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Nostalgia doesn’t need real memories - an imagined past works as well | Aeon Essays

Anemoia and Mental Simulations

Having nostalgic thoughts about the past that one hasn’t directly experienced or lived through is called _Anemoia_.

The cognitive component of nostalgia is often a mental simulation, and may not have happened for real in the lifetime of the reminiscing person.

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Imagining the Future Is Just Another Form of Memory

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theatlantic.com

Humans’ ability to predict the future is all thanks to our ability to remember the past.

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“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.”

John Green, Looking for Alaska

We use our memories to imagine the future

We predict what the future will look like by using our memories. This is how actions we do repeatedly become routine. For example, you have an ideas of what your day will look like at work tomorrow based on what your day was like today, and all the other days you’ve spent working.

But memory also helps people predict what it will be like to do things they haven’t done before.

Past and future for amnesia patients

An evidence that memory and imagining the future might go hand in hand comes from research related to amnesia patients. Studies show that when they lose their pasts, it seems they lose their futures as well.

Functional MRI scans made possible for researchers to discover that many of the same brain structures are involved in both remembering and forecasting.

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The Meaning of Nostalgia

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Nostalgia is 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' of yore. At the end of André Brink's novel, An Instant in the Wind, the character of Adam memorably says, 'The land which happened inside us no one can take away from us again, not even ourselves.'

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Nostalgia

It is the sentimentality of our past, usually for a particular time and place associated with positive emotions, etched in our memories. Historical texts state it was termed as homesickness ...

A Time Machine

The feeling of nostalgia is like traveling in a time machine. The activities that were once cherished are no longer done, and the world that is remembered no longer exists.

Nostalgia can be a form of self-deception, giving a rosy tint to the past, creating a paradise out of the moments of our lived lives.

Deep nostalgia fosters a sense of serene melancholy and spiritual longing.

Suffering

The deepest form of suffering is a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction about the impermanence and the insubstantiality of everything around us.

Buddhism mentions suffering as inevitable as long as there is desire, lust and a sense of coveting/craving in our lives. Once we grasp this fully, we stop craving and struggling in hope and fear.

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Go Ahead. Binge That New TV Show. It’s Good for Your Mental Health

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New research shows reading books, watching TV, and listening to music can all provide the social connection you may be missing right now.

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Nontraditional social strategies

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The so-called 'nontraditional social strategies' can fulfill social needs whenever we are not able to fulfill these needs by using traditional social strategies.&n...

Traditional vs. non-traditional social strategies

While research has shown that nontraditional social strategies, such as reading a book or watching movies, can substitute for spending time with your loved ones, there is evidence that the traditional social strategies still hold actually the key to longer-lasting happiness.

However, whenever it is not possible to combine the two or practice traditional social techniques. then you might want to consider the safest option: the nontraditional social strategies.

Nostalgia for social interactions

Whenever we are not able to meet our friends or family for a long period of time, we tend to feel nostalgic for those moments of togetherness that have just become even more precious.

By watching movies, listening to songs, or just reflecting on our relationships, we actually help repair and rediscover who is really important to us and we will, therefore, be even more grateful when given the chance to meet up again with those very persons.