Do you remember a time when you were care-free?
You didn’t have to worry about making enough money to survive, there was no tension with the opposite sex and no pressure to become something that you can be proud of. Everything was easy and it just flowed. You took life as it came.
These moments in your life are now precious memories of easier times, but dwelling on them can keep you stuck in the past.
In this article, we’ll look at how exactly nostalgia attracts negativity in your life.
What is nostalgia?
Simply put, nostalgia is when your mind remains in the past.
Your memories are not just images of the past, these images are associated with emotions, sensations, scents and all the other senses. They affect every layer of your existence, from your physical body to your breath, your mind and even down to your very identity.
Generally, the exceptional moments, rather than the mundane, remain with you such as strong emotions, unusual scents, or fantastic sights.
Your brain is constantly comparing your experiences with past experiences. This is why you never feel like you’re in the present moment. Your brain is busy in the past or fretting about the future.
Managing the mind and emotions is a whole other can of worms. Luckily, yoga, meditation, breathing techniques and other methods have been developed specifically for this purpose.
In this article, we’re going to look at a specific modulation of the mind: memory. More specifically: nostalgia.
Why do you feel nostalgia?
In a nutshell: you feel nostalgia either because you haven’t recognized or haven’t accepted the changing nature of reality.
There is a false perception that the world, your body and your surroundings are permanent.
This leads you to latch onto things that happened in the past in either a positive or negative light. You either crave or are averse to these situations.
Let’s look at an example.
When you’re going through emotional hardship, perhaps a break-up, you’ll think back to that one person or that one instance in time when you were truly happy with someone. You’ll then go on regretting letting that relationship or that moment end.
In this situation, even happiness has begun to bring you suffering.
Practically speaking, none of these moments can be recreated. Of course you can try, but it’ll never be the same as the first time.
Each moment is fresh and new.
Take this to be a bittersweet blessing.
If you were able to relive the same pleasure over and over again, would you ever want to move on in life?
No.
On a side note, this is how obsession begins: obsession for sex, drugs, and other experiences stem from the craving for a momentary pleasure that that experience brought you. The desire to relive that pleasure leads you to do the same thing over and over again.
Life is a flowing river.
You can never step in the same river twice because the water is always moving.
Like that, when you allow your mind to stay in the past, you’re unable to live and fully be in the moment. You may let other joyful situations and compatible people slip away because you are not sufficiently aware of what’s happening around you at this very moment.
Let’s look at another example.
In the case of extreme trauma, your body and mind are unable to relax because they are constantly replaying that trauma. You are stuck in fight or flight mode and it’s affecting your health.
You view every new moment or situation that comes up through a veil of fear, distrust and paranoia.
The impression of the fear is deeply printed on your consciousness and unless you are able to unpack and work through your past, it will continue to torment you and hold you back.
Your nostalgia attracts similar situations to you
Remaining stuck in the past will keep you in the same state of mind that you were in at the time of the event that you are recalling. When you do this, you are actively attracting the same situations to you over and over again.
This is essentially how the Law of Attraction works.
When you’re uplifted, present and happy, you attract positive vibrations and energy into your life. When you keep reliving the past whether consciously or unconsciously, you’ll be attracting that energy to you.
What if you’re reliving past happiness?
As we’ve seen above, even moments of happiness in the past have the potential to bring you suffering.
The key takeaway is that living in the past prevents you from living in the present. You’re allowing your life to just pass you by. And this leads you to feeling lost and stuck.
How to Let Go of Nostalgia and the Past
Letting go of nostalgia can be as simple as reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.
That reason may not be very clear right now, but the answers will come to you when the time is right. In the meantime, find a creative outlet like journaling to process your emotions and work through your emotional blockages.
Everything that you’ve achieved or failed to achieve happened to bring you to where you are today: ready to receive knowledge and to heal your past.
Trust in divine timing.
Trust that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be at this very moment.
All of your past was leading up to this moment.
Learn how to live in it and start to enjoy life again.
