Dreams made of thoughts

I started a meditation practice a while ago. Since then I have been getting more and more aware of just how chatty my mind is. The times I am very presence without engaging with thoughts – when riding my motorcycle or in a challenging situation of a skitour – are very rare. Most of the time my mind is busy with thoughts chasing each other.

And this – more often recently – starts right when I wake up. As soon as I become conscious, a stream of thoughts fills up my consciousness. It feels a bit like dreaming but there is no visual component, just thougths upon thoughts. Many of them are of the same type I have when I suddenly remember something that I "need" to do but the content is mostly not related to things that are actually going on in my life. I gues that my mind is trying to help me out not drop any of the things I promissed or think I need to do in waking life.

The thoughts are often accompanied by a displeasant feeling of tension. What helps me to out of the cycle in those cases is getting back into my body. Paying attention to the tension or the breath for example.