3 Simple Meditation Tips to Calm a Restless Mind and Deepen Your Practice

🧠 Why So Many People Struggle With a Restless Mind Today

A restless mind is often the natural result of how we live. Most of us spend our days switching rapidly between tasks, screens, conversations, and information sources. This scattered attention can make it difficult to transition into a state of calm awareness when meditation begins.

In fact, many people experiencing a restless mind are also dealing with symptoms such as mental fatigue, reduced concentration, and brain fog. If this sounds familiar, you may enjoy reading my article on AI Brain Fog and Attention Loss, which explores how modern technology is affecting our ability to focus and think clearly.

Likewise, if mental fogginess is one of your primary concerns, you may also find value in my article on Grounding Yoga for Brain Fog, which offers practical techniques for restoring clarity and presence through movement and awareness.

The key point is this: meditation is much easier when you first create the conditions for stillness. The following three tips can help you do exactly that.

As my core practice is the Silent Mind Meditation technique, which is the direct perception and comprehension of thoughts from moment to moment, settling my mind down and slowing down the inertia thoughts have is essential. Without settling the mind down, thoughts pile up very quickly, and you simply cannot catch and digest each one as it arises and falls. These techniques help make Silent Mind meditation possible by slowing down the thought currents. So now instead of dealing with a waterfall you are dealing with a slow moving river and deep meditation become possible.

A few simple adjustments before and during meditation can help calm a restless mind and create the conditions for deeper practice.

🌬️ Meditation Tip #1: Use Left Nostril Breathing Before You Begin

Before meditation starts, take a few minutes to breathe exclusively through your left nostril.

To do this, gently close your right nostril with your thumb and breathe slowly and comfortably through the left nostril for two to five minutes.

This simple practice has long been associated with calming and balancing the nervous system. Many practitioners find that it helps shift them from a mentally active state into a more relaxed and receptive one. In modern terms, it may help support parasympathetic nervous system activity and create a calmer internal environment for meditation.

What makes this technique particularly effective is that it addresses the restless mind before you begin your session. Rather than sitting down and immediately battling your thoughts, you first give the body and nervous system an opportunity to settle.

If you would like to explore this approach more deeply, I recommend reading my article on Anuloma Viloma for Brain Fog, which discusses how alternate nostril breathing can improve focus, clarity, and mental balance.

🧘‍♂️ Meditation Tip #2: Keep the Eyes and Body Completely Still

One of the most overlooked meditation techniques is stillness.

Many people unknowingly continue to move throughout their meditation sessions. They shift their posture, fidget with their hands, adjust their clothing, move their eyes, or repeatedly react to small physical sensations.

Every movement creates additional stimulation for the mind.

A powerful way to calm a restless mind during meditation is to make a conscious commitment to stillness. Once you have settled into your posture, remain as still as reasonably possible. At the same time, minimize eye movement by keeping your gaze steady or your eyes gently closed.

I have found that the mind and body are deeply connected in this regard. When the body becomes still, the mind often begins to follow. When the eyes stop constantly scanning and shifting, attention naturally becomes more stable.

This principle is strongly reflected in Zen meditation practices as well. If you are interested in exploring this approach further, you may enjoy my guide to Zazen Meditation, where stillness and awareness play a central role in the practice.

👅 Meditation Tip #3: Rest the Tongue on the Roof of the Mouth

The third technique is remarkably simple, yet surprisingly effective.

As you meditate, gently rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth, just behind your upper teeth. There should be no strain or tension. Simply allow the tongue to rest there naturally.

Many meditators notice that this small adjustment helps reduce subtle physical tension and creates a greater sense of internal stability. In traditional yoga, this position is sometimes associated with a simplified form of Khechari Mudra, though no advanced technique is required here.

The value of this practice lies in its simplicity. By creating a stable and relaxed position for the tongue, you remove another source of unconscious movement and distraction. Combined with body stillness and steady breathing, it helps support a quieter mental state.

🔄 How to Combine All Three Before and During Every Meditation Session

The real power of these meditation tips comes when they are used together.

1. Practice left nostril breathing for two to five minutes before meditation.
2. Sit comfortably and place your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth.
3. Begin your meditation while keeping the body and eyes as still as possible.
4. Whenever the mind becomes restless, return to stillness rather than fighting with your thoughts.

This process takes only a few extra minutes but can dramatically improve the quality of your meditation sessions.

Rather than trying to force the mind into silence, you are creating the conditions that allow stillness to emerge naturally.

🌿 What Decades of Meditation Have Taught Me About a Restless Mind

After teaching meditation for many years, I have noticed that most people focus too much on what happens during meditation and not enough on how they prepare for it.

They sit down expecting the mind to instantly become quiet, even though they may have spent the previous hour scrolling through their phone, checking emails, or jumping between tasks.

The truth is that a restless mind is not a personal failure. It is often the predictable result of overstimulation and fragmented attention.

That is why simple preparation techniques like the ones described above can be so valuable. They help bridge the gap between the activity of daily life and the stillness of meditation.

If you would like to explore additional meditation methods, you can browse my complete collection of free guided meditation techniques, where I share a variety of approaches for developing awareness, concentration, and inner peace.

✨ Final Thoughts: Creating the Conditions for Stillness

A restless mind does not mean you are bad at meditation. It simply means your attention has not settled yet.

By using left nostril breathing before meditation, maintaining stillness of the body and eyes during practice, and resting the tongue on the roof of the mouth, you can dramatically improve your ability to settle the mind and deepen your practice.

The goal is not to force thoughts away. The goal is to create the conditions in which stillness can naturally arise.

And if overthinking remains one of your biggest challenges, I encourage you to read my guide on OM Meditation for Overthinking, where I share another powerful technique for calming mental chatter and developing greater inner peace.

Anmol Mehta

Anmol Mehta is a world-renowned Yoga and Meditation Master with over 40 years of dedicated practice. Since founding anmolmehta.com in 2007, he has shared ancient wisdom with millions and certified over 3,000 instructors through his Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training programs.

Anmol’s expertise spans Zen, Meditation, Yoga, Kundalini, Mantra, and Pranayama, with a personal practice rooted in the teachings of J. Krishnamurti and the direct perception of thought. Following a period of profound enlightenment in his early twenties, he has dedicated his life to bridging deep spiritual insights with practical living.

He is the author of numerous training manuals and continues to lead the Mastery of Meditation and Yoga community toward greater consciousness and health.