It’s often said that by knowing what to call a thing, you can define your relationship to it. I’ve been trying to read Barry Green’s The Inner Game of Music (more trying than reading), and I came across a really good expression. He calls the mental chatter in our head, the mental gossip. I don’t care to elaborate on the Self 1 and Self 2 here, but that non-stop, blow-by-blow broadcasting in our head during the performance is really distracting. By defining it as a gossip, you can have more reasonable relationship to it. Just like the real gossip, if you participate in it, you always make things worse. The best way to deal with, is not to deal with it. By leaving it as it is, it will eventually burn itself off. No matter how well intentioned, engagement never make things better. Instead, you can just say “oh, it’s that gossiping, again,” and bring your mental focus back to whatever you’ve been doing. As long as you’ve done your homework (well rounded practicing), you know what to do. As to what you should be focusing on, it’s a topic of another conversation.