If you meant what I said, it would fill a thick book to tell you all that goes through mind (that I call “space traveling”) any given moment.
Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was elsewhere. Was it something about books?
Oy Carayo…
Everywhere. Memories from Kindergarten, questions about economics, physics and any other branch of science. My mind will play back entire songs. Right now I had an image of my toothbrush sitting in its drawer. Random stuff pops into my head all day.
My mind tends to wander due to mental triggers that stimulate it to go elsewhere and this can happen while watching TV. My mental destination varies and has little direct relation to what’s on TV and the wandering can be caused by an image or phrase and off I go for a minute or more. It’s far more entertaining than TV.
Depends on the time of day. During daytime hours, I usually think about my “life fantasy” du jour. Right now, it’s having paid off my car and being able to afford my own apartment, where I’d run in the front door, strip off my clothes, run around naked, and play with my adorable kittens. Then I’d probably watch some South Park and make dinner in the nude. Talk about a wonderful life!
I’d estimate my mind wanders near sexual topics less than 1% of the time. But I’m single right now. This ratio increases significantly when I’m in a happy relationship.
I can’t let my mind wander before I go to sleep, because it goes to terrible places. Undistracted and with its guard down, my brain will focus on how much of a failure I am (at my job, at being a good daughter/sister/friend/roommate, at being a self-sufficient adult). I will fixate on how much I need to be worried about $future_event, which prevents me from getting to sleep. I might not be able to stop thinking about the eternity of death and how it feels. Playing tv shows on continuous loop helps distract my mind enough to fall asleep, although sometimes even that’s not enough if I have an imminent stressful event.
Many things. Sometimes I imagine what life would be like if I was rich - how I’d behave so differently to a lot of rich folk, but wonder how similar to them I may end up, perhaps I’d turn into a total snob and swan around in status symbol clothing and cars. I hope not, but anything might happen, so that’s what I wonder.
I also think of the cool Movies I’d love to make, if I had the resources to do it properly. I do dabble in short films, but only on the fringes.
Sex doesn’t crop up anywhere near as much as it used to, especially as I live an accidentally celibate life. I still like looking at attractive people, though, just because they are aesthetically pleasing.
I apparently need to work on my recreational thinking. When I’m not actually working on something, I’m thinking of the things I will be working on, ruminating about my past mistakes, fretting about making more/other mistakes and generally caught in an unpleasant spin cycle I have a hard time getting out of.
Even when its something that should be fun, like thinking about the garden, its more like writing a work plan: first I need to do x, then y, and then . . . its not getting lost in the fantasy of how wonderful the flowers will smell.
Things I’d do if I could afford to.
How the wood floors would look sanded and poly-ed. What would need to go into making them how I’d like.
What I’d make with metal clay.
What I’d put into my studio/garden room if I could turn my attic into one.
How I’d fit a bathroom on my first floor while not having it open into the kitchen. Also the new layout of the kitchen with arch and pass-through to dining room.
My one acre garden layout.
My husband is amazed that, whenever we start a project in our house, I seem to know what’s going to happen before it happens. This is because I have planned every single stitch of this house in my head countless times.
Remembering passages from whatever books/Internet material I found most interesting, some of which I read enough times I recall vast portions by heart.
Me too, except I also think about food (it seems like I’m always hungry) and many of the Walter Mitty scenarios are what would happen/would have happened if I was popular.
Kesha, as you may have gathered by reading a lot of my other posts lately. Often I hear her songs in my head, and sometimes I just think about her in general. Since I started listening to her songs all the time and getting her songs in my head, I get crappy music stuck in my head much less frequently than I used to.
Oh my mind just goes everywhere, it has no GPS or sense of direction.
All kinds of random trivia bubbles to the surface and whenever that isn’t happening I’m usually constructing various scenarios using favorite characters from TV, movies, and books or rewriting the endings of stories that didn’t go the way I wanted them to. There’s a bit of the Walter Mitty (Wendy Mitty?) stuff in there too.
Keeps my damned brain from drifting into the darker side as it is wont to do so often.
My brain doesn’t like me much.
Well…
Death
My death, the death of those close to me, who haven’t died or are even ill, the death of those close to me who have died already and (warning, if you are disturbed now, stop reading) the death of my children. I don’t have any children, that I know of, but I invent wonderful children and then they die tragically.
And sex too, not with the death. Well, not too much.
Plotting stories I’m working on
Day dreams about whatever RL guy I’m currently interested in, ranging from sex to what if this is the guy I’m meant to marry and have kids with? Male celebrities as well
Winning the lottery and what I’d do after
Fame (of a literary nature, usually) and the benefits thereof
“living well is the best revenge” and “how do you like me now?” sort of scenarios
And like Silver Tyger Girl said, made up stories, often both improbable and pornographic in nature. This is different than the second thing on the list, because I’m not in these stories.
There’s ap.. I mean med for that… turn you into a sorta bobble-head.
Making up stories or cartoons, some of which I actually write down. Inventing snappy comebacks to people who annoy me. Wondering if I’ll ever get a real job that pays a decent wage (doesn’t seem likely but one can always dream.)
How you doin? 
I get this too. I’ve given up trying to explain that I’ve visualized doing something 50 times before I even pick up a tool. Now I just say I’ve read about it or done it before when someone asks how I know how to do something.
Nothing wrong with your recreational thinking skills. You’ll notice that only a few posts actually involve anything resembling relaxing and smelling the roses. Most of us are busy working on our next plot to take over the world. Aside from the dwelling on past mistakes, you’re right in the zone.
(Bolding mine.) Oh definately. I’ve got a whole mental filing cabinet full of jokes, puns, comebacks, and insults just waiting on perfect setups. I’ve also got another cabinet of practical jokes stashed up there.
I have the opposite setup. I’m terrible at focussing and spend most of my time rambling to people by email, fantasizing, talking sports and politics, yelling at people that annoy me on the news cast and then only occasionally a spurt of focus on the task at hand. granted - not a recipe for success but a way to pass the day.