Coping With Quarantine Isolation

During the coronavirus outbreak, astronaut Scott Kelly is using some of his practices from being isolated up on the space station back hereon Earth.

Right now scott kelly is self- quarantining like many us with his family at home.

And while its a lot different than being up in space -- he's taking the same practices he used then and applying them to his life now.

Kelly says:"you know in my experience being on the space station, one thing i tried not to do is count down the days until it was over."

There's really is no telling when this pandemic could be over.

But there are ways to help stay mentally in check.

For scott kelly... when he was on a mission -- he'd maintain a routine.

Kelly says:"it was important to follow a schedule, you know taking care of yourself, your environment " before he left for space -- he met with psychologists, and trained himself mentally.

Most of that training was centered around how to communicate.

Kelly says:"its about staying connected with your family, its about letting the people you know, your crew mates, in case you are in quarantine with, if there are things that they are doing that are bothering you, don't let that stuff go, if you do, it's just going to get worse.

" and he discovered hobbies as well.

And found even confiding in himself helped.

Kelly says:"i took a journal, i made a journal when i was in space, and you know even if you don't have people to talk about or complain to, being open about it with yourself by writing can be a very cathartic process " while people may physically be separated right now -- kelly says its a time for people...everywh ere to unite.

Kelly says:"i was leaving the space station for the last time, and this is a place i spent over 500 days of my life on and i'm look out the window at the part i can see from the russian soyuz, and i'm thinking to myself, we built this space station - a lot of it was built there in huntsville, alabama, by the way, but we built it as a country, but as an international partnership, built in this extreme environment, this is one of the hardest things we've ever done and if we can do this, we can do anything, including, beat this virus."

He says when he was in space -- he'd remind himself he has a mission to complete.

He says right now for everyone -- our mission should be to do what we can to help stop the spread and give back if that's at all possible.

His hope is that we can look back at this time and be proud of how we handled it.

Reporting live in hsv mr waay 31 news.