Why do I love the feeling of nostalgia?
I used to do this a lot. I did it because my current reality was not what I wanted or hoped for and looking back into the past, picking out the happy moments, helped me to be temporarily happy while in my unhappy present. It's comforting, living in the good memories of the past and not having to deal with reality of the present. It can be addicting and you end up day dreaming your life away. I would look forward to moments of my day when I can go into this state of nostalgia and just simply be happy, in my own dream world.It is a trap though, because you are living a very selective past, picking out only the good parts and forgetting the bad parts that came along with it. You can only live there so long…because reality is something you can not avoid…but oh…if only….I lived in my nostalgia until I got tired of it because you can never ever really be happy in a dream world. Mostly, I got tired of my own self pity. One day, my optimistic, fighter spirit awoke and declared “No! This is NOT how I want to live my life! I am worthy of being happy and I AM capable of finding happiness in my life!”.That day onward I spent my free time and researched about happiness, reading everything I could find about the topic. Slowly, day by day, I learned that I have everything I need inside me to be happy. Happiness is not something you go and find outside of you. It is a journey within you, a journey of self love, self acceptance, and compassion for your own humanity. It was a hard journey but oh, SO worth it! My outward reality has not changed much as I am still alone and single but internally things are different. There was a time when living in the nostalgic dream world was happier than being in the present. Now, I prefer to be in my happy and very present reality. If I can do it, you can, too.
Why do some people not feel any nostalgia?
I feel as if most people have no fear that the best times are in the past. I personally have a great fear of feeling as if my best times are behind me (whether it’s actually true or not). I guess that makes me a ‘forward looking’ person… But that sounds ‘way’ too glorious than the reality of it. I’m simply afraid of life moving on and getting bigger and better without me. I need to keep on top of what ever is important to me.But, if looking back and thinking about the best moments makes you feel good and accomplished, I guess it DOES make sense to be nostalgic. I’m just different because that exercise makes me feel… insecure.To be clear, it’s not as if I don’t have pleasant memories, because I have tons :) I’m simply afraid to feel that life does not get better than some memory in my head.
Why are the 60s, 70s and 80s so nostalgic?
Beucase it's 25 to 50 years ago. When people get older they get nostalgic. When i was a kid people were nostalgic for the 30's, 40's and 50's.
Do you love or hate nostalgic feelings?
Whenever I listen to an old song or I'm reminded of a good tv show or video game from the past I always get nostalgic feelings... Sometimes it seems nice but then other times I don't know why but it just gets me depressed out of nowhere. I'm not even bipolar or anything like that lol
What do I do when a wave of nostalgia washes over me like an unexpected flood?
Being nostalgic isn't a weakness, smelling a particular perfume or watching an old cartoon brings me back to my childhood and I want to cry. It is good to cry, it cleanses your soul but what you have to do in those moments is singing, writing it, drawing your pain, it sure helps and remember that thanks to those moments you became this wonderful person that you are right now!!!
Why do humans feel nostalgia?
We humans are driven by feelings, emotions.We as humans always tend to remain in comfortable, happy situations and resist the changes, painful situation.Like the future past is also a dream we see. We always want to visit that place again as we see them as better days. It's beautiful in it's own manner.Our mind is cognitively biased and thus it manipulates us.It's distorted but, it always keeps us away from the reality. Why is it distorted?The reason being our conscious mind only keeps those memory which has fleeting feelings, emotions and moments of glee with it, but not the actuality of the events. Also not the pain and anguish we suffered hours or days later.Nostalgia is not memory but the emotional state of an individual & we rejoice on that state.It has it's pros and cons of it's own.ProsGives motivation to get onto a better situationKeeps us away from depression.Keeps us happy in bad times.Childhood memories sliding like a presentation in your mind.ConsIf not willing to change for longer period can cause depression.
Are women more nostalgic than men?
There is an episode of Mad Men, where the character Donald Draper recalls an old Greek copywriter defining nostalgia as 'the pain from an old wound'. I remember talking to my therapist once about a past relationship and wondering how an ex of mine could simly stop loving me, and she gave me a metaphor concerning this that I've never forgotten.She said 'For men, love is like a dimmer and for women, love is like a lightswitch.'I've shared this with friends and it has resonated personally for many of them. On another level, I think socially - being nostalgic isn't as acceptable for men. Any guy who has been told to 'Be a man' about something can attest to this.I think nostalgia is a beautiful emotion that has it's place. People who know me can attest, I am very nostalgic. I'd venture to say that in my experience, women are not more nostalgic than men. In fact, I think because of my aforementioned 'light switch / dimmer' analogy and from my personal experience - if anything, men are more inclined towards nostalgia.P.S. I came across a beautiful line regarding the purpose of nostalgia on Yahoo Answers: To make us feel that we are still Humans and we still had and will still have Humanity in ourselves.