Meditation Simplified

Maybe it's an inevitable, vital, phase for anyone who first shows curiosity about starting a meditation practice. Reading a slew of books on how to meditate, attending group meditation classes, experimenting with different ways to still the mind, and listening attentively to teachers guide you through this or that technique. It's marvelous to get exposure to different techniques for sliding into the fertile void of clarity-rich silence so that you can learn what works for you.
But it can also be overwhelming. For me? I reached a point a few years back of Technique Overload. Meditation Study Fatigue, you know? I was reading so many books on meditation and listening to so many audios that when it came time to try it on my own, I'd freeze mid-breath and my mind would get busy wondering if I'd forgotten some potentially critical step. "Hmm, better open my eyes and go back to see if I'm doing this right." Better take some more notes and memorize them.
Dopey way to get out of my head and into stillness.
Don't get me wrong. As a teacher and as a meditator, I like having an arsenal of tricks up my sleeve to help to tie an over-busy 'puppy mind' to something other than ego's frantic and creative strategies to keep me from the experience of stillness. On days when I can't seem to settle in with ease into quiet, I can cherry-pick from a basket of options to turn off the mind noise: breath counting, visualizations, candle-gazing, or softly fixing my eyes on a stone.
But giving up the idea that there's one right way to do this in every circumstance, and learning to trust into simplifying meditation, was, for me, liberating.
My gentle suggestion is this: Don't let your exasperation at not immediately experiencing the tranquility of meditative stillness hijack your thoughts so much that you get distracted from authorizing your own peace, over and over. Give yourself permission to be at peace and to slide into it using whatever means works.
Once you've expressed your desire to glide into quiet, simply listen and experience. That's all. If thoughts creep in, use them as a cue to go back to your breath, the candle, or whatever it is that allows you to return to the intention of stilling the fluctuations of the mind, softly expressing your desire to listen to what the quiet has to reveal to you. When in doubt, your breath can always get you back on the rails. Notice your breath.
Then l-i-s-t-e-n.
You might even imagine that you're using one of those old-fashioned walkie-talkies. At first, you press your thumb on the 'talk' button to say, "I'm ready to hear what you've got to say." Then - and this is the important part - take your thumb off of the talk button and listen.
Listen.
Keep listening.
And keep your thumb off the talk button.