It’s quite a common question! Many people cannot get their mind to quiet down, slow down or be calm. Yet, the answer is the same: do nothing except watch.
The mind is so tricky that it will get you to stop watching it and carry you down rambling paths and spin you through lovely daydreams. That’s okay. You wouldn’t know your mind was too busy to meditate if you didn’t have that moment of, “Oh no – I got carried away!”
At some point you became AWARE that you got carried away. That AWARE moment is the moment of mindfulness.
YOU JUST DID IT. YOU WERE MINDFUL. You don’t have to feel Zen or peaceful to be mindful. You just need to be aware of the present moment – even if your mind feels like chaos and bedlam.
Meditation is rinse and repeat when it comes to losing awareness and starting it up again. Each restart is like a rep when you do a strength training routine at the gym.
So, don’t despair that you don’t have a calm mind. Your goal is NOT to have a calm mind. The goal is always to just drop into stillness and see what is going on in there. Watch the movie, and don’t worry about what’s playing.
The more you watch, the more you’ll see.