I'm going to miss this moment

[slant]

"I'm going to miss this moment..." Have you ever thought that, or felt a similar sentiment? Experiencing a moment and knowing that it will end and that you will forever think fondly of it.

I get this all the time and it was driving me crazy. It's called "anticipatory nostalgia" and it sometimes tinges happy moments for me with a shade of sadness. More recently the sadness is gone but it's just a pressing feeling; like when you face a big moment in your life and you feel the weight of it.

I tend to think it allows me to appreciate times in my life more than I might otherwise, but it also comes at the cost of taking you out of the present moment to a degree to almost reflect on life as it happens.

Have you ever had this feeling? What situations have triggered it for you and do you feel it helps or hinders you? What purpose do you think this phenomenon might serve in our psyche?

 

[Wyote]

Nostalgia is sort of a "happiness driver" so probably anticipatory nostalgia is almost like being overwhelmed by some happiness predicted in one's future.
It's like your brain saying, yeah this is gonna be a great thing to have in the ole memory bank to get my head calibrated right whenever I need it.

In those moments (which aren't terribly frequent for me but I do have them from time to time) I always try to focus on committing that moment to memory as best I can.
I have an ability to store memories visually pretty well, and even moreso when I make a point of doing it (with varying degrees of success).
So I have a lot of this stuff in my noggin that I can call upon and know that I've experienced a lot of pretty great things in my life.
And that helps me when I have down turns sometimes.

Also after a quick Google here, it says nostalgia is a "blended emotion" meaning it's a feeling and a thought process simultaneously.
Feels like to me that anticipatory nostalgia has something extra going on even beyond that but I can't really pinpoint it.
Some sort of unique thought processes as well as emotional mixtures simultaneously.

Hmm. Interesting.