Larry King has a new video series on coping with the coronavirus crisis — and he wants everyone to have more open conversations about depression and anxiety

• The novel coronavirus pandemic is seriously impacting Americans' mental health.
• To help people cope during the pandemic, former CNN host Larry King teamed up with James Pawelski, a professor and director of education at the University of Pennsylvania, and online platform Positive Voices to create a free online video series called "Coping with COVID."
• Business Insider spoke with King and Pawelski about how to stay positive during uncertain times and overcome anxiety.
• King recounted times when he had faced health issues including lung cancer, prostate cancer, and a heart attack, but he kept going.

Larry King thinks the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on Americans' mental health — and it's time for people to have more open discussions about it.

"Mental health conversations are very important," King said. "We're also all isolated, and we have to depend on each other through various forms of communication and still learn something out of it."

But it's not just the coronavirus. In an interview with Business Insider, the former CNN host and 86-year-old broadcaster said the overlapping news of the killing of George Floyd and the upcoming election have propelled the US into challenging and turbulent times.

These concerns inspired King to team up with James Pawelski, a professor and director of education at the University of Pennsylvania, and Positive Voices, an online platform where leaders share research related to positive psychology, to create a free online video series called "Coping with COVID." The show spotlights the coping mechanisms psychologists and researchers recommend using to boost mental health.

Experts predict self isolation and social distancing will have serious mental health impacts on people of all ages and occupations. According to a recent survey of 1,500 people by the Benenson Strategy Group, more than half of those surveyed said COVID-19 has impacted their mental health. Social isolation can be as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a study in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry.

The killing of George Floyd has also caused a spike of depression and anxiety for many Black Americans, The Washington Post reported.

Business Insider spoke with King and Pawelski for information on how to cope during a challenging time.

Learn to build resilience

In "Coping with COVID," King shared that a key ingredient to overcoming adversity is to have an "indomitable spirit." Even when he faced health issues including lung cancer, prostate cancer, and a heart attack, he didn't slow down.

"One of my doctors called and he said I had an indomitable spirit, and he thought that kept me going," King said during an episode. "All my life I'd get up off the floor. While I've had illness, I never let it take away from me."

Having resilience, or the ability to pick yourself up when life knocks you down, is crucial for coping well with challenges. Resilience is not a character trait that you're born with, but it's actually thoughts, behaviors, and actions that are learned and developed over time.

Andrew Shatté, coauthor of "The Resilience Factor" and chief science officer of stress management website meQuilibrium, previously told Business Insider that building resilience starts with noticing your emotions when you feel them, accentuating the positive instead of dwelling on your mistakes, and actively countering the negativity.

"Resilient people don't sit around waiting for positive things to happen to them," he said previously. "They seek out opportunities and challenges, and they create good in their lives and other people's lives."

Acknowledge your grief

Everyone should acknowledge the fear, anxiety, and grief that they're experiencing.

"Human beings are evolved to be very sensitive to threat, and we're good at picking up when there is a threat. But the problem with a pandemic is it's more of a long-term, ongoing threat," Pawelski said. "It's easy for it to eat away on us and make it really hard for people to function."

Be kind to yourself, and practice self-compassion. Treat yourself the same way as you would to a loved one who's going through grief.

Do things that make you happy

Even if you're not feeling your best, it's important to look for opportunities to do things that make you happy.

King and Pawelski featured Sonja Lyubomirsky, a distinguished professor at University of California and prominent researcher on human happiness, to discuss how to maintain a positive attitude during challenging times.

"Happiness isn't just about feeling good," she said during an episode. "People who are happy have shown to be more creative. Happy people have more energy and more motivation to address problems. They have stronger immune systems."

Happiness is a state of mind that can improve your overall well-being.

You can boost your happiness by being kind to other people, strengthening your relationships with friends and family, cultivating and coming together as a community, and savoring the positive moments in life, whether it be a memory or recent conversation, Lyubomirsky added.

"During times when you're blinded by something you don't understand, you have to have hope," King told Business Insider. "You have to hope that things will get better and [focus on] what you can control."