Look Back to Feel Better
Feeling blue? Take a walk (down memory lane).
When the going gets tough, the tough...look in the rearview mirror. It turns out, all this all-aboarding the wayback machine—from Friends to neon everything, and Bennifer 2.0—just might be a buttress against a hella confusing time. While we acknowledge that some of our fellow countrypeople still appear to subscribe to 17th century medical notions based on flimsy facts, the idea of nostalgia as mental illness has fallen by the wayside. In fact, looking back is now proven by solid science to help us move forward with a healthier state of mind.
“Reminiscing puts our lives into historical context, and this is a stabilizing feeling in a very unstable point in our history,” says Sarah McAllister, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist in Fairfield County, CT. “The baby boomers romanticize the 60s/70s, the Greatest Generation is proud of living through the Depression and WWII. It’s natural for those of us who grew up in the 80s/90s to look at the Millennials’ and iGeneration’s technology-infused lives, and feel a sense of peace to think of our own childhoods.”
Looking back can help counteract the current question marks presented by the pandemic’s Delta resurgence with memories of resilience—and lightheartedness—in times past. “We’re looking for safe spaces to relate together, so it’s healthy to look back and reminisce about big hair, playing Atari and going to Blockbuster to find a movie,” adds Dr. McAllister. “Society is so polarized, but joking about what we did in the 80s and 90s is likely not going to be a political minefield.”
So how to intentionally marinade in memories to achieve nostalgia’s full benefits?
Write it down.
A 2016 study found that people directed to write about a nostalgic event scored higher on measures of health optimism—and were even more likely to exercise—than those who wrote about other topics.
Listen up.
When we play that funky music of yesteryear, it conjures associated memories of place and time more powerfully. A British study of music-evoked nostalgia amid the COVID-19 pandemic found a positive impact on emotional regulation among those who listened to nostalgic music during lockdown.
Talk it out.
We’ve previously espoused the benefits of asking an elder and telling your own story. By combining the two—sitting down (literally or virtually) with someone who shares your past stories—you can not only live once again in the past, at least for a moment, but dwell there with someone who bore witness right alongside you.
