Finding Meaning in Nostalgia

Abstract

Nostalgia—defined as sentimental longing for one's past—is a self-relevant, albeit deeply social, and an ambivalent, albeit more positive than negative, emotion. As nostalgia brings the past into present focus, it has existential implications. Nostalgia helps people find meaning in their lives, and it does so primarily by increasing social connectedness (a sense of belongingness and acceptance), and secondarily by augmenting self-continuity (a sense of connection between one's past and one's present). Also, nostalgia-elicited meaning facilitates the pursuit of one's important goals. Moreover, nostalgia acts as a buffer against existential threats. In particular, it shields against meaning threat, and buffers the impact of mortality salience on meaning, collective identity, accessibility of mortality-related thoughts, and death anxiety. Finally, nostalgia confers psychological benefits to individuals with chronic or momentary meaning deficits. These benefits are higher subjective vitality, lower stress, and regulation of meaning-seeking in response to boredom. Taken together, nostalgia helps people attain a more meaningful life, protects from existential threat, and contributes to psychological equanimity.

Hanin: Nostalgia among Syrian refugees

“…Such episodes entail personally relevant experiences which, as the subject of nostalgic reverie, may later reinforce the presence of meaning in one's life. Indeed, an array of methodologically diverse studies has revealed that nostalgia increases perceived meaning (Routledge et al., ; Routledge, Wildschut, Sedikides, Juhl, & Arndt, ; Sedikides, Cheung, et al., ; for reviews, see: Routledge, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Juhl, ; Sedikides & Wildschut, ).…”

Nostalgia motivates pursuit of important goals by increasing meaning in life

“…Ordinary life events, on the other hand (e.g., grocery shopping, paying bills, driving to work), are unlikely to be self‐defining or consequential, and thus meaningful (Van Tilburg & Igou, ). In support of these conjectures, engaging in recollection of a nostalgic (relative to an ordinary) event augments meaning (Hepper, Ritchie, Sedikides, & Wildschut, ; Leunissen, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Cohen, ; Reid, Green, Wildschut, & Sedikides, ; Routledge et al, ; Routledge, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Juhl, ; Routledge, Wildschut, Sedikides, Juhl, & Arndt, ; Van Tilburg, Igou, & Sedikides, ; for reviews, see: Routledge, Sedikides, Wildschut, & Juhl, 2013; Sedikides & Wildschut, ).…”

Nostalgia and National Identity: Idea of Revisiting the Past in Latvian Fiction

“…Central features of nostalgia included (a) fond, rose-coloured, memories of one's childhood or close relationships, (b) keepsakes or sensory cues, as well as (c) positive feelings, and, to a lesser degree, negative feelings such as longing and wanting to return to the past. Peripheral features included warmth or comfort, daydreaming, change, calm, regret, success, and lethargy (Sedikides, Wildschut 2017).…”