Some ways to clear your mind are healthier than others, some longer lasting. You can clear your mind with a temporary distraction or clear it with a transformative experience. There are ways to calm down that have deeper and more lasting effects. The side effects are more positive.
It can be exhausting when the mind is racing, thought after thought, jumping from one topic to the next. In many of the schools of meditation it is referred to as “monkey mind” because the mind jumps from one tree to another. I call it human mind because monkeys are relaxed as they jump from one tree to another, humans are stressed.
Repression to Clarity
We need to repress things from time to time. We do not say everything that comes into our minds. We push a feeling or thought to the side and come back to it later. We may have repressed experiences from years ago that we are now ready to look at. Repression is best used as a temporary measure.
We all have ways of deadening certain feelings, escaping, and forgetting. We can only do that for so long, then it turns into anxiety, depression or a physical symptom of some kind. We simply need better ways to clear our minds and process what is there.
Repression, the Closet technique 
Repression is the rejection of feelings, thoughts, memories or experiences of any kind that are not wanted. They are pushed into a part of our minds that stores what we do not want to think about or feel. They are not in our conscious mind, the mind that is aware right now.
They are pushed out of the awareness/consciousness into unawareness/unconsciousness. It’s as if we can throw memories into the closet and close the door. It seems like they are gone. This works well until the closet gets filled up or some of the feelings start to fight with each other or ferment and start to stink. Then they are back out again. If you just have the closet technique to clear your mind, things will get messy. At some point we need to clean out the closet.
We can repress through any activity from over eating to over doing anything. It comes from a fear of fully experiencing what ever is in the mind, the mind we would like to clear.
When we repress too much it also blocks out the good stuff; such as, a clear mind, emotional stability, insight and purpose. Therefore we need a better way to process repressed emotion.
Cleaning out the Closet, Clearing your Mind
We need to do something when we have uncomfortable feelings and thoughts. These can be wonderful feelings of love or excitement that we are afraid to let in. Or, we are afraid of negative feelings because they seem intolerable or useless. We do not know what to do with them. It can feel confusing.
For example:
“How do I let go of someone I love so much?”
“I feel possessed by anxiety. How do I get rid of it?”
My anger is overwhelming. How do I talk about it without losing myself?
We need a method that moves us toward fearlessness and awareness. We need techniques that develop a clear knowing of what’s what.
From the example above:
“When I allowed myself to feel how much I really loved him/her, I could let go of the anger. I saw I cannot control another. Accepting this relieved some of the anxiety I have about moving on.”
Clear your mind: Music, Guided meditation and Just Now
Each person needs to find what works for them. Here is a range of methods to calm the mind. The name of the game is doing it. Consistency gets the best results. So, find some music or a guided meditation that you like. Then relax with it regularly. Daily is good. Don’t wait until you get stressed. Clarity can be cultivated by regular practice.
In a previous post, I wrote:
“Musical sounds can focus the mind/body connection as a door way into deeper meditation. Music, bells, drumming, chanting and other various sounds have been used to enrich the mind, body and spirit for thousands of years.
Each person and culture uses music in their own way but it is usually for the same basic purpose; calming, insight, vision, inspiration, and hope.
The word meditation is often used like the word exercise. Meditation is caring for the mind and spirit, as we would exercise for the body. Many times what is considered meditation is actually a trance state, shamanic journeying, hypnotic induction, prayer, contemplation or even dissociation. As I said in the previous post there are probably thousands of meditations.”
from; Meditation Music and Listening to Silence
This posts gives links to music and guided meditations. There are also some links at the bottom for sleep music. Some people like music to fall asleep or to have playing while sleeping. You will need to experiment with relaxing music for sleep. It can give a background for sleep to block out unwanted noise.
Body, Breath and Mind: The “Just Now” of Zen 
The mind calms down by itself as we feel the body. As we feel the whole body we feel the breath moving in and out. By keeping the mind focused on the naturally occurring sensations in the body which includes the incoming and outgoing breath, the mind calms.
Clearing the mind is a repeated shift of attention from thinking in the head to feeling in the body. Mind and body can get out of balance. We need both head and body but our daily life will surely put us “in the head”. So, we need to come back and stay with the feeling of body and breath, more and more. Then the mind clears for some good thinking when the time is right.
The Eastern schools of meditation agree on this point.
The Mind is always clear, we just do not recognize it because of all the choppy thoughts.
Chaotic thinking is like a lake that is wind blown. We cannot see beyond the surface. We calm the wind down by shifting the focus off the waves/thoughts to the body and breath. The waves calm down and we can see the depth of the lake and the beautiful shades of color. As we relax our life falls more into place because we make better choices. When the mind does not relax with our best effort, we breathe with that and relax into the chaos little by little.
How to meditate 
Sitting in a chair or on a cushion works well but do what you need to do. It is better to meditate than not. If you have to lay down that is good too.
Begin by taking three deep breaths through the nose and letting the breath out through the nose.
Relax the whole body from toes to fingers, from belly to shoulders. Anything in the body that is tight, relax as much as possible.
Feel the incoming breath. Feel the out going breath.
Breath in all the feelings and thoughts, then exhale all the feelings and thoughts. We need to accept to let go.
Holding the breath in and holding the breath out at the end of the exhalation will help clear your mind. Just a little at first.
Continually return to the feeling of the whole body when the mind wanders off for too long.
Feeling the whole body is key to clearing the mind. In fact, if the mind is racing, you are not feeling the body enough. The more conscious the mind is of the subtlest of sensations and feelings in the body, the more clear the mind. It is like a big tree extending its roots deeper into the ground. The earthiness of the body and the spaciousness of the mind is a wonderful marriage.
“No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.” Dogen Zenji
Here is a guided meditations from a previous post:
Three Meditation Techniques for Therapy
Outside links for music:
Moby gives away sleep music and meditation music, “excellent”
