When you see the above picture what comes to mind?
It is raining.
Now if you ask me What is raining? The answer will be “It is raining”.
Similarly when you ask me What is running in my mind? The answer will be
“The mind is running”.
The mind is running all the time. Either backwards (past) or forwards (future). We have lost the brakes and the fuel seems to be in unending supply to feed this running. The running is usually in circles so it doesn’t even take us anywhere.
Since you want me to elaborate, let me elaborate. These include the monologues in our mind with ourselves, the dialogues we carry out mentally with an imaginary person, the voices of others in our mind telling us what not to do, memories of past events, worries about the future, planning, working, calculating, computing, watching something (videos) listening to something (such as podcasts), reading, fantasising, imagining, dreaming, etc. We are habituated to this and so it seems to be happening effortlessly and automatically, although we are doing it. We can’t understand that we are doing it and we don’t know how to stop it.
So there it is. But five years ago, I rediscovered that I do have the brake padel as well as the accelerator and the ignition turn on and turn off switch for the mind. I can now allow it to run only when I want it to and only in the direction I want it to. Not in circles and definitely not on its own uncontrollably.
The following article will elaborate some more.