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@Avisitor

Whether a dharma jewel has eight or eight thousand facets, each mirror simply reflects the truth of the other facets. When they represent the truth of the four seals, I suspect a Buddha would just say they are worthy signage pointing the way along his path towards suffering's cessation.

The question isn't whether self-observation and mindfulness is the same thing.
They can be possibly both and/or neither.

The real question should be whether you are softening & dissolving or hardening & increasing the conditioned state of your ego in either practices.

It seems to me that a key aspect of mindfulness lies in how you observe yourself. I find that I can observe my thoughts and emotions quite well while sitting still in a chair or on my bed, but when I am moving and doing things my attention is otherwise engaged and I have only a little spare capacity for observing thoughts and feelings.

When I am doing something complex like cooking which involves multiple tasks to track at the same time, I often lose self observation entirely, and find myself back in “just doing”. I have this while bicycling as well… there’s balance, steering, speed, the traffic, and the rushing environment to consider, and it’s altogether too complex an activity to not be wholly engaged.

I find that “just doing” refreshing, it’s like everything naturally finds its position, while when observing myself things internally seem to stop. It’s like not being aware allows everything magically to function perfectly and smoothly, while when observing there is some inner tension slowing things down.

How do you observe yourself?