This article looks at how nostalgia can protect you from physical pain
What’s the deal?
Revisiting happy memories and feeling nostalgic can quickly give you an emotional boost, but can it also provide protection from physical pain?
What did they do?
81 volunteers signed up to have their pain tolerance tested twice. Pain was induced using a mechanical device to slowly apply increasing pressure to the hand, until volunteers could not take the pain anymore. Before the second pain test, volunteers were asked to think and write about either a nostalgic happy event, or a regular neutral event from their past.
What happened?
Pain tolerance in test 2 was improved in the nostalgic group compared to test 1. In contrast, pain tolerance was the same for both tests in the regular neutral event group.
What can you tell me about the people?
This test was conducted in Japan. They were undergraduate students from Kyoto University and 41 out of 81 were female.
What else should I know?
A number of studies have shown that feelings of nostalgia, as well as practicing mindfulness and meditation, can reduce the sensation of pain (including chronic pain, cold-induced pain and mechanical (crushing) pain. These studies all suggest that our state of mind can influence physical feelings. Perhaps we can harness this knowledge to reduce pain during that final mile in the race?
What will I do differently?
Mental strength and especially a positive mental attitude have always been very important to me. These types of studies show what I’ve known all along: you can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond. Think happy thoughts people!
Acknowledgements
This research was published in October 2020 by M Kersten and colleagues from the University of Idaho, USA and Kyoto University, Japan.
This article highlights our personal take on their research, but there is so much more information available! Check it out here and see what you think!
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