be avoided. Instead, they should be offered solid emotional support.

"You can praise them to help restore their self-esteem, provide an 'emotional buffer' for them to express their feelings, and give honest suggestions," he said.

Yoshitake Takebayashi, an assistant professor at Fukushima Medical University in Japan, said it is vital to listen to friends' worries sympathetically before offering any specific advice.

"More important, in supporting others, your own well-being should be maintained. If not, it will be difficult to successfully support those around you," he said.

Yu suggested that if those experiencing stress do not want to talk to anyone, they should try expressive writing, a personal and emotional form of communication that focuses more on personal feelings than specific events.

Doing sports can be another way to eliminate stress, as exercise can stimulate the secretion of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, which produce a sense of happiness.

"Exercise for half an hour a day, and it will be more effective if you work up a sweat," Yu said.

Self-help methods

In the first quarter of last year, when people were told to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they were also encouraged to exercise to enhance physical fitness and relieve pressure resulting from quarantine.

However, Yu said that for such methods to be effective, "we need to change the way we see the world and anything that makes us feel sad". In psychology, this approach is widely known as cognitive behavioral therapy.

According to the US magazine Psychology Today, this form of psychotherapy focuses on modifying dysfunctional emotions, behavior and thoughts by "interrogating and uprooting negative or irrational beliefs".

In daily life, people can easily succumb to negative thinking when, for example, they are criticized by their boss.

Yu said: "How can we prevent such thoughts? Write down the worst scenarios you can imagine. Try to analyze them one by one, write down possible solutions and then 'argue' with your own mind－the negative factor－whether such solutions will work.

"As long as you discover a 1 percent possibility (of changing the status quo), you have to give it a shot. Once there is a small improvement, you will feel a little better and sense that you can emerge from your difficulties step by step.

"Try to regulate yourself and don't view stress as a bad thing. Real life is never as bad as imagined."

Tchiki Davis, a University of California, Berkeley graduate and expert on well-being technology, said forcing yourself to imagine positive things can help change the pattern of constantly thinking negatively.

"Imagine eating your favorite food, seeing your favorite person, or going to a favorite place," she said.

Michele Tugade, professor of psychology at Vassar College in New York state, said people should be kind to themselves and practice self-compassion when facing difficulties.

She said people are often compassionate, forgiving of others and have a deep desire to alleviate their suffering.

"Self-compassion means giving yourself that same type of gentleness. Treat yourself in the way you would treat your best friend, even when they, or you, make a mistake, say the wrong thing, or make the wrong decision," she said.

Rather than judging or criticizing yourself when things may not be "perfect", try treating yourself kindly, Tugarde added.

Yu said that when it is hard to remain positive, people should "try to slow down and savor the details of life, such as tasting a cup of coffee".

"You gently pick up the cup, take a breath, smell the coffee, sip it and let it fill your mouth. In this way, you can focus your consciousness on a certain point that makes you happy."

This process of "savoring" can produce bodily changes such as a slower heartbeat.

Takebayashi, from Fukushima Medical University, said a high degree of savoring has been found to promote psychological well-being, which enables positive emotions and feelings of happiness to be experienced.

Yu said it is vital to distinguish between whether people are experiencing temporary depression or if there is a possibility of them developing a major depressive disorder.

"If it is the latter, they may need to see a qualified psychologist and get proper treatment," he said.

Months after Qi, from Yunhsi Travel, felt that her life was collapsing, it has returned to normal.

"As a tourism practitioner, I am no longer anxious and I am getting used to the turmoil brought by the pandemic," she said.

"It is not helpful if we are constantly worrying about the pandemic. Why should we inflict such anxiety on ourselves?"