Advice from astronauts on how to cope with self-isolation

Astronauts know how to handle isolation, and they are clever folk!

It's difficult adjusting to isolation guidelines while we all fight to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, when many of us are used to commuting, office life, travel and socialising with friends. I enjoyed reading this article a colleague shared with me, so I thought I'd pick out the top tips and share them here.

Illustration (c) Keratill 2020

Thank you to space.com for sharing the following inspiring tips from retired NASA astronauts (Scott Kelly, Peggy Whitson) and more:

• Understand the collective higher purpose (reminding yourself we're all in this together to beat the virus can support mental wellbeing)
• Take a look at your goals. "What are you trying to accomplish? What are your objectives? What is your mission for right now?" apply this to your new challenge ; social distancing, adapting to new family routine or remote work life set up. 
• Address the constraints on those goals. "Who's telling you what you need to do? What financial resources do you have? What are your obligations?"
• Take action. "Once you understand the risk and your mission, your sense of purpose and your obligations, then take action, start doing things!
• Actions don't have the be things that you always did before: Take care of family, start a new project, learn to play guitar, study another language, read a book, write, create. It's a chance to do something different that you've maybe not done before and then, repeat.

• Communicate effectively; Teamwork is important either at home, or with your colleagues and family/friends online - (at my work, TM Lighting, we've been enjoying checking in at our daily Zoom meetings and using Slack for instant messaging)
• Stick to a schedule - including a consistent bedtime - routine helps to keep things moving and motivated
• Maintaining a plan will help you and your family adjust to a different work and home life environment
• Pace yourself so you don't get swallowed up by your work and to-do lists. 

• Take time for fun activities: movie nights, video group hang outs
• Defeat the boredom: do the extra work that I'd been thinking about doing, learn that skill, start the new hobby

• Get fresh air and see nature (astronauts miss this most!) be safe but do get outdoors, walk, run, see green spaces
• Pick up hobbies like reading, playing instruments, making art and keeping a journal. 
• Stay connected with their friends and family (back on Earth!) or in our case in other cities and countries, videoconferences; Setting up calls with friends and family to make sure that while we are staying safe and physically isolating, we're not distancing ourselves from relationships that can help us through the situation. 

• Take advantage that we are in the best time to self isolate; use the internet, research, connect 
• Take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your friends, ("take care of your spaceship"!)

As the astronauts said: "I wish everybody happy landings."

#stayathome #protecttheNHS #savelives

Read the full article by Chelsea Ghod for space.com here:

Image top: Retired Astronaut Peggy Whitson on board the International Space Station, backdropped by earth below. image (c) NASA

https://www.space.com/astronaut-tips-for-handling-isolation-coronavirus.html