I'll share my ship trick.

This is for those of you that live by the bay. Needs a clear day but no Otis Redding song necessary.

Where I live it takes about a 20-30 mins for a ship that left the harbour to disappear over the horizon. As it leaves I can see all the details, the name of the ship, the containers or people. Lots to think about and observe. I don't take my eyes off it. Gradually it turns into a smaller and smaller square, and eventually a dot. All that it is, all the people and cargo and funnels become an ever smaller world. Somehow that grabs and keeps my focus.

Actually started to do it as an exercise for vision from too much screen time. Apparently it helps to focus on a distant object and I think... maybe... hmm... maybe it helps. But anyway, after a half hour of watching a dot vanish over the horizon, it leaves you with a _good_ feeling. Like I used to get from astronomy before moving to the city. YMMV.

If I let my head voice chatter away, I never get the opportunity to clear my mind. The entire meditation session would simply become a sort of internal monologue, jumping from idea to idea.

What I meant by that is more "don't fight it", as in "don't let it dismay you, bring you stress, and don't judge the fact that it happens." That it happens is not a failure at all. It's normal. Just acknowledge and recenter.

When people first start meditating, they often find it very difficult to get a "quiet moment" and think that's a sign that they're doing something wrong or something isn't working. Neither of those things are true, and while you might get just a few seconds of "quiet" at first, as you practice more, that time will expand.

The basic point is that it's part of the normal progression (of anything, really). When you're doing anything new, you're going to suck at it at first and improve as you keep doing it. It's counterproductive to feel bad about the stage where you aren't good at it, and giving those judgemental feelings power can cause an unwarranted discouraging force.

The most useful analogy for me is that it is similar to lifting weights. You don't go to the gym and just hold a weight in tension for 60 minutes. You lift for a moment and relax for a moment, over and over and over. In meditation you're not (often) purposely "letting go" the way you do while lifting, but your brain will do that anyway. That's fine. The important thing is you engage again. Each time you detect your attention drifting and you bring it back to your practice is another "rep" of the workout. Hold it for as long as you can, and when you detect it's drifted again (as it will), you've already started another rep!