What is nostalgia and homesickness, how it affects you?

Nostalgic is someone who has a longing for the past or who looks back and remembers the past, which has a certain amount of importance in the life.

When you’re nostalgic about something, there’s a little bit of a sense of loss that happened. Nostalgic memories typically involve precious personal moments, such as those spent with loved ones. Those memories, in turn, inspire positive feelings of joy, high self-regard, belonging, and meaningfulness in life.

The pandemic has made many of us nostalgic for the past. Mental health experts say it gives us strength for good or bad in the human mind. We are now made our mind to cope up with that nostalgic moment which is good but we are missing a lot of our life moment which is giving us a bad nostalgic moment.

According to Alan R. Hirsh in “Nostalgia: a Neuropsychiatric Understanding.” Rather than seeing the past for what it truly was, we recall it as a conglomeration of various memories, filtering negative ones out to integrate the positive ones which creates nostalgia.

Sometimes nostalgia may be beneficial. Some memories help us to shape our identity. For example after schooling some times we have to leave our parents and go to some other country to have better studies. Here we feel nostalgia, but we have to remain with it to shape our future. This may be why nostalgia is most dominant among young people. Recalling a love for the past helps promote hope for the future, and reassures us that life is meaningful.

Then usually your thought takes you to know about the difference between nostalgia and homesickness. They are entirely different.

What's the difference between homesickness and nostalgia. Homesickness is when you are living far away from your home country. For example, after staying in Italy for 1 or 2 years, I got homesick and wanted to go back to India. 

Nostalgia is the feeling you get when something reminds you of something of the past. Nostalgia is usually positive, homesickness is a little bit painful. In this pandemic lot of people of in a state of homesickness. Nostalgia passes very quickly but homesickness stays with you for a long time as you are forced to stay away due to a job that you can’t leave which sometimes leads to depression. Missing home is very terrible.

How to get out of Nostalgia?

Nostalgia is emotions of sadness, anger, joy, frustration, compassion, excitement and nostalgia are necessary and healthy. We just have to be careful not to go deep into any one of these emotions. With feelings of nostalgia, just like those of any other emotion, we have to be careful how we let them affect us, while there is beauty in feeling deeply, there is also a danger. Almost 90% of the world population is now in nostalgia due to this pandemic. So be relax. Read some books, listen to music, go for a long drive, look at some old photos, talk to your old friends.

How to get out of Homesickness?

Homesickness is a natural part of moving to a new country. The first step in overcoming homesickness is to admit what you are feeling. Accept that the feeling is normal for all human beings. Write down what you feel when you left the home country. Try to connect with other families who have also left the home country and living like you and share the feelings.

Join the community. Being a member of your local community will help make your new country feel more like home. Celebrate share your culture. Organize a dinner where you cook your favorite meals and share with others.

Explore your new hometown by making small picnics that will help you feel a little more settled. Communicate with friends and family in your home town once a week. Catch up on everything that’s happening at home and keep them updated on your life in the new place.

It’s completely normal to feel homesick but don’t depress with the situation. Make sure you reach out for professional help if you need it.