On an emotional level, nostalgia can lead to higher levels of optimism, inspiration, self-esteem, and a sense of purpose. It also has the added bonus of helping relieve stress in otherwise overwhelming situations.
In terms of behavior, nostalgia can be a good motivator, in both actually inspiring you to do something and pushing you to act upon that inspiration. The feeling often motivates folks to do something that is directly connected to what they’re nostalgic about. For example, being nostalgic about how healthy a person was in the past might just lead to increased physical activity.
#22 Unless You Were There In 1982, You Can't Even Imagine How Cool This Setup Was
Nostalgia also includes an element of social cognition—it can push someone to resolve interpersonal issues, reconnect with old friends, prioritize relationships, what have you.
In general, nostalgia is capable of empowering socially-oriented feelings that are key to us as social beings.
Lastly, nostalgia fosters creativity. One study shows that the influence of nostalgic feelings while writing has actually allowed the writers to come up with more creative prose. Nostalgia allows people to approach experience more openly and increase their levels of creativity.
We asked Ian what would be the one thing he'd bring back from the past if he could. He went with mischievous fun. "Everyone is too sensitive today and you can easily get into trouble."
We'd also like to extend this question to you, dear Pandas: what would you bring back from whatever decade you feel nostalgic about? Share your answers in the comment section below!
And don’t forget that there’s more where that came from, and by that, we mean that Bored Panda has another article about it, and if you haven’t gone through your post view limit on X, go nuts with the I Love Nostalgia X page.
