We spend inordinate amounts of time looking in life…
We spend inordinate amounts of time looking in life rearview mirror.
— from The Relationship With Yourself (Traits/Reflection) · It’s all in your Head, written by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine
In the book
Beware too the chronic complainer's loop — the mind stuck circling its own problems, worrying them, needing to talk about them — and break it by starting with something positive and ending on one. The third storm is the rearview mirror. We spend inordinate amounts of our lives staring backward, until the past becomes a kind of prison we have locked ourselves inside. Here the crucial distinction is between reflection and brooding. They look similar but do opposite things: genuine reflection on a hard experience leaves you less depressed over time, while brooding — turning the grievance over and over — only deepens the darkness. — The Relationship With Yourself (Traits/Reflection)