Hi all... Haven't been around in awhile, but I'm here.

For personal growth and spirituality, I make use of support groups based on the Twelve Steps as adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm finding difficulty being able to quiet my mind enough to practice meditation, and wondered if anyone had any advice.

Cary

Hi there. I'm certainly no expert -- just have an interest in meditation. I've found it useful to "pretend" that I'm just watching the antics of a child (or favourite animal) who happpens to be myself while meditating.
This sets up the condition for patience and gentle curiousity about "my stuff". It's like the mind is the "grownup" watching with tolerent amusement all the thoughts and feelings, but not really engaging with them. Just sitting with what's going on in your head and waiting for it to calm without trying to control it. Have you ever been in a noisy classroom with a teacher who just stands at the front waiting with the expectation that everyone will eventually listen and it works? I think that's what I mean.

Focused daydreaming.

Have you ever heard of something called a "progressive relaxation"? It's a relaxing, almost hypnotizing procedure in which another person talks you through "imagining" yourself relaxing... and it works on me.

Where it becomes more of a use to me, however, is that I know the script for it... so I can run through it mentally, issuing the "instructions" to myself to follow, thus being able to relax myself in a couple of minutes (lower heart rate, slower breathing, no tension in muscles, calmer mental state).

I sometimes do this to help myself go to sleep if I am having trouble with that... which is rare these days...