Autumn Nostalgia—When Even Happy Memories Can Make Me Sad

“Some days in late August are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar.”―William Faulkner

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” — George Eliot

“There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.”―Joe L. Wheeler

Autumn is a particularly nostalgic season, for me, the mists in the morning, the wood smoke and the fog, and the yellowing of the leaves remind me of my impermanence and make me wonder why I sometimes spend my time worrying about the future, instead of enjoying every moment and living in the present.

Perhaps these powerful nostalgic feelings are due to my recent interest in my ancestry, making me long for the people who preceded me,—or it could just be that I’m getting older. It’s not an unpleasant feeling, so I’m not complaining. But I’m bowled over by the strength of these feelings—bittersweet memories, laced with a sense of loss flood over me, yet at the same time, since they are mostly happy memories, there are also feelings of pleasure.

What triggers feelings of nostalgia?

I can’t help but wonder what triggers them. Research suggests that nostalgia is frequently brought on by negative feelings or loneliness—but I don’t think that’s the case with me, at this happiest and most satisfying stage in my life.

It also suggests that nostalgia can be triggered by our senses and emotions, a waft of cologne can remind us of our mothers, a riff of music can take us back to college days, a full moon can bring back memories of childhood camping trips, looking at old photo albums can evoke a sweeter, simpler time. Sometimes, though, it’s just a response to change, and a desire to have things stay the same.

Memory is defined as “the mental capacity of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions” —and nostalgia as part of this, is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past”. More importantly, memory and nostalgia are what makes us uniquely human.

What happens in your brain when you are feeling nostalgic?

Scientists have attempted to frame this activity into words. Subhadeep Dutta Gupta, a research scholar in Neurobiology  (Nimhans, Bengaluru) says this:

“To stockpile information into our brain, we rely on a critical structure called the hippocampus. Without it, we would be blank slates with no past. This C-shaped region of the brain is highly connected to the emotional region of the brain, the amygdala.

During an experience these two structures work together and combine information from the different senses. Consequently, an experience becomes intertwined with feelings.”

Nostalgic memories are not static. Rather, they are imbued with emotions and meaningfulness. Studies involving use of MRI technology while playing nostalgic music, for instance, shows the brain hopping around to 9 different regions during this process.

There are many sensory prompts at play when we experience nostalgia. Here are two you may know:

• flashbulb memories: memories formed during moments of heightened emotional arousal, as may happen during an extreme personal crisis.
• olfactory nostalgia: memories evoked after a smell enters the nose and travels through the cranial nerve through the olfactory bulb, part of the limbic system, and the emotional center of the brain.

Is nostalgia self-indulgent, and can we have too much of it?

Nostalgic emotions can be very strong. If we feel nostalgic for long periods of time, it can be a sign that things are not quite right in our lives. Excessive dwelling on the past can affect our mental health, resulting in an inability to concentrate and perform. It can lead to depression and even affect our physical well-being.

So it shouldn’t be surprising if it sometimes feels like a disease. Historically, nostalgia has always been associated with loss that causes great discomfort. In fact, the word comes from Greek, “nostos” that means return and “algos” that means pain. The term, nostalgia, was first proposed by Johannes Hofer in a 1688 medical journal. He considered it a psychological illness (exclusively Swiss), and proposed a range of horrible treatments, including leeching and purging the stomach, and even applying public shaming.

So that’s the downside. But there is an upside—thankfully, attitudes have changed, so much so that nostalgia currently is looked upon as beneficial. Here’s why:

Humans are inclined to keep good memories, and discard negative ones. This memory bias protects us, even though it sometimes makes us forget mistakes that, in the interests of improving our lives, we should remember. Nevertheless, it helps us to be happier most of the time.

Recalling good times can make us happy even if those experiences are long gone. It is wonderful to reflect on how fortunate we have been, to be grateful and to feel love for the people we have known.

Accepting that we feel nostalgic is important—banishing it and stuffing those memories down is unhealthy. But we should also be aware when it becomes excessive, and threatens to take over our mental health. We should recognize when we need to change direction, and make a conscious effort to live more in the present.

So much has been said and written about nostalgia—I can’t resist ending with these quotes from the past:

“One is always at home in one’s past…”
―Vladimir Nabokov,

“I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday.”
―Kris Kristofferson

“But in that moment I understood what they say about nostalgia, that no matter if you’re thinking of something good or bad, it always leaves you a little emptier afterward.”—John Corey Whaley