subtle mind/ loving-kindness

The two exercises for me were the subtle mind exercise, in which I couldn't relax enough to allow my breathing to a calm abiding state. My mind wouldn't stay still long enough to relax. Usually the beach sounds relaxes me and I'm able to let go of whatever is bothering me. But for some reason that exercise didn't work. The loving-kindness exercise was a very good experience for me, I was able to free my mind and allow my thoughts to flow and follow the directions with out any difficulty. Again the beach sounds- ocean waves was all it took to get me in another state of mind. Now since the holidays are over and my mind and body has had a time to recovery, I think that if I was to try the subtle mind exercise again I would do better. As far as taking any of these exercises to use in the future would be the very first exercise with just the ocean sound and the focal point of the color scheming from your body.