Consciousness and thoughts are different things.
Consciousness touches only part of thought. There is subconscious thinking.
With consciousness, we just experience the external world.
But thinking is partly controllable. A thought can be moved, almost like a hand. You can direct it, return it, bend it toward an object, or pull it away.
But consciousness? consciousness cannot be moved like thought.
Consciousness presents the phenomenon of being. And this is truly gold to just be here, if we really notice it.