The goal of meditation is not to stop your thoughts or control your thoughts, it’s to keep them from controlling you. Try to focus on your breathing, or maybe try paying attention to how your body feels. Try noticing the feelings, emotions and sensations you are experiencing. Can you observe your thoughts instead of engaging with them?
You can try telling yourself: These thoughts are like the wind and my mind is a screen. I will let them pass right through.
Or, if you find it helpful, you can observe and identify thoughts that are bothersome or troubling, and set them aside for now. You might think: Oh, I recognize that thought. That is a worry. I don’t want to worry about that right now.
Then, imagine you have a little box on the floor next to you. Open the box, place that worry in the box and replace the lid. Then tell yourself: I can worry about that later. Right now, I’m going to breathe, relax and just be.
Remember that meditation is a practice. It’s an exercise. You are not trying to force outcomes, or check things off of a list. You are exploring the idea of experiencing and becoming familiar with yourself, your thoughts and your emotions. You are practicing bringing your awareness into the present moment. You are experimenting with the concept of being, instead of operating in the default mode of going, doing, and thinking.
In time, with some practice, you should notice this becoming easier.
