Nostalgia

                                                   (the news international)

Patti Austin’s “If I Believe” was aired on the radio. Time suddenly went back to a specific moment during your college days. You felt a warm surge of memories which made you forget about the present and went back to the past. An emotional interlude was experienced that your chest tightened and you feared that you would then cry. You were having NOSTALGIA.

Psychology Today defines nostalgia as sentimentality for the past, typically for a particular period or place with positive associations, but sometimes also for the past in general, “the good old days”.

In the 17^th century, this experience was considered as a mental disorder. It is a medical term designating a pathological brain disorder coined from the Greek words nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain, ache). Johannes Hofer attributed this to the homesickness of Swiss mercenaries fighting in foreign lowlands. The military physicians related this to ear and brain damage from the constant clanging of cowbells. The symptoms were crying, fainting and having fever.

Since its inauspicious beginnings, nostalgia has more in recent times come to be viewed as a purely positive emotional experience. When an old song or a familiar smell trigger pleasant memories of an event in our past, most of us pause to savor the momentary rush of emotions until it fades, rather than running to the doctor for a cure (Hal McDonald, 2014).

Neel Burton, M.D. further confirmed that nostalgia is no longer looked upon as a mental disorder, but as a natural, common, and even positive emotion, a vehicle for travelling beyond the deadening confines of time and space. Bouts of nostalgia are often prompted by feelings of loneliness, disconnectedness, or meaninglessness; thoughts about the past; particular places and objects; and smell, touch, music and weather.

During these times of revisiting the memory lane, one would sometimes feel that he or she is ageing since nostalgia is linked to being OLD. When the research of Gergov and Stoyanova was published, they mentioned that for elderly people, the past is very important because the majority of them often thought about it since they consider the past as a source of pride and inspiration.

But when we look keenly at the relationship between ageing and nostalgia, we could infer that most of the time, the elders are the ones with longer tracks compared to the younger ones. Meaning, most of the retirees and the persons above forty might have bouts of nostalgia since they have more experiences compared the the younger brood. They have sentimental experiences since they had the opportunity to experience life MORE than those who are younger who are still having the TIMES of their lives.

Although nostalgia is universal, The Conversation.com said that a nostalgic yearning for the past is 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.

Again, this is a part of human nature. It is an adult thing to understand what is happening to us. We need to be in control with the things to occur in our psyche rather than be victimized by the process of wallowing.

In marketing, this is even studied carefully how to sell the companies’ products and services. A lot giggled when the Sharon-Gabby tandem was used by McDonalds to promote their “good old” burger. The 80’s teenagers remembered a lot of things during their college days! And how many times when we gasp in awe and be showered with memories when the pictures will be shown from “One to Ten years ago” on our timeline?

It’s fine to reminisce the past. We remember the good old days and consider our present. We then have to prepare for our future.