There is a natural tendency to look back and LONG for a time that no longer exists. We have a savant ability to revise history, to revise times, so it heightens the distortion of current times.
There is a nostalgic piece of longing for more of a halcyon time and there is some cloak of well-being that comes with those optics.
It’s not necessarily a problem to re-interpret the past to give you comfort, you just don’t want to set-up residence in a time that no longer exists. Looking at old photographs, conversation with old friends, listening to Sting’s Fields of Gold evokes that longing for a time when nothing was pushing at us and nothing was required.
Waking up to the life you have requires more moxie (a word that is more associated with the past). It’s not that living from now as opposed to longing for a different time is better. They both have their value- It’s that you have the facility to suck the marrow from all sides.