Maybe millennials are too young to think of the past just yet. Maybe we’re not yet nostalgic of the past simply because we are now living the most important years of our lives. But escaping in the past is a common behaviour. When our minds think about the past we don’t remember things exactly as they happened. We tend to remember the good things and we get this warm feeling in our bellies. Nostalgia can often enable us to feel this deep happiness and maybe even peace. It’s another one of our hidden superpowers.
About nostalgia
The term “nostalgia” originates from Ancient Greek via New Latin, and it is a composite of the root words “nostos,” meaning “home,” and “algos,” meaning “pain.” At it’s core, nostalgia refers to the pain of being away from home.
For a really long time, nostalgia was a mental health disorder. In time, further research around demographics and types of people that were affected was able to show otherwise.
In an article published in 2008, Profs Wildschut, Sedikides, and their colleagues explain:
“By the beginning of the 20th century, nostalgia was regarded as a psychiatric disorder. Symptoms included anxiety, sadness, and insomnia. [..] Soon thereafter, nostalgia was downgraded to a variant of depression, marked by loss and grief, though still equated with homesickness.”
The same professors also noted that as of the late 20th century, doctors and researchers started to differentiate between nostalgia and homesickness. They explained that homesickness became associated with mental mental health issues, such as separation anxiety. Nostalgia began to be associated with positive mages of childhood or past happy times.
Benefits of nostalgia
Allows us an escape
Sometimes when life around us becomes too stressing, we can just walk back memory lane. We can transport ourselves for a few moments somewhere in our past. For me sometimes I go back to the days when my mom would cook for us. I always miss my mom’s food. And being some 3,000km away from her, makes it difficult to eat her cooking.
So when I’m tired, or when I long for home, I go back to summer. I remember smells, tastes, people, conversations, weather, places or situations. This little nostalgic moment allows me to go back to those days.
Helps social connections
Nostalgia is an incredible superpower in the sense that it allows us to remember where we come from. By remembering our parents, grandparents, childhood friends or teachers, we remind ourselves of where we started. We can see ourselves evolve over time from childhood to adulthood. That superpower that comes from nostalgia is something so necessary for our social interactions and social development.
Helps us navigate transitions
When I left my home country and moved abroad, I used my memories to help me settle in. When moments like birthdays or Christmas came by, I allowed myself to remember. I sat down with the smells, tastes and sounds of those past experiences. I wanted to feel whatever I needed to feel.
In time, I also allowed myself to build my very own memorable moments in my new life. I wanted to create my own birthdays or Christmases in such a way that those would become memories. I now allow myself to look back with nostalgia at those moments in my new life.
This superpower is used for generations. We often hear our parents or grandparents talk about times from the past. They spend a long time remembering what happened in their childhood or teenage times. That’s because those are their positive memories. And it is that positivity, warmth, freedom and strength that help them navigate their own transition.
