Your thoughts always come first before emotion, action, and feelings. You choose from which thoughts you want to focus on or to let go of, or ignore, but your thoughts are not you. Your thoughts are just what is available on the menu at the current moment. You are not obligated to act on any of them if you choose not to. Your thoughts are options you can select or decide to use if you want to.
Your thoughts are potential ideas triggered by either internal or external stimuli. Your thoughts can be prior experiences that you are retrieving from memory that are being triggered by some type of association you are focusing on now or thoughts generated by your imagination. These thoughts are available for you to choose based on your focus or attention at the time. Once again, let me repeat that stimuli, both internal and external, trigger and generate our thoughts, and these thoughts are available for your consideration, they are tools we can use to generate ideas and potentially move us towards action.
Your thoughts are necessary to form your beliefs. Your beliefs are necessary and are required to populate your belief system. The thoughts that you adopt do contribute to who you are and become, but they are not you.