Top 3 Reasons You Should Indulge in Nostalgia from Your Youth

1) IT JUST FEELS SO DAMN GOOD

It makes you feel younger and releases endorphin's and dopamine that you can’t get from your cell phone or social media. These chemicals as we know help reduce inflammation, reduce stress, and “lube” your neurotransmitters. The reality is these “natural highs” are created from your own tissue and cells from your frontal lobes of the brain.

It could be a book or a movie or a group of songs, an old friend’s voice, a favorite teacher, or a special place with fond memories.  You should celebrate your own nostalgia and past not just micro moments packaged by Hollywood and one-off sitcom episodes.

However, if there is a true love-letter to a decade that is not only sincere but accurately nuanced, then it is Stranger Things created by The Duffer Brothers. (I will devote an entire blog post about Stranger Things and its genius)

For me, that is why I made the replica of the Sharp QT-50 pastel pink boombox because it is an embodiment of so many fond memories from my childhood like breakdancing and filming it with friends on my dad’s VHS camcorder.  Music and movies were at the forefront of connecting to a larger outside world of the innocent mid-western town of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(What pin would it be for you?? Leave a comment and maybe I’ll make it!)

2)  “Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.” – James Baldwin

Taking a moment or personal time to reflect on the happy times from your youth reinforces all the positive DNA that shaped and influenced you which you can definitely lose or become disconnected from due to the demands of people, good and bad, in your life.  Are you getting what you need or just seeking what you want? Looking back to the beginning will give you some clarity and if nothing else ground you in what your priorities and goals are right now.

By celebrating the things that made you so happy growing up, guess what incredibly valuable and often evasive feeling will display itself? Gratitude.  I myself struggle daily with connecting to this incredible thing called Gratitude.  We all do in varying degrees. But it is gratitude from which healing, learning, and growing will ultimately help you become a better person on this simply magical planet with the very short time we are blessed to have on it.

We all have reflected on being ‘grateful’ but it is almost always a deliberate or forced thought.  It is for me at least.  It is truly rare when you experience gratitude as an organic chemical released from your head or heart and vibrating through your entire being.  A lot has changed if you grew up before 1990.  The ‘analog experience’ should remind you of how lucky you were that you grew up ‘unplugged’; and unfettered by the albeit ‘digital insecurities’ that now permeate through our eyes today.  FOMO.

Reenact the things you did from your youth; chances are that if you have children then you already are because you will get double or triple the high from it – not to mention that thing GRATITUDE that you can say you connect or can create on your own whenever you want; not because your yoga instructor told you to at the end of your namaste filled sesh and forced it, but because it just happened organically on its own from doing or thinking about what made you so fucking happy ‘back then’.  Celebrate your roots and where you came from and you’ll feel gratitude.  

3)  NEW BEGINNINGS SHALL FORTH COME

If you have actually read this far, I heart you lol.  If you go about indulging in #1) and #2) above, then I can guarantee you that something new will come out of you. I’m not saying the first time but by allowing yourself to make it part of your weekly behavior or routine – things will shift.

Maybe it’s a feeling. Maybe it makes you pick up the phone to call an old friend you’ve lost touch with. Maybe it’s time to mend that fence with someone because you had so many great times together and you are ready to be the bigger person. Maybe you want to learn something new all of sudden! Maybe it’s a new attitude about something. Maybe it’s an idea for a business.  For me, it was creating these little memories that I could wear on my denim jean jacket and lapel when I go out because it makes me happy. Why not wear my memories and share with the world! Isn’t that what pins really are at the end of the day – things that you love and want to express.  

Gratitude and love are the ingredients that your body and soul need to give forth to new ideas, positivity, and, ultimately, the new beginnings that we all crave because it makes us feel alive and young.  Stop thinking – indulge in the fantastic.

Damian aka Ferris