October 29, 2019
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Have you ever indulged in melancholy, remembering your past: events that you would like to relive again, friends who left your life long ago?
Or maybe you were sad about a loved one with whom you had not been together for a long time, or places where you were happy?
Such experiences are called nostalgia. Where it comes from, what its essence is, how it is written – “nastalgia” or “nostalgia” – is the topic of today’s article.
General information
The word "nostalgia" has two meanings. The original definition is longing for the homeland. The second is to worry about something that brings pleasant emotions to the individual. This term first appeared in the seventeenth century. Johann Hofer, who was a medical student practicing in a hospital, began to notice conditions in soldiers such as panic attacks, arrhythmia, insomnia, and fever. He revealed that the root cause was psychological disorders, since the moment the soldier learned that he was going home, he recovered, because he was going back to his homeland.
Initially, the concept was used exclusively in medical literature, was considered as a state of physiological illness, and manifested itself primarily in military personnel who served in another country. Certain symptoms of this disease were so obvious and serious that they often caused thoughts of suicide and even ended in suicide. In psychology, nostalgia is viewed as an illness reminiscent of depression. However, if we consider it from the point of view of everyday problems, then this term is more often used as a longing for good times, regret about youth, childhood, which cannot be returned.
Nostalgia is remembering an event, place or people from your past.
When an individual can control his memories, they are a pleasant sensation for him, thus, positive emotions accumulate in a “storage”, looking into which we become happier. However, there are also people for whom immersion in past memories determines addiction. If a person is excessively homesick for his past, he begins to live in a world of illusions, hoping that he will be able to relive pleasant moments again. Psychologists are convinced that the idealization of the past is not as dangerous as the individual’s hopes that something from the wonderful past will appear in the future.
A person often runs away with his thoughts into the past when he is faced with severe stress, when events and changes occur in his present that frighten and traumatize him. So he hides in that time when it was good, pleasant, and everyday experiences cease to be so strong and painful.
I won’t hide the fact that I, like all people, at times give in to nostalgia, remembering those who are not with me, both close people who are not among the living today, and those with whom we have parted ways, but they managed to leave a serious mark on my past. These thoughts partly drive me into a state of joy, because the memories are pleasant, and partly into depression, the understanding comes that I won’t see these people again, I won’t be able to hug them, feel their warmth.
The power of memories
Nostalgia can make you happier, friendlier, and your body warmer. So the next time you're feeling cold, why not sit back, relax, and experience some nostalgia? Look through your childhood photo albums, listen to a few songs - from your youth or childhood. Or watch your favorite movies. Let the warm, fuzzy feelings take over. And don't forget to share this warmth using social networks.
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Kinds
Nostalgia for emotional connection
- Around the Motherland. Typical for emigrants. It often appears when the standard of living in a new place of residence is better than it was in the homeland. Despite the fact that the individual finds himself in conditions more favorable for his existence, he still remembers the good things that happened in his native land.
- According to the past. It often occurs in people who have very few bright events in their lives. As a result, they begin to live in the past, inventing facts of their biography, events that did not happen in reality. As a result, the past looks more vivid than the present, and the person is immersed in these thoughts again and again.
- By emotional connection, by person. Characteristic of people who have experienced separation. The human body produces special hormones that make us happy when we remember a strong emotional attachment, friendship or love. If this connection is broken, hormonal hunger appears, and we ourselves “return” to the past days to again feel the old feelings.
It is also worth considering the presence of a possible pathology - a disease of a psychological nature, which is still found in psychiatry today. Certain individuals may experience particularly severe episodes of sadness, causing depression and even death.
Study
Scientists from the University of Southern California decided to learn more about nostalgia. They conducted an experiment, the results of which surprised even themselves. 230 students took part in the experiment. Participants were required to fill out questionnaires daily for two weeks. At the same time, they were not cut off from their usual life, they went about their daily affairs. Students studied, worked, communicated with friends and family, went on dates and parties.
All questions in the questionnaires were devoted to nostalgia. Scientists wanted to find out how often people experience it, what events cause it, what emotions it gives.
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At the same time, the researchers recorded events that occurred in the daily lives of the subjects. They kept a tally of the positive and negative aspects that the participants in the experiment encountered. They celebrated their victories and defeats. They closely observed the slightest changes that occurred in their mood.
Causes of nostalgia
Nostalgia can be caused by thoughts of childhood
- Loss of a loved one. We strive to return to those we loved and were close to.
- Changing of the living place. When a person moves to another country or region or city, he has thoughts about how he would like to return to his previous apartment, to his old neighbors.
- Thoughts about childhood. We experience the most emotional moments in our lives in childhood; they shape our personality and remain in our memory forever. When we are scared, we often mentally plunge into childhood, when we were safe and felt the protection of our parents.
- An attempt to escape responsibility and problems. Mentally, we plunge into those times when we had fewer worries and difficulties in life.
- Age. The more the intensity of everyday life is lost, they cease to be so bright, a person becomes more sentimental. This is how older people return to the events of their past life, becoming despondent.
You can plunge into nostalgia by smelling a familiar smell, hearing a sound, or seeing an object. For example, while walking through an autumn park, you can inhale through your nose the aroma of autumn foliage, the same scent that you caught as a child during walks with your parents. At this moment, you also feel positive emotions - mom and dad are next to you, and you are a small, carefree child, but at the same time you also feel sadness - you will no longer be a baby, your parents will not be as young and healthy.
How to resist
Surround yourself with the care of loved ones, avoid loneliness
If you understand that you are constantly living through events from the past, you cannot move on, live normally, you especially notice that every time new details are added to your memories, there is an idealization of what happened before, thoughts about the past constantly pull you back or, as If the anchor stops in one place, then it’s time to think about how to free yourself from nostalgia.
- Cover all the tails of your past. The human psyche is designed in such a way that he strives to complete any task. If something is left unfinished, it will constantly pop up, reminding you of itself. This is an unfulfilled promise, and unfinished relationships, and unfulfilled desires. Your task is to deal with all the undertakings as much as possible. If among them there is, for example, a grudge against a person who is no longer alive, then you will have to visit a psychotherapist. A specialist will be able to work through the situation.
- Deal with your emotions. Nostalgic thoughts allow you to feel special feelings. A smile appears on a man’s face when he flips through an old album with photographs, he closes his eyes sweetly, remembering his first kiss. When you start thinking about what lies ahead, you feel confusion, anxiety, and sometimes danger. That is why he subconsciously tries to immerse himself in those events that brought positivity. You need to learn to control yourself, to allow yourself to think about something pleasant from the past days for no more than a few minutes a day. Learn to project your consciousness into the fact that there is still a lot of good things ahead.
- Improve your present, make it more colorful than the past. You need to realize that you need to live here and now. If you think that things were much better in the past, then you definitely need to change something in your present. You are ripe for change. You have everything in your hands to make life more comfortable and joyful. Find some hobby, stop sitting in front of the TV, do something better, for example, sports, go to the theater, to an exhibition, get a pet. That is, dramatic changes must occur in your life, which will only lead to a better effect.
- Communicate with other people, talk about what’s on your soul, about your emotions, you don’t need to carry everything inside yourself. If you have no one to talk to at all, find someone to talk to using the Internet or contact an experienced psychotherapist.
- Get rid of loneliness, you don’t need to be alone with yourself and your thoughts. Walk more, be in some kind of group, company. This will not allow you to think about sad things.
- Often nostalgic thoughts visit those who are bored and have nothing to do. Find something you like and devote all your free time to it.
- Communicate with your relatives more often, do not close yourself off from them, especially if they offer you help.
Now you know the synonym for the word nostalgia is melancholy. As you can see, we can yearn for both negative events from our past and something good. Sometimes it's good to remember the past, but a person should live in the present, look to the future, not look back, not live in memories.
What to do
Each person decides for himself whether he should fight the feeling of nostalgia. It largely depends on the emotions that come with it. There is nothing wrong with memories if they only cause a smile and slight sadness. If they contribute to the development of stress and depression, then you should not surrender to their mercy.
Psychologists recommend that those who are constantly visited by nostalgia should start improving their real life. It needs to be filled with meetings with new people, fresh impressions, bright events that will give new memories. The feeling of novelty energizes people and helps them get out of the abyss of depression.
Where to start on your path to change? For example, you can start a new hobby. Or watch a film belonging to a genre that has not previously attracted you.
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