How do you answer the student who says "I can't switch my brain off"?

This comes up in nearly every beginner class I run, usually in the first few weeks. Someone says some version of "I can't turn my brain off" like it's a confession, like it means the practice isn't working for them.

What I've landed on: I stopped telling people to clear their mind. I don't say it anymore. Instead I tell them the mind that's been busy all day doesn't go quiet because you told it to, it goes quiet because you gave the body something to do first. The sequence matters more than the instruction. Movement and breath before stillness, not instead of it.

Practically, when a student says this to me mid-class, I don't stop and address it out loud in the moment, it pulls everyone else out too. I hold it for the debrief or a quick note after. In the debrief I ask what they noticed changed between the start of class and the end, even a little. Almost everyone can name something: calmer, looser shoulders, slower breath, even if their mind was still loud the whole time. That's the reframe I want them to land on. The goal was never a quiet mind. It was a body that's easier to be in.

A teacher of mine used to say the mind follows the breath and the breath follows the body, so start where you actually have some control.

How do you handle it when a student names this mid-class? Do you address it live or hold it for after?