Carmen Vaughan: Hi, I am Carmen Vaughan and I am here today to teach you how to meditate quickly and easily. We have just been talking about what meditation is and I would like to spend a few minutes to talk about what meditation is not. What I would like to do is address some concerns and misconceptions that people commonly have about meditation. The first of these is this idea that you have to clear your mind of all its thoughts and have a blank slate, that is not true. You do not have to have a blank mind in order to meditate. Yes you will find yourself having inner peace and a tranquil mind as you meditate but that is because of the method being used, not because you are willing it to happen.

In fact trying to force meditation is counterproductive, it is a little bit like trying to force yourself to go to sleep. If you have ever tried to do that you know that that doesn't work. The next thing I would like to address is the following, it does not take years and years of training in order to meditate. Meditation can be learned quickly and easily, in fact after you watch this video presentation you will know how to meditate. Next it is important to know that you do not need to know how to focus or be good at focusing attention in order to meditate. Do not expect that your mind will not wander while you are meditating that happens to everybody and the method is teaching you how to get back on track. There is not any particular state of meditation that you are trying to achieve when you meditate. Actually the possibility is, that the experiences you have are limitless and all of them are just fine.

Put aside any expectations you may have about getting it right, that just interferes with the process. Each time you meditate, it is going to be a little different, the less you spent on worrying about what you are going to experience or what you should experience the better. Again you want to have a relaxed and casual attitude when you go into meditation. Don't try to make your mind blank. When thoughts or feeling arise don't try to resist them just notice them and refocus your attention. Okay so why not we move along into the actual meditation, let me talk about some meditation guidelines before we get started.