Do you love feeling nostalgic? Perhaps it’s the smell of summer turning into fall, or winter to spring. Or maybe it’s visiting your elementary school or driving past an old residence. There’s something special about experiencing a sensation that’s instantly familiar to you, but one that hasn’t been felt for so long.

I don’t know exactly what nostalgia is, but I imagine it as a pattern of neurons that is firing away after being silent for many months or years. Sort of like an old vacuum tube radio charging up and coming back to life. The mind seems to take pleasure in this, like, “ah-hah! I know this taste – that summer in Italy.” In fact, we seem to feel rewarded when we inadvertently trigger a memory that we assumed no longer existed.

I suppose you can feel nostalgic by just concentrating on past events, but it’s always most breathtaking when you’re blind sighted by the waft of a romantically linked perfume scent, or viewing an old photograph that produces a rush of cherished memories.

What triggers nostalgia for you? Are they smells, sights, people or places? And what is the object of your nostalgia? Past events, people you knew or things you owned?