Q: What the hell even is happening and what is the solution? Should I stop myself from imagining everytime? If not, how do I never forget that what I'm imagining is not reality?
A: you're always imagining somewhat. that's how we function. the actual raw reality, even just from what your sensory sensors are perceiving, is a firehose of data, which is unmanageable. the only way we are able to live our lives is to interpret that data as a recognizable thing. "it's a cat", etc.... so there almost is no such thing as truly observing what actual reality is. you're supposed to interpret it, which requires some imagination