I have had great success with mindful meditation. However, I was never able to make any progress on my own, just reading books and meditating by myself. Finally, I went to a local semi-buddhist meditation center that had weekly group meditation meetings. I don't know why, but for some reason I found trying to meditate with a whole group of people actually made it much easier to relax, and I made rapid progress. I went from not being able to sit still for five minutes, to happily meditating for 45 minutes in a deep state of serenity.

The key was that the meditation center I found was only semi-buddhist., This means that they didn't push Buddhism on us, but rather just took the practices they employ for meditation and taught that to us all. After the meditation the leader would give a 45 minute talk on the dharma#Dharma_in_Buddhism), which was semi-buddhist but always given in a way that just extracted the wisdom and lessons that were relevant, without any of the religion.

I encourage you to find a local meditation center and go to one of their group meditations. You don't have to talk to anybody your first time, and there is normally no required fee, just a request for whatever donation you can afford. When I was unemployed, I donated nothing.

Wear loose-fitting comfortable clothes, you can look like a scrub, most of the people do.

My other recommendation is to try and get some physical exercise in at some point during the day before you try to meditate. I found it far easier to sit for 45 minutes after I had expended some energy.

If you have any other questions please ask away.