Is anyone else a very nostalgic person?

[Beyond the Sky]

I was thinking about how as a kid, my mom would put on cartoons and I'd sit there and watch them all day. I've been googling some of the shows I watched and they stopped airing years ago. My family has changed a lot too, I haven't spoken to my non JW brother and father in years since they left. 

 

Its feels like a different world that you'll never get back. But I don't think those cartoons could hold my attention span for that long anymore. Its just nice to think about more innocent times.

 

All the changes we go through as people, the things that we experience. I wonder if when a person is dying and their brain is shutting off in old age, do memories of every stage of life just start flooding in one last time? Like of when you were a kid and all the love your mother showed you.

[Cushi]

12 minutes ago, Beyond the Sky said:

All the changes we go through as people, the things that we experience. I wonder if when a person is dying and their brain is shutting off in old age, do memories of every stage of life just start flooding in one last time? Like of when you were a kid and all the love your mother showed you.

Wow, that’s the saddest thing I’ve read on here. I hope I never experience that…

[Stee]

I’m a very nostalgic person..I’m only in my 30’s and I’ve suffered a lot of loss..death and majority of my family left the truth. So I tend to think of things, watch films etc..trying to look back at “better times”.

 

There was a really great WT that helped me focus more on the future. ❤️

 

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=2020646&srcid=share

 

 

[EccentricM]

I tend to be quite nostalgic, yes.

 

I sometimes experience something that is almost "other worldly" when listening to music or watching something from childhood, which is combined with a feeling of warmth, happiness and goosebumps.

Edited February 9, 2022 by EccentricM

[Hope]

I'm sentimental about some things but I can't really say "nostalgic". I have little desire to go back to any given era of my life, tbh. There were periods that were nicer than now and I miss my son as a cuddly toddler. But going back? Nah.

 

I was as aware then as I am now about life around me. It wasn't great. Even as a child 😔

[N1ckman21]

8 hours ago, Stee said:

 

There was a really great WT that helped me focus more on the future. ❤️

 

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=2020646&srcid=share

 

 

Excellent article, thank you for sharing. I've also been pretty nostalgic about some things, but this very article helped me reframe my perspective. There's a lot I can still do and enjoy now and in the future, so I try to focus on that more.

[Ishaya]

Nostalgia can make someone loose joy, I want to just keep my mind on the present and future.

[New World Explorer]

In my life I slowly adjusted “nostalgic” view of the past. 
Nowadays I focus on the future, trying hard to get to the best period of my existence in Paradise.

I am “nostalgic” for the future. 

[Stee]

5 hours ago, N1ckman21 said:

Excellent article, thank you for sharing. I've also been pretty nostalgic about some things, but this very article helped me reframe my perspective. There's a lot I can still do and enjoy now and in the future, so I try to focus on that more.

You’re very welcome. It did the same for me. ..Now (although I struggle) I try focus and meditate on all the beautiful things we have to look forward to in the very near future. They will be the BEST times of our lives. 

 

 

[Beyond the Sky]

11 hours ago, Hope said:

I'm sentimental about some things but I can't really say "nostalgic". I have little desire to go back to any given era of my life, tbh. There were periods that were nicer than now and I miss my son as a cuddly toddler. But going back? Nah.

 

I was as aware then as I am now about life around me. It wasn't great. Even as a child 😔

Yes I don't desire to go back either. But is their anything for you like a certain movie, food or music that hits you in the feels and takes you back? Like when I go to youtube and pull up the soundtrack of a video game I played as a kid, it feels like a time machine. This music makes me remember being a kid and playing the game.

[Hinata]

38 minutes ago, Beyond the Sky said:

Yes I don't desire to go back either. But is their anything for you like a certain movie, food or music that hits you in the feels and takes you back? Like when I go to youtube and pull up the soundtrack of a video game I played as a kid, it feels like a time machine. This music makes me remember being a kid and playing the game.

 

Sometimes I play Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 (which was released in 2011) to get the nostalgia. The modern version of that game is just a pure mess.

 

There also are music and theme songs from television animated series I liked as a kid which I still like to this day.

 

[EccentricM]

Very interesting how some people connect nostalgia with negative feelings, I've never felt that way about it.

 

For me nostalgia is not a yearning for the past or a desire to go back, but an "experience" of the past with positive feelings. That for me is my personal definition of nostalgia.

Edited February 10, 2022 by EccentricM

[A fellow servant]

When I hear a song(s) that take me back to my younger years  I quickly relate what age or grade I was in at the time and where we were living. ( We moved around a lot!)

Even if I see a clip or movie of an old western, Red Skelton , Carol Burnett, etc.   It gets me to thinking of how sometimes life seem to be more simplified.   Not always easier, but more simplified.    I agree with Matthew of experiencing the past with positive feelings of nostalgia, accept for a very few rough bumps that everyone has in life.     I believe that everyone has a song, a movie , a book, or something in their life that takes them back to 'a moment in time'.    Hopefully more are able to enjoy a positive reaction than a negative one.

[Amygdala]

Particularly for anyone whose moved away from their home countries, no doubt feelings of nostalgia come up. I think it all depends, but harmless things like childhood or school memories, certain foods, expressions, a picture, a game, street where you spent alot of time on, bestfriends, awards, or a gift, etc. can engender warm feelings, for sure. That is what makes up apart of who we are. But that is what is exciting about more forward-looking, is that we are still building up our future. Some can also dwell about certain past events in life, and then the risk is to feel stuck in the past, or longing to go back to the past, which might or might not be a true reflection of how life was really back then.

 

Nostalgia is great as fond reflection, but that's I think where it should stop, just as nice memories of the past (if that's the meaning of positive nostalgia). Best to make good memories for the future.

[RachelV2.0]

Oh yes, i am quite aa nostalgic person, always have been.

I had to be taught to throw stuff away and let go, especially because room is taken up.

I am often listening and reading books and stuff from my childhood.

[coony77]

On 2/10/2022 at 2:19 PM, EccentricM said:

Very interesting how some people connect nostalgia with negative feelings, I've never felt that way about it.

 

For me nostalgia is not a yearning for the past or a desire to go back, but an "experience" of the past with positive feelings. That for me is my personal definition of nostalgia.

This is how it should be in the ideal case, Matthew, and it´s good that you have the right attitude here. But normally, the majority of us (definitely including me!) tends to remember only good things from our past and to minimize the hardships we used to face. That´s why I have to regularly remind myself of

 

Quote

Proverbs 7:10

Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” for it is not out of wisdom that you ask this.

I wish I could control it like you do. But I catch myself very often in yearning for the past and wanting to go back to the time "when my life was still okay". This is not only dangerous (that´s why the Bible warns us) but also senseless because we can´t turn back time anyway. So everytime I get TOO nostalgic, I think of Prv. 7:10 and also

Quote

 

Isaiah 43:18

Do not remember the former things, And do not dwell on the past

 

 

[SoCal4me2]

I’ve never wanted to “go back”, but I have always had a soft spot for certain memories. But none that I’ve ever wanted to relive, not even those “if only…” memories. Happy childhood. Raising was what I call benign neglect. At 6 I led a group of neighborhood kids on a trek of about mile from the house, thru canyons and empty Hobo camps to and following some railroad tracks. Almost drowned on the way back home, but made it. Laying in bed with door just cracked a little and being soothed by the music as the folks watched Perry Mason. Ya, those were the days…maybe being an only child helped, and even with the occasional spanking I knew my parents loved me.