I recently read in this book called “The BRAIN: the story of you” by David Eagleman that our past is not a faithful record. It is ,what the author called, a reconstruction.
This might faze a lot of you but think about it, your birthday party from 7th grade where you fought with your best friend, how often have your feelings changed about it? She started it. I might have been rude to her. Oh she was ignoring me on my birthday, so on and so forth.
Over time, your ideas about your past adapt to the stories you hear. What you think you know, is hardly the compass for what might be the truth. It’s how each scenario has a different interpretations and each one of which leads to a newer memory formation.
But why the past? Why the ever need to reminisce the good old days? Nostalgia, a longing for the past (well it’s more of a romanticised version), is a common feeling amongst all and has a strong psychological and neurological reasoning behind it.
The neurological basis includes the inter-connected play of parts of the brain namely amygdala, the hippocampus, the temporal lobes and also the prefrontal cortex- which collectively process our sensory input and form our memories. But there’s more than just the activation of these part of the brain.
What psychologists call as the rosy retrospection, plays an equally important role in why we feel nostalgic. It is when we remember the past more fondly than the actual truth. It is our personal bias, against our own stories of the past, that makes us believe that the past was a better present than the present of today.
What’s more is that nostalgia might even be a coping mechanism. You’re 18 and it’s the second week of college, you’ve moved out of the house and find it hard to feel content with what your life is offering right now. It’s stressful and well hard, so what do you do? You think back to when just about a year ago you were in school and it wasn’t so stressful. You’re reminiscing the days where all you had to worry about the assignment you had to submit or the next mid term happening.
But what makes it so easy to fall into this trap?
Your brain rewards you for it. Your brain activates its rewards pathway each time you experience nostalgia and you know what does consequently? It increases our sense of well- being and makes us feel more encouraged and creative. It’s the same feeling as hugging your friend that releases loads of dopamine in your body. So maybe, Nostalgia is a hug to the portrait of you painted days back.