I am not my thoughts and my thoughts can’t hurt me.

One of the biggest illusions that so many people struggle with is self-identification with their thoughts. While there can be great utility to think through a problem, for example, thinking for the sake of thinking is of no use at all. In fact, getting lost in useless thought leads to most of people's suffering.

If you believe your thoughts are you, it is easy to get lost in your thoughts, anxious about the future or depressed about something that happened in the past. But, the future hasn't happened yet, and the past has already happened, so what are you attaching to? This is suffering.

However, when you realize that the real you sits as consciousness behind the thoughts, there is no need to attach to any thought in particular. You then simply watch the thoughts pass by, like clouds floating across the blue sky on a sunny day.

From this perspective, you are now able to respond consciously, rather than react unconsciously to any present circumstance that confronts your being in the present moment.

It might help to think about the following analogy, when thinking about thinking. Imagine your mind as a train station, and your thoughts, as the trains that pass through the station. Your job, is to not get on any of the trains!