While introspection is good, reflection does not always lead to truth.
Navel-gazing is the self-indulgent or excessive contemplation of oneself or a single issue, at the expense of a wider view.
You don’t always need to understand why you feel the way you feel. Sometimes, you just gotta let the feelings pass.
Emotions are the lubricants of reason. If you think too much, you miss out on the wisdom of your emotional response - it’s probably smarter than you. Over-identification with your thoughts will cause you to lose yourself in yourself.
To assess your life accurately, you need to detach and look at yourself from a third-person perspective (Solomon’s paradox).
If you’re not careful, self-improvement turns into self-absorption. You’re so in your head that your self-referencing thoughts crowd out all room for others.
Remember that the quest for absolute self-knowledge is an impossible task. You don’t need to fix all your problems. The problems are what make you you.
A good life isn’t devoid of problems. The problems are half the fun.
When you get tired fighting your demons, let them be. Coexist. Quit trying to run from your shadow.
related: keep your identity small