The emotion helps us along, and although we might spend too much time thinking about the past, looking at times when we were happy can guide us toward brighter lives. Hopefully we can look at the past while thinking about the future; let us find in the past a means to reimagine it—not a recreation, but something based on what we value.
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Nostalgia is a bittersweet yearning for the past. Longing for our own past is referred to as personal nostalgia, and preferring a distant era is termed historical nostalgia. Although nostalgia is universal, research has shown that a nostalgic yearning for the past is especially likely to occur during periods of transition, like maturing into adulthood or aging into retirement.
Dislocation or alienation resulting from military conflict, moving to a new country or technological progress can also elicit nostalgia. In the face of instability, our mind will reach for our positive memories of the past, which tend to be more crystallized than negative or neutral ones. In the past , theorists tended to think of nostalgia as a bad thing — a retreat in the face of uncertainty, stress or unhappiness.
A study showed that nostalgic reminiscence can be a stabilizing force. It can strengthen our sense of personal continuity, reminding us that we possess a store of powerful memories that are deeply intertwined with our identity. In developing a retrospective survey of childhood experiences , I found that remembering that we experienced unconditional love as children can reassure us in the present — especially during trying times.
These memories can fuel the courage to confront our fears, take reasonable risks and tackle challenges. It's not reminiscence, either. In reminiscence, we recollect. In nostalgia, we feel. Reminiscing may lead to nostalgia, though [source: Leardi ]. What exactly is nostalgia, then, besides tough to nail down? It's the complex emotion we sometimes feel when we fondly recall old times — a "sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past" is how the Oxford Dictionary puts it.
The nostalgic state is bittersweet, a mixture of the happiness of mentally reliving cherished times and the sadness of knowing they're gone forever — that how we felt in those times is gone forever.
Those cherished times are usually social ones, starring us. They probably involve family and friends, took place in childhood or young adulthood and are often at least personally significant, possibly momentous [source: Routledge ].
People all over the world experience nostalgia recollecting graduations, weddings, family reunions, birthdays, holiday dinners and vacations with loved ones [sources: Routledge , Tierney ].
If movie and TV writers are to be believed, first kisses, senior proms, college road trips and riding bikes with neighborhood kids until dusk are nostalgia fodder, too. But here's the thing: Our recollections aren't quite accurate.
We often unconsciously edit out any bad stuff. I was actually pretty afraid I was going to swallow one of those minnows. In this way, the past events and emotions we nostalgize about never really existed [source: Hirsch ].
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