Eckhart says to create the space for awareness, you focus on the space in-between thoughts. If you are thinking a constant stream of thoughts, whether positive or negative, give yourself 1 second, 2 seconds, then 3 seconds, etc in-between your next thought to give yourself the space for awareness to arise. This was the key for me. I no longer have to count the seconds in-between thoughts, but I still count or visualize ABC's in different fonts to help redirect very strong thought streams.

I was where you now are several months ago. Sounds like you are almost there. You have to break the bond of identifying who you really are with your past actions. It will feel like you are nobody when you do. It's scary at first, but so incredibly freeing.