It’s a good idea not to think about other people too much when we are not with them. Sometimes we just start thinking about or picturing people in our lives or even have conversations in our head with them. When we focus on other people that are not physically present, the following usually occurs: we start to overly involve ourselves with what we think or feel about those people or what they think or feel about us. This can become a totally distracting obsession and is usually not based on anything. We can then become angry or sad and our energy level and state of mind drops.

Also, by focusing on people, we tend to pick up some of their energy or state of mind. We’ve all had the sense of somehow knowing whether someone close to us is having a rough time even if we’re not with them. When we focus on someone directly, this psychic connection can become amplified.  Sometimes we find ourselves not feeling good for no reason in particular, only to find out that it was someone close to us that’s been going through a difficult time.

If they are feeling sad, angry, or anxious, we tend to pick up their feelings when we focus on them. So in mindfulness, we try and tune to our own frequency and not create inner static by trying to tune into everyone else at the same time.