Inside your mind dwells a thought unlike any other, a thought that represents you. It's called ego, or I-thought, or ahankara. Discerning the nature of ego and differentiating it from the consciousness that is your true nature is a crucial step in gaining spiritual wisdom.
Ahankara is the sense of individuality that is present in the waking state (jagrat) and dream state (svapna) but absent in deep sleep (sushupti) and samadhi. It is the ahankara that engages in action, not pure consciousness (chit, chaityanya) which is the unchanging observer or witness (sakshi) of all mental activities (vrittis) including the ahankara.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/