How COVID-19 made me realize it’s time to start my Positive Psychology Journey.
The strangest thing has happened in the last two-three months. And as a result, I received an unprecedented amount of hate which has brought me on a Positive Psychology Journey.
But, let me explain.
Life Before COVID-19
Almost two years ago I moved to China after living in Thailand for 16 years. Many people thought I was crazy to leave sunny Thailand for red China. Still, both me and my wife moved to Beijing, and slowly started our new adventure here.
Things were going pretty well with us both from a professional and personal point of view. We integrated fast in our new work environment, we travelled a lot, and just simply had a good time. But, from the outside, people still questioned our move to China.
Then the pandemic hits the world and things start to get… well, I’ll just put it as: strange. People discovered me.
During our first month in China I documented though Romanian-language vlogs on YouTube our move from Thailand and then I documented daily my quarantine time in Beijing.
At first, it was just the usual suspects watching the vlog: my family from back home in Romania, my high school classmates, my Facebook connections.
Life During COVID-19
And then things got serious outside of China too. And everybody was (and still is) looking for an answer, or better say for someone to blame.
And here’s what my countrymen and women find: an old vlog from two years ago of me and my wife buying vegetables in a small farmer’s market in Beijing.
Now things are starting to get real strange!
There were no bats in my video, nobody was selling snakes, nobody was eating dogs.
But viewers found my video by searching for “market in China” – most likely after they saw footage of the now infamous market in Wuhan.
Something didn’t add up.
Aren’t all markets in China supposed to sell wildlife and barbecue dog meat? Well, the video they were watching, of me walking around a simple farmer’s market in Beijing, told a different story.
A story different from the one the world got from the internet and all media outlets.
Cognitive Dissonance in Action
Most markets in China didn’t sell skinned bats!
That didn’t go well with the viewers. In psychology, this phenomenon is called cognitive dissonance.
There was an inconsistency between what the viewers believed (based on their limited knowledge of China and biased news reporting) and the new information they got through my vlog in the Beijing market.
According to Leon Festinger, the American psychologist who proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance, this conflicting belief (that all markets in China are bad vs a Beijing market that looks “normal”) lead to internal disharmony.
And us humans don’t like that. We strive to avoid cognitive disharmony.
Something Had to Change VS Ignoring the New Facts
So, to eliminate this dissonance, something had to change.
And the two options available were quite straightforward.
Option 1: What I know about markets in China remains true so the guy in the vlog must be lying.
Option 2: Upon seeing this market in Beijing that looks just like any other farmer’s market, I now realize that not all markets in China are that bad.
But, really, how can anyone believe one random guy on the internet and disregards the tens and hundreds and thousands of times they’ve seen the same footage again and again of the Wuhan market.
You tell me, which one is more powerful?
So, for many of my vlog viewers, the only way to reduce this cognitive dissonance, this inconsistency of what you thought you knew and the new information that was presented to you, was by ignoring the new facts.
The Backlash of Holding Different Opinions
The problem was that, from a psychological point of view, it wasn’t that easy to ignore me.
You might be wondering why?
Well, I had the only video on the internet about a market in China in Romanian. And language is powerful.
I was not some vlogger speaking English or any other foreign language, I was actually speaking the language of the viewer. That brought home the message.
But lo and behold, the message was not welcomed.
So what followed next is the reason why I’m making changes in my online content, on social media, and YouTube.
From Negativity to Hate There Was Only One Big/Small Step
A barrage of negativity flooded the comments section of my Beijing market vlog. This then spiraled to my other vlogs about China too.
Very soon, my videos became a channel for Romanians to express their anger and frustration over the coronavirus situation.
At first, I found it quite unbelievable and actually tried to reason with my detractors by replying to their comments. This only fueled more negativity and quite fast, hate.
That came as a shock to me. I was baffled how many people found my work an offense to their beliefs and senses.
The simple fact that I am living in China made me their enemy.
To protect my own sanity, I recently stopped replying to any negative comments. But the experience of becoming, just like that, overnight, the object of hate got me thinking.
From Hate To Pessimism, Another Big/Small Step
And the questions that kept coming back to my mind were: Why do we choose to see only the negative side of things? Who do we choose to point fingers and lay the blame on others? Why do we choose to see the world in dark?
The answer is simple: pessimism.
And I believe that the current world situation has only amplified our social pessimism. But our ignorance levels have also increased!
I’m a big optimist. I always have been.
And the surge of negativity that my videos have elicited made me realize that optimism seems hard to come by these days…
From Freud to Jung to Maslow to Positive Psychology
I’ve been teaching psychology for many years now. Although as a student I was fascinated by Freudian theories and as a young adult I tried to understand myself through Jungian archetypes, Maslow’s humanistic approach had the biggest influence on me until my late 30s.
Now, in my early 40s, I came to realize that in order for me to live a meaningful life, I have to enhance my best characteristics and skills. I have to focus on my strengths. I have to build resilience. I have to face challenges and look forward to a future where I am able to overcome life’s hurdles.
That’s positive psychology. And I’m on a journey. A Positive Psychology Journey.
My Positive Psychology Journey A Mission Statement
It’s a journey in which I want to encourage people to shed their pessimistic views of the world and embrace optimism. I want to show people how focusing on their strength will make their life more meaningful.
I’m not here to delve on past mistakes and missed opportunities. I’m here to build. To build a good life in the present and a future full of exciting opportunities. To build an Upgraded Lifestyle by Empowering personal growth.
I hope that this Positive Psychology Journey will also inspire you to embrace optimism and focus on the strengths that enable you to thrive.
