The other answers here are great, and the question that helped me make sense of this was: if I am my thoughts and feelings, then who/what is aware of those thou

The other answers here are great, and the question that helped me make sense of this was: if I am my thoughts and feelings, then who/what is aware of those thoughts and feelings? But what started to really open this up for me was beginning a morning mindfulness practice for a few minutes/day. This practice trains you to pay close attention to sensations in the body, and eventually to thoughts and feelings, and by paying this close attention, you start to directly experience your thoughts as thoughts, instead of your thoughts as you. Guided meditations that point this out can be really helpful (I used the "Waking Up" app, but there are many resources). Over time and with practice (~10 minutes/day is where I started, and I spend 20 minutes now), my perspective has shifted from being my thoughts, to being the space in which thoughts occur. Gaining this space is extremely helpful if you have the type of brain that generates a lot of negative thoughts, as mine tends to do. It also helps you see and short-circuit certain negative thought patterns as they happen. This has been a fundamental ingredient in accomplishing real habit change. I think some people are more naturally aware of this insight than others, but for me it was a gigantic and helpful perspective shift.