At its best, self observation allows an equanimous awareness of passionate or turbulent feelings. At a minimum, it manifests itself simply as a slight stepping back from experience, a parallel stream of consciousness that is "meta": hovering above or beside the main flow, aware of what is happening rather than being immersed and lost in it. It is the difference between, for example, being murderously enraged at someone and having the self-reflexive thought "This is anger I'm feeling" even as you are enraged. This is the first step in gaining some self control.

Awareness of one's own feelings as they occur.

It might seem at first glance that our feelings are obvious; more thoughtful reflections reminds us of times we have been all too oblivious to what we really felt about something, or awoke to th...