Hello Shancan: The Skeezyks would have to say that these sorts of artificial mental efforts tend to just leave him tired & uneasy. I am sort-of a follower of the practices taught by the Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön. And there is a lot of these sorts of awareness activities within the practices Ani Pema teaches. I find them valuable. But I also know that I can only practice them so often, for so long a period of time before I become just tired, disgruntled & even more noticeably nervous. I don't know why this is. But I've been experiencing it over a long enough period of time that I know it is a real reaction. So, anyway, from my perspective, what you've written here makes perfect sense. It's not "just you...", so to speak.