I spend a lot of time contemplating my future, and mulling over the past, and I wonder if it gets in the way of the present too much.
It does. Contemplation and reflecting are good things generally, but can leave you numb. Here's what I do with my mulling mostly: Ask: What can be learned? (Learn it, then move on.) Maybe one stays mulling over the past because the thing that can be learned might be too difficult to truly accept and embrace.
I find this to be so difficult though, because it is rarely the case that the answer presents itself lickety split. It's usually days, months or even years later that I feel like I have learned the lessons from it. The emotional distance gained from temporal distance is what allows me to hone in on the answer. I wouldn't be mulling over the past if it wasn't useful to some degree.Ask: What can be learned? (Learn it, then move on.)