I’m just telling you we barely have countable days before the noche buena. But will you be home this Christmas?

It’s sickeningly sweet remembering the festive media noche we had. There is nothing special this year. It’s maybe not yours but mine. My Yuletide isn’t that much exciting and that’s for two years now in a row.

Christmas Lanterns (Credit to the rightful owner of the photo)

But for many, as we approach the Yuletide Season, it is becoming a different atmosphere. It is somewhat bringing us the feeling of more inches higher of being elated from shopping to dining 'til whooping up getting the best Christmas gift.

Back in the Philippines I always had Christmases being away from home but it‘s just a boat-ride away and there was not much emptiness you would feel for you were just around with friends and just within the same border celebrating the same spirit. Now, it’s different for it takes crossing many borders before your mind reaches home to celebrate Christmas. And, it’s very different in every aspect of it.

December, as always, is a nostalgic month for most people who are away from home whether an OFW or whether a student traversing to a more independent zone. This nostalgic feeling has been largely aggravating anyone’s emotion especially those who have been separated from home the first time.

Now here’s to that nostalgic emphasis. In The British Psychological Society’s archived article placed on its web, The Psychologist, the term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one’s place of origin. Suggesting the adverse symptoms displayed by Swiss mercenaries in the service of European monarchs in the olden times, the term came to be coined by the Swiss physician Johannes Hofer (1688/1934). He thought of it as a cerebral disease and believed that it was caused by the quite continuous vibration of animal spirits through those fibers of the middle brain in which impressed traces of ideas of the Fatherland still cling. However, J.J. Scheuchzer, a physician, opposed Hofer’s idea and proposed that Swiss mercenaries’ nostalgia was due to the variations in atmospheric pressure they experienced as they descended from their Alpine homes to fight on the plains of Europe. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the view of nostalgia as a medical disease persisted. The 20th century saw nostalgia as a psychiatric disorder.

However, psychologists recently have focused on the positive and therapeutic aspects of nostalgia. Though surmising, but many studies revealed how such feeling of aloneness juxtaposes a healing self. A report from University of Southampton psychologist Constantine Sedikides and his colleagues in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, affirmed to this position. In the culled researches of Marina Krakovsky which she collaborated in her article, Nostalgia: Sweet Remembrance, through the online Psychology Today, she said that “occasional detour down memory lane can give [one’s] spirit[s] a significant lift.”

Remarkably, studies offer these silver linings, that is, while we posit a positive attitude towards being nostalgic:
1. Thinking of good memories for just 20 minutes a day can make people more cheerful than they were the week before and happier than if they think of their current lives, researchers from Loyola University concluded. University psychologist Fred Bryant furthered that reminiscing can give you a sense of being rooted, a sense of meaning and purpose – instead of being blown around by the whims of everyday life.
2. Nostalgia is a potent mood booster. Psychologist Tim Wildschut and colleagues at the University of Southampton in the U.K. disclosed that since memories often star important people in our lives, they may give us a comforting sense of belonging.
3. Nostalgic people have high self-esteem and are less prone to depression.
4. Nostalgia counteracts effects of loneliness, by increasing perceptions of social support.
5. Nostalgia gives us a greater sense of continuity and meaning to our lives for it provides a link between our past and present selves – providing us with a positive view of the past.

Just like any other humans, I have always been visited by this nostalgic fever. Thanks to cellphone, I can flip the memories left behind at the precious captures with my family. Thanks to the internet, the good old days are still fresh with every album my classmates and friends personalized on their social networking pages where I am free to join them in every wishful browsing they make looking at their newborns, left-behind loved ones, and the wackiest experiences we had in schools and everywhere.

For Marina Krakovsky, you don't have to wait for nostalgia to strike. These steps can help make it a regular part of your life:
1. Make a list of cherished memories, but for best result, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist at the University of California at Riverside, suggests to reminisce in your head rather than on paper.
2. To jog your memory, find some photos or other mementos from good times past.
3. Close your eyes to block distractions. Then think about what's outside the "picture frame" to bring back subtle details. Mental imagery produces greater happiness gains than does simply looking at old photographs.
4. If possible, reminisce with people from your past. It strengthens close relationships.
5. As you go about your life, sock away good moments and mementos for later reminiscence. Take a mental snapshot and hold on to that feeling.

Beyond being nostalgic, there are still many ways we celebrate the yuletide with just a couple or three to gather around the little table. Yes, Filipinos always thrive, in any way and in any part of our world, or away from our comfort zone.

Filipinos always survive! A merry Christmas to everyone!