Nostalgia: Bridging the Past and the Present
Have you ever watched one of your baby videos and felt a part of you reaching for the past? Or wished you could go back to a point in your life where everything was easier? Although many try to push it away, the powerful emotion of nostalgia creeps into our lives when we are most vulnerable and provides us with the escape we all yearn for: time travel.
History of Nostalgia
In 1688, Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer called nostalgia a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause.” Hofer pointed to nostalgia as the scapegoat of insomnia, eating disorders, irregular heartbeats, and PTSD. He also believed that nostalgia was caused by vibrations of animal spirits in the human brain and by the clanging of cowbells in the Swiss Alps. This stigma was the onset for years of nostophobia as people developed a fear of nostalgia and responded to their nostalgic feelings with intense anxiety.
Nostalgia Psychology Experiment
More recently, author Clay Routledge published a book about the psychology behind nostalgia titled Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource, in which he discusses scientific experiments surrounding nostalgia. One of his experiments involved having one group of people write about a nostalgic experience they have had according to the dictionary definition of nostalgia and having the control group write about any everyday experience they have had. When Routledge compared the narratives that were written, he observed that some people who were asked to write about a nostalgic experience had chosen meaningful, once in a lifetime events, including wedding days, family vacations, birthdays, graduations, etc., while others, more commonly older adults, had written about simple moments they used to take for granted, like having young kids in the house, or life before retirement. Both types of events center around significant others and stimulate positive emotions in the human brain. In his book, Routledge analyzes the monotony of daily human life and concludes that as our lives change, we begin to miss what was left behind, whether that is a single life-changing moment or several moments added together.
Triggers of Nostalgia
Routledge’s experiments led him to deduce that nostalgia can be triggered in the simplest of ways. Some examples include having a social interaction with a family member or good friend, hearing a familiar song, smelling a familiar smell, or seeing a tangible object, such as an old photograph.
Regarding mood, Routledge and his colleagues discovered that nostalgia is most commonly triggered by a negative mood, loneliness, or feelings of meaninglessness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several people reported feeling nostalgic for their pre-pandemic life and that their exposure to technology was evoking intense nostalgic feelings. Whether you’re looking at Google Photos or watching a childhood video on YouTube, having technology at your fingertips makes it easy to grasp onto the past. I can certainly relate to endlessly scrolling through Google Photos and reliving moments I barely remember over and over. Although nostalgia does stimulate positive emotions, it is possible to overdo it. Looking through old pictures online can be a rabbit hole and can end up wasting a lot of your time. During a time as depressing as the pandemic, the stimulation of nostalgia was reported to result in lethargic behavior and mild depression as well.
The Science Behind Nostalgia
Although some may view nostalgia as nothing more than an emotion, neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez has found that there is science behind nostalgic feelings. In an interview with Bustle, Dr. Hafeez explained, “Whenever we encounter a memorable memory, neurons for emotional processing are stimulated in the brain.” In 2016, researchers conducted MRI scans on brains that were feeling nostalgic and discovered that there was increased activity in the memory area of the brain and the parts of the brain that give us positive feelings and sensations, resulting in increased blood flow and arousal of comforting warm feelings. Dr. Hafeez also added that while nostalgia is triggered by the past, it can increase resilience and create a positive attitude towards the future. Other benefits of nostalgia include less negative emotion and reduced physical pain. Also, an interesting study in Consumer Communication Reports in 2017 found that nostalgia helps to change the brain’s addiction patterns and has been proven to help people quit smoking.
However, one detriment of nostalgia is that it is directly related to our capacity for sadness. The Neurology Times reported that those who experience strong nostalgia frequently show a greater tendency for sadness because the emotional center of their brain is more active. Another detriment of feeling nostalgic frequently is that it affects the decisions you make. When we feel nostalgic, activity in the frontal lobe of our brain increases, and we feel like indulging ourselves. Marketers take advantage of this and tactfully create advertisements that make viewers feel nostalgic, using phrases such as “the good ol’ days” and incorporating warm central characters, like grandmothers or a happy family. This makes viewers feel like rewarding themselves, and they are more likely to spend a large sum of money at once.
Managing Your Nostalgia
Humans have certainly come a long way from believing nostalgia to be a neurological disease, but for some people, this issue seems to have overcorrected. While nostalgia stimulates positive feelings and can increase our self-esteem, there is a difference between living almost entirely in the past and using nostalgia as a tool to deflect stress. Here are four tips for finding a good balance of nostalgia and dealing with it productively.
1: Spend time with positive people
Being around people who make you feel good about yourself will reduce your need to constantly turn to the past to simulate those same feelings. This will also improve your overall mood which will result in a healthy balance of nostalgia.
2: Be open about your feelings with yourself
It’s easy to pretend like you’re okay around other people, but be upfront and honest with yourself about how you’re feeling and address any major sources of anxiety in your life. Nostalgia can provide us with an easy escape from the present, but don’t use nostalgia as a way to hide from any problems you’re facing. Writer Damian Barr put it well when he said, “You shouldn’t revisit [nostalgia] as a way of avoiding the past or not thinking about the future. If you spend too much time thinking about the past, you are simply not going to be prepared for the future socially or emotionally.”
3: Don’t focus on painful memories
Whether you’re getting out of a nasty breakup or getting over the loss of a loved one, it’s easy to obsess over objects or photographs that remind you of that person. Although you don’t have to forget that person entirely, focus on little things in your life that bring you joy. By obsessing over tragedies that are unable to be solved, we end up being counterproductive towards our grieving process. Psychologists have found that nostalgia can often transform into a manifestation of our regrets if it occurs too regularly, which is why it is important to sparingly use nostalgia as a beneficial tool for our mental health rather than a mechanism of zeroing in on negative memories.
4: Write down your nostalgic thoughts
This is an interesting strategy that I’ve tried before and it can feel very relieving and therapeutic. By taking note of nostalgic memories, it becomes easier to revisit the past when you are feeling nostalgic. Whenever you feel lonely or unhappy, read over your list and have a short nostalgia session. This becomes more efficient and you don’t end up wasting as much time by scrolling through photos online. Sometimes it feels good to put your thoughts on paper instead of bottling your emotions. Additionally, this can shortlist the highlights of your past and serve as a guide for your future. Once you’ve created a list of nostalgic memories, search for themes in the list to narrow down trigger points (e.g. family memories, successful moments, etc.).
Overall, nostalgia is a useful tool for coping with stress, but spending too much time in the past diverts our attention from looking ahead to the future. Science has proven that nostalgia is beneficial for our emotional well-being as long as we have a healthy balance of it (and are wary of devious marketing strategies). And if you ever feel like your good memories are only in the past, remember, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” ~ Dr. Seuss.
