{"id":121194,"date":"2020-12-10T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/?p=121194"},"modified":"2023-03-06T10:19:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T10:19:37","slug":"nostalgia-good-or-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/nostalgia-good-or-bad.htm","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia – is Missing the Past Good or Bad for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"nostalgia

photo by Andrea Rico<\/p><\/div>\n

by Andrea M. Darcy<\/span><\/p>\n

Often think about your past? Or wish you could<\/strong> go back in time and have the life you had?\u00a0Nostalgia has direct implications on our mental health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is nostalgia?<\/h2>\n
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Nostalgia is a longing for our past, albeit a possibly romanticised version.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We can be sentimental for<\/strong> people, experiences, places, and things<\/a>, or even for a version of ourselves we once were.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia is different from<\/strong> homesickness, where we want to be in another existing space than the one we are in.<\/p>\n

And it’s not the same as fantasy<\/strong>, where we seek to substitute reality.\u00a0 With nostalgia, we<\/span> know we are in the here and now<\/a>. We are just indulging in a trip down memory lane, while wearing our ‘rose coloured glasses’.<\/p>\n

When being nostalgic is a positive<\/h2>\n

In\u00a0the last century, researchers focussed on nostalgia<\/a> as something negative. It was seen as an inability to accept the past or what we\u2019ve lost, and something that stopped us from being in the present<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But a flurry of more recent research now claims nostalgia as a mental health positive.\u00a0<\/strong>The newer perspective<\/a> on nostalgia is that it can help us feel:<\/p>\n