Observing Yourself

Did you know that it's possible to observe yourself? The ability of self observation is one quality that distinguishes us human beings from animals. Unfortunately, it's quite evident that in todays world, not much attention is placed on this profound skill.
This self-observing-the-self is easily put in words,but I've discovered (based on my own experience, and the experience of some of my friends trying it), that it's not that easily done. What does it mean? How can the self be an observer of its own self?
It can, no doubt about it - and it's nothing new. Freud called it something along the lines of "the interested yet unmoving observer/witness".A well known contemporary figure, Eckhart Tolle has described it beautifully as "watching the thinker". When I studied computer sciences, I learned about 'metadata' which is data about data, and I used to associate it to "metathinking" - thinking about thinking.
This is very pragmatical; when I say it can be done, you don't need to believe me - just try it for yourself. Personally It was a huge eye opener for me to hear Tolle's description, and that helped a lot.
If you have never done this, try it, watch your thoughts.
Okay, now you may be wondering "well how do I watch my thoughts?". Thats what happened to me too. I used to be perplexed as to what it would be like to watch my thoughts. Finally, what I did was I used to visualize "pulling back from my mind into observer mode, and watching my thoughts like watching a movie".
Thoughts come in pictures and also inner voices. For instance, in a films we may see a brokenhearted man in silence, but we also hear a voice (his voice) speaking "she doesn't love me anymore". Bingo, thats the inner voice. I'm sure you've heard these voices in your head before, but you we're never aware that you we're observing. And that is a crucial factor - awareness. Now you're 'aware' that you can observe, you can observe whenever you like.
Therefore it can be said that we have two modes: the well known 'thinker mode', and less common 'observer mode'.
This is the true meaning of "free your mind" : enter Observer Mode, enter MetaThinking.