#59 REFLECT | Agrita Dandriyal on deep nostalgia medicine and reimagining modern human identities
“Nostalgia is more than just a deep longing for a past, it’s therapy, it’s an awakening, it’s guidance from our ancestors on what a human being can look and feel like [in the present day], and what the limits of the human body and mind are, as well as the limits of our planet, but most importantly it’s a lens for a reimagined future.”
In what ways can deep nostalgia help us reimagine the modern human being to being more integrated in the systems of inter-relatedness of both the Earth, as a whole, and the individual human body? How can past lived, and shared, experiences offer us deeper insights into where ruptures lie in our collective sense of belonging as a human species and how we identify (in our dominant culture) as separate from the more-than-human world?
In this REFLECT episode, Agrita Dandriyal brings to us the lens of nostalgia for reimagining the modern human being in ways that are reminiscent of ancient ways of being, but also serve the needs of our current time as we shift the foundations of power-over systems to one of inter-connectedness, love and stewardship. Agrita is guided by her own spiritual/Hindu standpoint and ancestral wisdom as she explores the medicine of nostalgia for inner child/trauma work and healing fractured human identities as a result of living within systems of creative suppression and restrictive living.
What will be covered:
Historical conceptualisations of nostalgic longing and cultural shift in understanding of human ability/capacity to reimagine realities - and how remnants of our distaste towards the phenomena still persist implicitly
Peaking of nostalgia as a result of pandemic, dividing of pre-pandemic and pandemic realities, and embracing of pasts which we didn’t have the capacity to embrace before
The two streams of nostalgia: personal and historical
Living through the millennium change as part of Generation Z and entering the technology dominion with the lingering taste of a more socially-connected reality
How currently technology’s minimalistic, oversimplified, homogenised outlook on functionality and processes has trickled down into society and the way we function as people and communities, and essentially our human being e.g. our fashion/styles, spaces (physical and online) and what we perceive to be safe/established/trustworthy, strive for unachievable/unnatural perfection, monocultural societies
Gap in current understanding/focus of historical nostalgia compared to academic research on historical nostalgia in 90s
Historical nostalgia as cultural heritage and resurfaced ancestral wisdom from internal/external triggers/awakenings
Nostalgia as foundational for healing work e.g. inner child work, generational trauma work
with examples of music therapy for reconnecting to inner child and non-structural, interactive play for reminiscing older ways of being
Reviving ancestral wisdom through evolution lens and Hinduism philosophy of reincarnation (sharing an ancestry with more-than-human world)
Indigenous epistemologies and ways of living/being as bridging of ancient and modern worlds to reimagine futures that are more integrated with the natural world
Addressing arguments around romanticisation of older ways of living (that have been named as primitive and inefficient by the colonial project) and what that teaches us of the underlying fear of western power systems for disruptive, Indigenous ways of living to be re-embedded in societies
Resources:
Krystine Batcho’s episode on the Speaking of Psychology podcast
BBC article on passing of memories between generations
Yasmeen Mjalli’s Slow Factory seminar on fashion and cultural heritage
Indigenous people defending 80% of global biodiversity
