There is the experience of our experience and there is the observation of our experience. Observing our experience removes us from our experience and provides us with the experience of experiencing our experience–and that puts us in the position of impacting our experience by being removed from it to the extent of altering its impact through the addition of our awareness of our experience of our experience of our experience, bringing curiosity, wonder, humor, etc. to bear on our experience and freeing us to distance ourselves from what is happening by enlarging what is happening through the observation of what is happening. Which makes going to the dentist something to look forward to as a playground for awareness to explore from the vantage point of the dental chair.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 