A Way Back: Grayson Hart on Nostalgia, Presence, and the Freedom of Being
As part of the "A Way Back" campaign, former professional rugby player and wellness advocate Grayson Hart reflects on how nostalgia connects him to freedom, gratitude, and presence. Inspired by the Nostalgia Fragrance Collection, he explores how memory, scent, and reflection remind us to live fully in the moment.
Can you think of a memory that immediately makes you feel comforted or happy? What's the first thing you notice; smells, sounds or feelings?
A memory of home. It sparks a feeling deep within me like a photograph, a song, a scent, a meal, a pair of shoes. It takes me to a moment in time, where that item, or thing, or smell, or food, or song, almost transported me to that same moment at the moment of now. Now is the feeling of home.
Are there certain scents that take you straight back to a specific moment in your life?
Growing up my dad used to put a tiger balm on us, because me and my brother would play rugby and we'd get knocks and bruises. So tiger balm always brings a nostalgic feeling of home, love, care and nurturing.
Are there any sounds, like music, the outdoors or even a crowd that trigger memories for you?
Yeah, there's this one song, the Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. Whenever I hear that song, it transports me into the 80s with my dad having the best time of his life. What I feel, and know, and envision when I hear that song and the story that's told and the way that the music is created aligns with the reality of the artist, and then the reality that I know that my dad lived throughout that type of era. I feel transported into a bar in the 80s when I hear that song. It's such a nostalgic connection to my dad who is no longer with me and I love my dad, so when I hear that song I am transported to the time where I feel my dad was living at his best. That's just cool for me, that music can do stuff like that.
Can you describe a place from the past that feels especially vivid when you think about it?
The house that I grew up in New Zealand, on a street called Shawwell Street. When we were growing up in New Zealand we were in council houses and it was just me and my bro and my little sister and my dad. And we had to keep moving around council houses but every now and then we'd get one that we loved and you'd usually stay in them for like a year or two. This one was at a pivotal time, I think I was like 9 years old. I loved sport; I loved golf, I loved baseball, I loved cricket, I absolutely loved rugby. And I made that house into a fantasy factory; in the front yard every tree was a thing to kick the ball through, every hedge was a thing to get the ball over. It was only a small little yard but that place brings a lot of nostalgia man, when I think of all of the parts of me that merge together.
When you return to the memory, what emotions come up?
Just gratitude. I feel almost like a happy relief that it was true. Because now that I'm growing up, and having been through some experiences where I felt like the way life has become, it almost tries to suppress that freedom and that fun. I felt growing up like that a lot of times people were trying to suppress kids from just playing and having fun all the time. It brings about gratitude and like almost relief, and happiness, that you were having fun the whole way along. Keep going.
How does reflecting on the past change how you feel in the present moment
Reflecting on the past, what it does for me, is it really reminds me that any time I've been at my happiest and truest and freest throughout my whole life -I've been living in the present. I haven't been caught up in a concept of what I need to be doing, who I need to be and where I need to get to. Just been living in the present. As you go on in life and you keep stepping into that place, it reminds you that's been the only place where we create, where we flow, where we grow, we commit. The more we go there, it just reinforces the truth to me.
And how do memories shape the way you see yourself today?
It's cool because like what I realized is I got the same knowing inside of me that I had I'm as far back as I can remember. Then that knowing just serves you to be the version of what you are as you evolve.
Can you share a time, when reflecting on the past has helped you feel grounded or calm?
I've been through some tough things, like changing careers I found very challenging. Life throws us challenges for sure. I didn't realize as an adult you're gonna get hit with so many big changes and challenges. I thought the idea was just to keep going on an ascension of like better and better. I didn't realize that to get to be on that path, it means shit's gonna shift, and move, and break, and you're gonna lose people, it's not going to be the way you planned it. Nostalgia shows me that you're always going to be okay. And the more you let go and just flow with that knowing, the more you create your own reality. You ain't got nothing to fear.
Do you see nostalgia as a way of taking care of your well-being?
I think nostalgia is a good sign of inner well-being. Nostalgia means you're living within your true, open, present, creative flow. And within that flow like there's a resonance of things that have been meaningful within your vast open space of experience.
