To be able to enjoy your former life again is to live twice.

<ul>
<li>Nostalgia is a peculiar feeling. It is the sentimental reminiscence of happy times, and yet it leaves us feeling curiously sad. </li>
<li>Nostalgia reveals that we do not live only one life but many lives. We look back on our past selves with a poignant and disconnected sense of change. </li>
<li>New research shows in what ways nostalgia is good for us. It even acts as an effective method of pain relief.</li>
</ul>

Nostalgia

As we get older, we spend more time looking backward. We reflect on all those happy days in our past, reminiscing about days of warmth, laughter, security, and love. Our memory is a funny old thing. It is not some photographic record, but rather it selects, exaggerates, and warps everything. Our peaks and troughs, our highs and lows, come looming out from the great fog of time.Nostalgia is a peculiar feeling — slippery and, in many ways, indefinable — but it’s a key aspect of being human. According to new research, it might even make being human a bit easier, as well.

The Pleasure And Sadness Of Being Human

While love, fear, or anger might move and evoke great passion, nostalgia lies in a much subtler place. <ul><li>It is the heart-aching reminiscence of your parents singing you to sleep. </li><li>It is in the laughter of friends we once knew, but which now echoes into an empty space. </li><li>It is in first love, childhood pets, movie nights, Christmas mornings, and final goodbyes. </li><li>It is a great joy, shadowed with sadness and longing. It is that dark well of poignancy that makes you feel lonely and without something you once had. </li><li>It is the tear-soaked smile of happy times, no longer here.</li></ul>

The Depth Of Nostalgia

The older we get, the more we realize that life is made of episodes and stages. There are facets of ourselves that are more or less constant, but who we are today can feel strangely remote from our childhood. We look at our past like some oddly familiar story to reread.Hence, there is a disconnect and alienation that comes with nostalgia. We look back on our previous selves and we feel as if we have changed. We see that our path has wandered far from its original way, that we hardly know who we once were, or who we are now.

The Many Stages Of Life

The reason nostalgia is so peculiar is that it’s really hard to say if it’s good or bad. The reminiscence of past happiness feels nice, but the longing and sense of absence it leaves can be deeply upsetting. What’s interesting, though, is a recent study has shown that nostalgia can also make pain more bearable. It even goes some way to numbing that pain altogether.Nostalgia promotes psychological wellbeing, increases physical comfort, and reduces distress, apart from relieving pain.

Nostalgia Is Good

That Beautiful Feeling of reliving old memories.

Nostalgia is a happy remembrance of the past, yet it also leaves us feeling sad. Perhaps ironically, it can serve as a painkiller.

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

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