10. 朗读-怀旧：是变老的征兆还是有益健康？

10. Whyembracing nostalgia could be good for your future

卫报

Nostalgia. It’s the enemy of progress. Afterall, how can you move forward with your life if all you’re doing is looking back,living in the past and uttering melancholic sighs of: “Ah, those were the days”as your eyes slowly glaze over?

Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, nostalgiawas viewed as a medical disease that manifested itself through irregularheartbeats and full-on bouts of weeping among other maladies. Today, while weassociate nostalgia with warm, fuzzy feelings related to our childhoods, orother times in our past that were especially happy, it still carries negativeconnotations in our live-in-the-moment culture. But, we may be looking at thisall wrong.

“People in a nostalgic mood are more optimisticabout their future, and are more inspired to pursue their most importantgoals,” says Wildschut, professor of social and personality psychology. “Ratherthan freezing them in place, nostalgia is very motivational – the past providesa template for what you’d like your future to look like. Maybe you went fishingwith your dad, or cycling with your mum. You may develop the goal of having afamily yourself and doing those things with your own children.”

There are many things that can triggernostalgia. But perhaps one of the most potent is music. “Music is a very strongtrigger of nostalgia,” says Wildschut. The songs we listen to can be markers ofsignificant events in our lives.

When heard old songs, the sense of happinessbrought by the local community nearly 10 years ago rushes right back. Thenostalgia doesn’t make me feel anxious, or sad. Instead, I feel encouraged toseek out that local community – whether it’s based on music or not – with morevigour, and more verve, because I want that feeling again.