Close-up awareness, let's assume what this person means is zooming in on their feet, to be really aware of just that touch of the feet. Now a mental state has arisen, restlessness is present. In order to let go of the restlessness, this meditator worked harder at being aware of their footsteps, the lifting, the moving, the placing, or just left-right, whatever is the case. Then they ask, "It seemed to work. Do you think this is a suitable method in this situation?" Yes it is, with a little bit of a caveat here. We don't want to suppress the hindrances, we'd actually like to note them and know what they are, then we go back to our subject. So they did recognize restlessness and worry, but did the person actually note it clearly and then go back, that I'm not sure they did. This is the practice, note it clearly and then let go of the thoughts and return to the footsteps. If we can develop stronger attention on our footsteps, yes restlessness is going to go away, this is part of the practice.
With the mental noting technique, remember to note gently and come back. Because what some people will do: they'll be walking along, restlessness comes up, and they very quickly go "restlessness!" and then they go back to their footsteps. It's like they shoot it down. Maybe some of you have seen it within yourselves, "Yes get out of here! I see you, get out, get out!". Now we don't really want to do it that way, as there is aversion behind the noting and not objective awareness. With more objective awareness we we're going to note it for exactly what it is, restlessness, then we gently let it go and return to the footsteps.
When we build something, we take a nail, a hammer and we hammer away, any thought not concerned with the job is going to be a hindrance. If we start thinking of going to Wat Kow Tahm for another retreat and get really involved in planning the plane, the tickets and this and that, what's going to happen? You'll probably going to hit your thumb with the hammer. So even though it's a very wise thought, a very good desire that could help you in the practice, it's a hindrance at that time.
Now when a person's hammering, they don't normally consciously note and come back, it's just automatic, they're hammering, they see thoughts come up and, "No, I can't think that right now, I'm hammering!" Automatically they know, "I have to come back to hammering, it's my job. If I think too much, I'll hit my thumb." Or at least we learn that after the first time we do hit our thumb!
So in a sense, when a person's hammering, they automatically go right back to what they're doing and they just let go of their thoughts, but they often don't really know the thoughts, and that's different with our meditation practice. We're going to know what the thought is and then come back. Now in knowing the thought, what's the benefit of that?
The benefit of that is we'll more clearly understand who and what we are, and the law of cause and effect. And the more we see which thoughts are predominant, whether it's future thoughts, past, angry thoughts, whatever, then we begin to understand this natural law of cause and effect - what thoughts bring Dukkha and what mind processes help to end it. Also later we can work on a reflection meditation to counterbalance the wrong view that creates such thoughts. If we see that we have a lot of angry thoughts, we need more Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation. If we see we have a lot of future thoughts, we need a lot more Death Awareness and so on. So by recognizing what these thoughts are and clearly knowing our personality traits, then we can work easily to let go of the wrong view that continues to feed them. And when I say let go, that's letting go on a deeper level later, because when we let go with the simple bare mental noting, we let go on one level but it doesn't actually stop them coming in the future. It's the investigation into cause and effect, and wisdom development that comes from regular reflection meditation, that drives the wisdom down into the heart and ends up cutting the root of those problems.