The reason why you suffer is because you unconsciously avoid this moment.

You are unconsciously but constantly resisting this moment; separating yourself from this moment.

So the path of awareness in meditation is to get you back to this moment.

And the first part of meditation is to sit still.

Because the most physical way you avoid this moment is by being restless in the body.

It does not mean that you cannot be present while moving.

But for this meditation, the first part is to sit still and allow that resistance to sitting still be burned away in awareness.

The second and main way you avoid this moment is through identifying with your thinking.

You are sitting still yet you are thinking about what you have to do tomorrow.

The thought itself does not take you out of this moment, but your identifying with the thought does. The thought arises
"I have to go to work tomorrow" and you are the "I" in that sentence.

And like you are in a dream, you are lost in the imagination of tomorrow.

You have successfully escaped this moment.

This is identification.

Even thinking about being present keeps you from being present.

So then the second part is to learn to either witness your thinking,

let go of your thinking,

inquire into what is here beyond thinking,

rest your attention on the bliss that is here beyond thinking

or to even focus thought by repeating a mantra.

Any of these