Have you ever paused to wonder what would it mean to not have the faculty of memory?

What would it mean to be able to experience everything we want but not be able to recall or remember later..?

Sights. sounds. smells. Old negatives of photographs. Entering the streets and back alleys of childhood. Songs of a certain vintage. Remnants and residue of childhood and adolescence.

Perhaps the only substitute for love is memory.

Every once in a while, without having to invoke the feeling consciously or even wish for it, I find myself pining for simpler times.

Occassionally, the unexpected triggering leads to a subsequent flooding of the senses.

I find myself immersed, inundated and even, overwhelmed by a crawling sense of nostalgia.

Fond, precious and intimate memories.

On most days, it is more a temporary ache than a full blown melancholic existential crisis.

A state of gratitude for the present moment co-exists with the wistfulness for an erstwhile zeitgeist.

Life situations can be confusing and confounding; demanding and debilitating all at once.

To that end, we use our memories to temporarily alter our own perception of the state we are in.

Nostalgia is our inbuilt neurological defence mechanism – an on demand service that can be used to preserve the past and persevere in the present just that little bit longer.

An antidote that promotes emotional equilibrium and homeostasis.

Fun fact: The word nostalgia was first used to describe a psychological disorder: the fragile physical and mental health of some of the troops in the Swiss army in the 17th century. The word is made up of the greek word nostos – a longing to go home and algos – the pain associated with the onset of that yearning.

Modern day research and a bunch of long term, large sample size, longitudinal studies have turned the story squarely on its head.

It is now understood as a complex emotion with both positive and negative valence. It is often bittersweet – the simultaneous familiarity and comfort of an older time with the knowledge that what we are remembering is lost in some way and conspicuous by its absence.

Most of all, nostalgia helps render meaning and purpose to our lives, giving a sense of an overarching narrative to one’s life journey.

It is most useful during in moments of major life transitions. Even the elements of loss, trauma and sadness are posed in a redemptive sequence.

Taken too far, nostalgia can also be its own imprisonment; and a device to escaping reality – none of which is healthy.
In some ways, it goes against the most timeless and powerful life advice too: that life is best lived in the present.

Even the most well meaning nostalgia is rose tinted. In some ways it is a longing for a ‘sanitized’ version of the past.

Many things that were boring, pedestrian, painful and forgettable when experienced acquire a glorious halo when looked upon by with the lens of nostalgia.

The power of nostalgia in a world where things change with the intensity, magnitude and frequency as they do is singular.
A cherished memory is a thing to behold.

Nostalgia. Because it is good to feel a few things twice.