Great question! There’s a great book titled, I May Be Wrong, written by a Buddhist forest monk. After spending a number of years in the forest, he was asked when he got home what the greatest lesson he learned after all that time in the forest as a monk. Essentially, he said something like he learned not to always trust his thoughts. I found that very telling. Our thoughts are the result of years of the cake being baked—our past traumas, failures, losses, and even positive experiences; a number of things. But the idea is that when we have a thought we should pause and take a minute. Really think about whether the thought reflects our essence—our authentic self. If so, then we should go with that thought. If not, then we should reevaluate. All this, of course, is related to consciousness and other concepts around self-awareness.