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Quiet is definitely helpful for meditation and mindfulness, especially if you are just beginning. However, quiet is not required. Mindfulness, where you increase your focus and awareness of the now, can happen anywhere – noticing the sensation of the steering wheel beneath your hands as you sit in a traffic jam is being mindful. Meditation is also easier to practice in quiet locations, but experienced meditators know that it is possible to overcome distractions. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, an Indian guru (spiritual teacher) notes “What you resist, persists!”, meaning that the more you struggle against noise and distractions, the more they will bother and interfere with your meditation. The approach to meditation in a noisy environment is to become aware of it, acknowledge it, and then return to a focus on your breath. As you practice this regularly, there will come a time when you are able to transcend the distractions and they will stop bothering you.