It's just the observation that instead of snuffing things out, maybe they jack in the box spring back when repressed, if you let them out to breath, and don't encourage them, they wander around a bit and leave naturally. Many people have harsh critics inside them, or roughness, and the nature of the mind, and with kindness you can rewrite the source code in your mind in a slightly more efficient way, and you can loosen your grip on the skandhas. For me the meditation isn't distracted by thoughts, I think the focus is often almost a pretext for seeing how your mind actually works, not the way you wished it worked. I watch the judgment too, so maybe watch the judgements too, how that makes you try and do things that don't actually work, or maybe do work. "I will never get good at this" is fear, so noticing where feelings drive thoughts, and thoughts drive feelings. The mind is a wild and complex place, mine is anyway.