Do we control our thoughts?

Probably not.

But for sure we can control how they control our actions.

That's why writing your thoughts is the most important thing.

Call it Journaling or not. But jotting it down and reflecting on those thoughts, help us see ideas. As ideas usually come at the intersection of thoughts.

That's why a system where you can connect your thoughts into ideas and ideas can be broadly connected to a story or a narrative or may be even an essay or a book.

So thoughts in their own are like blips in your mind, which can come and go. They are like signals. If you jot down the high signals and then procsss them into interconnected ideas then the narrative comes out.

You can't control what blips arise in your mind because that's the reactive process of seeing and being in the world. But when you write these things down you control what to take forward and what to drop. You sort of control the narrative, not entirely, but sorta.