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Metacognition is a good thing!  We sure do not do enough of it.  I wish it were a required 5-minute reflective exercise for each class on all grade levels.  I also think that "I do not know how I know" OR "I don't remember how or even why I know this" SHOULD be an acceptable answer sometimes.

As a high school math teacher I expect all our students to be numerate ... that basically means they should have basic numeracy skills ingrained.  If I asked how much 3 times 12 is I would expect 36 as the answer.  What becomes interesting is if when I ask how do you know.  I would hope by high school the student would have to take a long time to tell me how they know this in which case I would hope they would say "I do not know how I know" would be a very good answer.  Higher level thinking and higher level skills can only be reached if you have known proven prerequisite working knowledge that is accepted as truth.  No level of abstraction to package lower levels of thought  can be attained if we constantly worry about the base details.

Oh you are so correct about consciousness interrupting and getting in the way of meditating.  It is tough to live-in-the-moment because (mostly conscious) thoughts keep clouding us from being 100% involved in one thing that we are doing now.  A quiet mind for a period of time during the day is very restful.  Most of us do not know how to truly relax.