If we watch ourselves too closely, we become more separate from our surroundings. If we don't watch ourselves at all, we never realize we're a part of this whole thing.

“With self-awareness you grow more intelligent. In awareness you learn, in self-awareness you learn about yourself. Of course, you can only learn what you are not. To know what you are, you must go beyond the mind. Awareness is the point at which the mind reaches out beyond itself into reality. In awareness you seek not what pleases, but what is true.”
— Nisargadatta Maharaj