To the observing mindset, thoughts and emotions aren’t things we need to confront, avoid, analyze, or even believe. They’re just thoughts. They’re just emotions. And events are neither good nor bad—they’re just things that happen.
For these reasons, the observing mindset gives us a powerful advantage over negative emotions in performance settings. A negative thought like “I’m going to fail at this” needn’t hinder or derail us. It’s just another thought in our focus river. It passes by us as easily as any other, and we can let it drift by and move on a better one. Think of mindfulness as the ability to momentarily step outside of yourself and see what’s happening within you. When we practice this process, we create a healthy separation from our internal experiences and they can pass through us, and pass by us, naturally.
