The Big 150: 11, Self - What is the dominant emotion in your life right now?
The Big 150: 11, Self - “What is the dominant emotion in your life right now? How can you use this emotion to improve your life?”
Maybe it’s the time of year, but I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. Perhaps you could tell from how many of my posts have included stuff about living in Ireland or places I call home or friendships… the list goes on.
This time of year can bring up a lot of various feelings for people, myself included. The sun setting earlier, traveling home, the anticipation of time with friends and family - these things usually cause me to take time to pause and reflect about everything that’s occurred in the past year. Is it just me or does it feel like the years have been flying by? I know a lot of it probably comes as a byproduct of two years of a pandemic, but things that happened even 3-4 years ago don’t feel like they could’ve possibly taken place that long ago.
But back to feeling nostalgic. I think it’s nearly impossible for many people to not feel nostalgic this time of year. We’re heading into a time of year that is full of traditions handed down to us from past generations. My family has Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and post-Christmas traditions that we recreate every year, and we’ve been doing them for as long as I can remember - many of which were handed down from grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. It’s a way to bring the past into the present.
I think feeling nostalgic can improve my life in some ways as long as the nostalgia doesn’t become too ‘yearning for the good old days.’ Nostalgia and reflection are great for remembering wonderful times with friends or family and can encourage the want or need to keep those relationships going. I literally wrote about my best friend in my blog the other day, and the nostalgia of our childhood friendship can help cultivate a deeper appreciation for our friendship as it exists today because we’ve gone through so many life stages and its ups and downs together.
As long as nostalgia doesn’t become an excuse to constantly compare things at present to how things were and try to label the past as better, I think it’s a nice emotion for reflection and reenforcement of what matters. I love the feeling of ‘oh, this is a thing we’ve done forever and look how far we’ve come.’
To nostalgic feelings in the month of December and taking the time to reflect and remember,
Johny
ICYMI: The Big 150