Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past and often is recalled falsely and with bias. (1) This can lead to issues moving forward because a person can be stuck on the false reality of the past and try to reach a similarly unattainable reality in the future. (2) This issue is worth investigating because it can lead to many wrapped perceptions of attaining a healthier lifestyle. A way the false glory of the past is seen today is with people engaged with unhealthy behavior. Often using nostalgia to reflect on the past can push people to want to relapse and go back to the bad behavior that made them feel happy although it was in reality harming them. (2) Focusing on this issue and finding ways to combat this style of thinking by embracing mindfulness can overall improve the well being of many peoples lives. (3)

source 1

Evidence: “asking participants to reflect on their most nostalgic experience at one time requires participants to rely on extensive recall, which are often are fraught with biases and heuristics” Newman, 2020)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it supports the idea that people often look back on nostalgic experiences and have an incorrect view on what actually happened. This shows how people are biased and only perceive what they want to remember about the situation.

source 12

Evidence: “One common heuristic that the human brain uses is cognitive stereotyping. This is the process of assigning things to categories and then using those categories to fill in missing information about the thing in question, often unconsciously." (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it discusses how stereotyping is a part of cognitive bias and can often lead to overlooking the reality of a situation because the mind is only viewing the situation from a biased perception unconsciously. 

When someone remembers an experience or event with bias and false interpenetration, it can lead to someone trying to achieve an attainable and unrealistic future.

People often struggle to face their current reality and look to finding comfort in the past, however by focusing on being more mindful, they can focus on their present instead of the false reality of the past.

2. Ultimately, reliance on one's past is damaging because memory and by extension nostalgia is often fleeting and false. Furthermore, nostalgia can prevent an individual from moving forward in that it can fabricate a harmful sense of complacency. Therefore, it is by positively embracing one's present mindfulness that leads individuals towards forming a better connection with reality.

3.  Overall, the present is where energy should be diverted as it is changeable, not the past which is static.

source 2

Evidence: “When I think about smoking it brings back happy times with my friends and a sense of freedom. I miss my life when I was a smoker ” (Michael J. A. Wohl1 et. all)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it explained how a participant experienced nostalgia that included positive situations however unhealthy behaviors. These participants would remember the good times even though in reality their actions weren't as good as remembered and even harmful to them. 

(source 4)

Evidence: “nostalgia evolves into a useful coping mechanism for managing life’s pressures,” (University Of Florida)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because this supports the article's claim on how nostalgia is used in someone's daily life in order to bring a sense of comfort to someone's reality. (University Of Florida, 2022)

source 13

Evidence: “as people get older, nostalgia makes them feel youthful and more optimistic about their health” (FioRito,2020)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it reinforces the main theme of the paper as nostalgia is shown to be future oriented. This quote highlights the idea that while nostalgia may make one focus on things that are no longer around such as being young or healthy, the thought of things that are good by themselves is enough for people to feel good about their future.

source 4

Evidence: “When we become too attached to certain memories, it can be hard to embrace the present, leaving us stagnant in certain areas of our lives.” (University Of Florida)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it describes how when people experience nostalgia, they are so focused on what happened in their past that it is hard for them to fully live in the present. 

source 2

Evidence: “it may behove treatment providers to help their client contrast their current unhealthy behavior with a healthier, positive past. ” (Michael J. A. Wohl1 et. all)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it shows how even though nostalgia has some benefits when using it for treatment in patients who are trying to correct their past bad behavior, it can push the clients to want to relapse and go back to the bad behavior that made them feel happy. 

source 9

Evidence: “On an almost 4,000-year-old clay tablet, Kramer found the story of

Enmerkar and the land of Aratta, an expression of the idea that there was once a golden

age of peace and security, and that we had since fallen from this blessed state:” (Norberg, J. 2022)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because this shows how many people, even from thousands of years ago, think life was better and more comfortable in the past. This gives a historical and cultural lens to my research.

source 11

Evidence: “I realized that my grandmother must have known people who had been enslaved, and that those people knew what it meant to be owned by another human being, and later found a way to believe in God, in music, in laughter.”

(Ghansah, R. K.)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it showed how when people face hardships and struggles find a way to believe in something that creates a sense of belonging and happiness that can be nostalgic for future generations. 

Evidence: “A willingness to do what is needed is movement toward accepting their current reality.” (Crisis and Trauma Institute, 2025)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it shows how being willing to do something is a necessary requirement for growth as either you do something or you do not and the effects of this will manifest accordingly. 

source 8

Evidence: “People start to learn how to be more mindful, it’s common and normal to realize how much your mind races and focuses on the past and future.” ( Harrison Wein, 2012)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it highlights how when people become more mindful, they can be aware of how often they focus on the past and future rather than the moment they are in.

source 10

Evidence: “the body-based mindfulness program may help individuals to integrate bodily expressions, thoughts, and emotions, keeping an integrated sense of self” (Quinto et. al 2025)

Connection to Claim: This quote is significant because it shows specifically that the program can benefit an individual's everyday lifestyle in the sense that their identity remains cohesive and mentally. This plays with the idea of nostalgia and how the body-based mindfulness program may prevent some of its harms.