I keep having strong bouts of nostalgia from the time I began my meditation practice about three years back. The memories are mostly related to the time between ages 8 - 17. My memories are not good memories or bad; I have no yearning want to go back to that time .. they are just strong, vivid memories.
When I did not have a meditation practice/ was not a Buddhist, I was a much more active person. Being a Buddhist unfortunately makes one inactive (not including long walks in the park as activity). A Buddhist retracts into a shell, keeps to himself/herself. That maybe good for equanimity but bad for mental well being in other ways since new memories are not added at same rate as a normal person adds them.
One obvious way is to observe how they arise and pass away during mindfulness meditation. But I am not meditating all day.
During the recent Euro Finals between Portugal and France, I had very strong recall of Rudd Gullit and Marco van Basten playing in the 1988 finals (28 years ago). At times I half expected to see Rudd Gullit in an orange Dutch jersey, his locks flying charge forward and try to make a break for the Russian goal (only there was no orange Dutch jersey on the field and no Russian goalpost either).
It is very unnerving.
Has anyone been through the same? Is it something every man in his 40s goes through or is this side effect of a calm mind (none of my friends have such vivid recall so I guessed it might be due to meditation). I am not taking any kind of psychiatric medication nor do I have any real psychiatric problems. I have had passing low grade depression now and then (who does not have them) and usually been told by psychiatrists to snap out of it and make new memories or get engaged in new activities.
