I'm writing this from the kitchen table of my childhood home, where I've been comfortably settled in for a little over a week. My bedroom is pretty much the same as when I moved out in August of 2011, my sister and I still have our assigned seats at the table, and driving anywhere in the city is guaranteed to invoke a "Remember when..." train of thought in my brain.
In short, I'm feeling a lot of nostalgia, which is a weird thing to reckon with when you otherwise believe yourself to be a tough, 31-year-old modern woman. I almost feel like I'm a little bit weaker for allowing myself to miss parts of my life from before I was totally independent.
So, it was interesting to read this Psychology Today article about the power of nostalgia. One thing that immediately stuck out to me: We're more likely to experience nostalgia when we're feeling lonely specifically. So, the Covid-19 pandemic has made us especially vulnerable to feeling nostalgic, as we're more isolated than ever before and relying heavily on past memories to make us feel happier.
But this next paragraph blew my mind:
"The same researchers also discovered that the direct mechanism through which nostalgia works to improve mood and generate positive affect is, in fact, through bolstering social bonds and increasing positive self-regard. To sum up, our lonely selves reminisce about our connected selves. And, what is more, it is through those longed-for connections that we feel better about ourselves. During times of stress and forced social withdrawal, then, it makes sense that nostalgia may also help combat feelings of helplessness and decreased self-efficacy."
I'll be reflecting on that as I make plans to hang out with my college friends while I'm in town. Have you been feeling nostalgic lately too? Let us know—we check these replies, you know.
Talk soon,
Kristen Geil
Chief Content Officer, aSweatLife
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From Harper's Bazaar: The Virus, the Vaccine, and the Dark Side of Wellness
We're all aware of the kind of misinformation that's often found on your uncle's Facebook page, but what about when it comes from a wellness influencer you previously trusted? That's the cognitive dissonance explored in this fascinating article.
Side note: One of our requirements for any aSweatLife article is that it includes reputable sources of information—ideally, at least three, and we prefer peer-reviewed, scholarly articles when possible. Hold your influencers to the same standards we hold our writers, k?
A random rec from our team: Listening to an album, front to back.
Who even knows how this came up, but yesterday our team started chatting about the pleasures of listening to albums front to back—like you would in the olden days, without customized playlists or shuffle. Jeana's rocking to No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom from 1995, Marie's working her way through old Kanye albums, and I'm bopping to Taylor Swift's Lover with the windows down.
And in that spirit (plus the nostalgia we talked about earlier), we made a Songs of Summer playlist to get us revved up for more 80* weather—start playing it here.
Spring cleaning: hot or not?
Personally, I find that I'm more likely to spring clean when it's broken up into manageable tasks (I'm following along with @gocleanco for that reason, and just completed the disgusting but necessary task of cleaning the washing machine's detergent dispenser. Please, hold the applause).
Regardless of which camp you fall into, check out these articles for some spring cleaning inspiration:
I came across Louiza Doran (a.k.a. "Weeze") this week when I went down a quick rabbit hole around Rachel Hollis's recent controversial video. Weeze is a decolonization and anti-racist educator who also hosts her own podcast, According to Weeze, where she covers everything from what it's like to seek asylum to equity in the publishing industry.
