You walk down memory lane looking through old photographs, revisiting evergreen snack shops, and even hearing about locations you visited as a child. Nostalgia floods the heart as the mind recalls memories of simpler times. When you’re mindful of daily experiences, you realize that you are surrounded by moments triggering nostalgia – similar smells, tastes, places, and memories that take you back to the ‘good old days’.

But do you ever start to miss a moment while you’re actually living it? You’re spending a calm day with your close friends and are suddenly hit with a wave of gloom wondering that one day this moment would just be a memory. You are missing a moment that hasn’t even ended yet. This bittersweet feeling is called Anticipatory Nostalgia, and was introduced in modern psychology by researchers Krystine Batcho and S. Shikh in 2016.

Anticipatory nostalgia shifts your focus from living the moment to mourning the loss of it. You allow yourself to time travel mentally from the present to a projected memory in the future. We humans are complex creatures. We have the ability to understand time, and the awareness that it cannot be controlled produces a sense of grief. The inability to freeze a moment in a frame, or slow time down, signals the brain to prepare itself for the inevitable end of the ‘good’ in the present.

The underlying feeling of melancholy continues to remain, stopping you from fully enjoying the moment at hand. Anticipatory nostalgia acts as a defence mechanism, enabling you to consciously acknowledge that the moment is about to end – thus reducing the intensity of grief or sadness once it becomes a memory.

In the modern age of technology, cameras and smartphones dominate the scene as we gravitate to documenting moments every step of the way while being reminded that we may want to digitally archive the present to look back at in the future. The human mind is a marvel; it subliminally draws the self from the present to an anticipatory ending, where instead of laughing wholeheartedly at a joke a friend beside you makes, you are mentally preparing yourself for the time you both would go your own ways.

However, anticipatory nostalgia may not be all bad. It can act as a reinforcer of gratitude – constantly reminding you of the blessings and goodness you are surrounded by. Every moment seems worth capturing when you are completely mindful – the whistling breeze, rustling leaves, warmth of the sun, smell of your favourite coffee, and good company.

The duality of this bittersweet feeling prompts you to not focus on creating a mental album of the timeline of events in the present, but to collect memories to store in the album after the present moment has passed. Being mindful starts with recognising that living the moments before they turn into memories is the whole point of existing.

Life starts to feel more wholesome when you remind yourself to pay attention to the present and savour each second. Shifting the narrative from “this moment is going to end” to “I’m grateful that I get to experience this now” makes a huge difference in the way you view your present. It keeps you grounded to your senses as they soak in varying elements and etch it in memory.

Instead of drifting away in the sadness of the impermanence of time, view your anticipatory nostalgia as a reminder to embrace the art of noticing. It quietly creeps in, especially during moments of extreme joy and happiness, which shows that you care deeply enough to preserve situations and protect memories that enrich the story of your life. – Image credit: Freepik – editor@nrifocus.com

– The writer is a counselling psychologist, specialising in mindfulness therapy and researching the quirks of life