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?
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