Claire Hopple

Good news: Festival season is upon us. Allow yourself to rock with the best of them by compiling your own crucial folk festival kit with these must-have items.

Perhaps the following scenario describes you. You’re at a party and you remember that you detest small talk. You have a tinge of social anxiety.

It’s no secret that time away from the office needs to be savored as much as humanly possible.

It’s not that you don’t love the people calling you (unless you’re solely receiving spam calls), it’s just that you’d rather be with them. You think that the phone can’t replace seeing their faces, experiencing their presence in all the dimensions currently available to humans. And sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) you just need time to recharge by yourself. Why does that feel so wrong sometimes?

Sometimes just saying the words “fast” and “food” back to back makes us want to sneak a glimpse behind us, waiting for the

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Wait a sec, is consuming dairy good or bad for you? Do you cut it out when you want to get healthy, or add more in?

Sure, happiness is too abstract a concept to measure perfectly, and it’s safe to say that a serious case of the Mondays can find you no matter what poorly drawn boundaries you’ve planted yourself within. Still, an environment can make a significant impact on your overall mood.

Just don’t do it. In fact, reading this is in direct opposition to the titular admonition above.

Nostalgia is actually considered a valuable copoing mechanism for depression, anxiety, and especially grief. Plus, not only does it counteract anxious feelings, it can actually make you more hopeful about the future. No wonder a higher occurrence of nostalgic feelings are found in the most resilient people.