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MICHELLE THALLER: When it comes to how to deal with isolation and feel like you’re helpless and estranged from everyone, it’s hard to beat the experience of an astronaut, where you are literally separated from Earth. And even if they wanted to, they couldn’t just come to Earth very easily. It would be a great effort to do so. And they’re going to be up there, say on the Space Station, for quite some time. Six months or even more. So how do astronauts deal with isolation? Although I have never been in space, I have several friends who are astronauts and one of the things that I have heard from them, psychologically, when you are trying to deal with that type of stimulus retreat, everything is much more limited than you are used to. .
One of the things they do is try to really keep a schedule. Try to understand that you are going to get up right now. Although that is artificial. The Space Station travels the Earth once every 90 minutes, so when you are on the Space Station you get a sunrise and sunset every 90 minutes. So the idea is that, in your inner world, you create a routine, a time when you get up, a time when everyone gets together, a time to talk, a time to interact, a time to work, and keep the schedule as consistently as they possibly can.
You may have heard that people who have trouble sleeping will often sleep better if they go to bed at a certain time each day and their bodies know that they can expect those same rhythms. That being said, some of my friends who are astronauts have talked about difficulties in dealing, I said earlier about the lack of sensory information. And surprisingly, one of the things I’ve heard them talk about is their sense of smell. That in the Space Station, things are very clean and very sterile as expected, a very closed environment, the air is recirculated, all the water is recirculated and they lose the smell of life, of food, of being outside, from the air and grass. There was an astronaut he was making a presentation with and he said there was a shipment of fresh fruit that came up during a cargo refueling mission and one of the things they brought in was oranges, fresh oranges. And everyone really enjoyed this and people ate their oranges and said that he actually hid his orange in his private compartment and all he wanted to do was smell it, smell that really lovely orange smell, something that reminded him of life. And many astronauts talk about it when they finally open the door of the Soyuz capsule after they have returned to Earth and smell the air, that’s really wonderful. So part of this is perhaps also looking for ways to give yourself some comfort, some stimulation that you find really enjoyable.
I know from myself that I have walked a lot outside my house. I live on a two acre lot, so there are no people around, enjoying the sunlight, enjoying the breeze, taking steps not to feel so shut up if you have that. On a personal note for me as terrifying as COVID-19, it became a kind of positive side for my husband and for me because my husband is now, this is sad but it is life, it is actually in the final stages of Cancer and us Don’t expect me to live more than a year. And go to work, which I love, I love to go to work every day for NASA, for my friends, for the discoveries, but sometimes in the middle of the afternoon I would say that I should be here when Andrew is home when don’t have so much time with him? And the quarantine, we have not left the house for more than a week, I mean just go out a little to the patio. It gives me the opportunity to be with him to slow down life, keep doing the work, keep having all that connection virtually, but for me it has been this wonderful moment to enjoy very simple things: cooking a meal, looking out the window, playing with our cat and enjoying life. So one of the things also when you have a difficult situation is to try your best to find something that is good. And there certainly are situations with nothing good about them, but if you’re still reasonably healthy and in because of COVID-19, take some time to think of yourself. Maybe something you’re curious about, something you didn’t have time to do before. If you have forced time with a loved one and now you can’t escape because you’re not supposed to leave the house, how about your relationship may require some work, some good work, some fun, some growth, some developing? It turned out that it was going to be a very special moment for me. Hopefully, I will recover and not get very sick with COVID-19 if I succeed, but I think as I look back in time, this isolation, this slowdown, will become a true gift to me that I will remember for the rest of my life.
