The first progress is to identify the self as simply consciousness which = awareness = knowing. When you look at a wall you KNOW that you are seeing a wall. This is the same for thinking so since thinking is being seen thinking is not a self. Treating thinking as a self (and even worse) a permanent self that will satisfy you leads to disappointment because of the impermanence of everything.
Noticing how the knowing doesn't react to anything and can just watch all emotions arise and pass away. Emotions don't have to be blocked per se but just by being consistently aware of them prevents the ruminating/clinging from going too far. It's like an impassive mirror that doesn't judge what it sees.
Resting in a "permanent self" that is just awareness isn't the be all and end all but it provides a meditator with a lot of relief.
Most people stop at this stage because the relief can be so satisfying that the little stress that's still embedded in our remaining habits and in our consciousness of objects (we like to react the same way to familiar objects) goes unnoticed.
The next stage is a push to develop more metta habits to keep negative people and situations from living in your head rent free. Along with metta the mindfulness practice needs to get more refined by noticing how we treat objects as inherently real. By inherently real I mean that objects appear to us to have a separation from cause and effect which is not the case.
When we look at objects as not being completely solid or permanently real it's easier for the brain to react less to its visable impermanence. We get less shocked and we develop a further equanimity. By noticing how the brain is simplifying a complex universe into our data and creating experience in our brains the sense of a here and there becomes less. The light that's hitting my eye is right at my eye it's not "over there".
By reading more into dependent arising we see the interlocking of consciousness and objects the interdependence of the mind to objects shows there is no permanent self. All conditioned things deteriorate and if everything has a condition (including the mind) then there is no separate self that is permanent.
The attention moves towards objects the same habitual way it has in the past. Try and let the awareness go where it wants to, to see these habits. Get disenchanted simply by seeing the repetitiveness of the habits and move the awareness to more fruitful paths to create better habits.
To me the sign of progress is when habits start changing for the healthier and the mind feels healthier. When you are truly more equanamous, happy, contented and can tolerate frustration better then that's real progress.
One of the things that really helped me to not cling to meditation was to see that I still had aversion to work and completing tasks. One should bring this equanimity into getting things done so you don't feel that doing work is not what supposed to happen. Enjoying the benefits of success without clinging can be very enjoyable because you enjoy it for what it is and can let go when it's gone. That's such a relief.
Another thing that helped to go beyond the "meditator self" was to make sure I wasn't clinging to meditation. You really aren't supposed to cling to anything if you want to bring relief as far as possible. Don't cling to Buddhism.
Here's a reminder not to cling to Buddhism:
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/74/talk/22715/
Here's a reminder to not get stuck in "not doing":
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/10028/
It wasn't that long ago for me that leaving dishes in the sink for a week and really procrastinating a lot was really a problem with the "do nothing" stage. It was a good stage to be in but people shouldn't just stay there.
Can we react to perceptions of objects less by noticing avoidance in the habitual intentions to pay attention to the same objects in the same way. When we see clearly the mind's attention bending towards a short-term like to avoid an unpleasant or onerous responsibility we can see some stress that wasn't seen previously. When it happens again push it back to your responsibility and check and see if you are okay. Aversion is impermanent. Notice how the brain is reacting to simply thinking about "is there something better to do?" to struggle with what is. Struggle with what is less by not treating objects as permanent or nothing. This way you can give objects the respect they deserve without clinging to it.
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/9553/This is a lot of stuff here but it shows how much progress there actually is to move so at whatever level you're at you can continue to improve your entire life.
Metta,
Richard