A few suggestions for people who have tried breath watching and never got the hang of it
1. Preparation. Virtually all traditions advise AT LEAST 10-15 minutes of some preparation before you simply sit and meditate.
(a) get your life together (what??? Aren't you meditating to get your life together!). You can do both - get your life more in balance AND meditate, but if you don't pay attention to how you're living, meditation may still be out of reach.
PHYSICALLY: Moderation in eating, exercise and sleep, as well as use of time and money
EMOTIONALLY: Kindness, care, compassion, love, empathy, self giving, gratitude
MENTALLY: learn how to think! (really, ALL meditative traditions stress the importance of this!). Learn how to let go of tense attention and open to easy, flowing attention in as much of your life as possible
NOW, MEDITATION
1. PREP: relax, (like the author's body scan, or the Himalayan Institute's 61 points, or the Kriya Yoga breath that Roy Eugene Davis teaches; whatever works for you). Breathing - do 5 minutes of alternate nostril or some similar breathing that relaxes you
2. Meditation prep: start with a word if you can't just watch the breath. Breath in "calm," breathe out "peace." If you're of a religious persuasion learn the Christian Centering Prayer, or any of the Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish devotional practices. Don't knock them - if they don't work for you, ignore this.
3. Now, meditation. Alan Wallace, in "The Attention Revolution" lays out the path from beginner to enlightenment.
A. Watch the breath. At first you'll remember about 3 times in 20 minutes. Just keep going, until you only forget about 3 times in 20 minutes. When you can stay on the breath - no matter how noisy your mind is, how icky your emotions are, how tense your body is, for 20 minutes, go on to B
B. Let go of watching the breath and notice passing the thoughts. Similar stages to A. Get lost in thought mostly only get lost in thought a few times; then you can be present 20 minutes aware of thoughts without getting lost. Go on to C
C. Let go of breath and thoughts, and notice the awareness, silent and peaceful, underlying breath and thoughts. Same progression. When you can stay connected to that awareness (by this time there will be almost no thoughts in your mind but you will be more vividly awake then you ever were in your life, with peace and joy underlying much if not most of your waking life) for several hours of sitting (I told you this was the whole path!!), go on to the last step
FINAL STEP: "turn around within" and see what it is within which even that awareness underlying all our experience occurs.
Nothing more can be said. "Something" will take over and it's completely effortless after that.
in real life, all of these stages are mixed together, non linear. You may be able to sit in utter silence for hours, yet your eating and sleep are not together, and you still get annoyed a lot and have trouble thinking clearly. No matter, smile at it all, no judgments and keep on living a good, responsible, ethical, caring life. It all happens spontaneously ultimately, but don't think your effort doesn't count.
And if you're still at the point where only a body scan works, that's fine too!!