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This chapter is about preparation for meditation. Both of location, and the body. Part of the preparation for the body, may include other practices. Such as not consuming caffeine prior to meditation; and not eating immediately before (20 min). Another example could be the use of a neti pot, or other nasal cleansing technique, to ensure a clear pathway for breathing. Simply blowing your nose is enough for most.
Wearing non-binding, comfortable clothes also helps. Doing these things, along with choosing a location, and position is preparation FOR meditation.
CHOOSE A LOCATION:
Ideally, you should meditate in the same place whenever possible. In time, your mind will relax and ease into meditation more easily whenever you go to that location.
You should pick a place free from any distractions. Silence during meditation is best. If that's difficult, you can buy foam ear plugs for around $1 - the type that shooters use to protect their ears. Drug stores sell wax ear plugs, which should work nicely also.
Some people play music during meditation. While I think this is normally a distraction - if the music selection is a calm instrumental (no singing) piece, it may be beneficial for people that have difficulty clearing their mind. This would be similar to a mantra style of meditation.
CHOOSE A POSITION:
Meditation can be done in almost any position. I recommend sitting, especially for beginners. Lying down tends to encourage falling asleep. You can sit in a chair, or on the floor, with legs crossed or out-stretched. If possible, I recommend sitting on the floor, with legs crossed (the "lotus" position is used by many), as this is an uncommon thing for most people. Since this is unusual for most, it's a great secondary signal to the brain, that we are about to meditate. As with location, in time, the body position will also help ease the mind into a meditative state.
Rest your hands on your legs, or knees. Where ever they're comfortable. The goal is to not move the body during meditation (unless practicing "movement" meditation). Movement can be distracting.
PLAN MEDITATION TIME:
Have a soft timer nearby, in order to signal the end of the time you've allotted for meditating. You may want to add an appropriate amount of time to allow for the relaxing prep phase. The timer should ring at a reasonable volume, with a PLEASANT sound - such as a soft dinging bell. You do not want to be jarred out of meditation - you want to be reminded you're time has elapsed, and YOU WILL SLOWLY BRING YOURSELF OUT OF MEDITATION.
Most phones have timers built in, as well as apps made specifically for meditation timing. Pick a pleasing sound when the timer goes off. The timer should ring, and stop alerting on its own. You don't want to have to hit a button to silence it.
You can use a wind up kitchen timer that dings once, and you can muffle the intensity of the sound with a pillow or blanket.
RELAXING:
Relaxing is the preparation phase of meditation. It's the prep TO meditate. We'll use a progressive relaxation technique - starting at the feet and working up to the head.
Close your eyes, and focus on your toes - relax them... FEEL them relax. If necessary, flex them a little. Feel the relaxation of those muscles. Take as much time as you need. We will repeat this process, moving up our body.
Feet... Ankles... Calves... Knee... Thigh... Hips... Abdomen (and Abdowomen :)... Lower back... Chest... Upper back... Shoulders... Upper arms... Lower arms... Wrists... Hands... Fingers... Shoulders (Not a brain fart, I do them twice)... Neck... Jaw... Face... Back of head and scalp. Yes, I know it's hard to flex the scalp; but Feel the relaxation spread and move up your body over your scalp and crown. It's as if you're moving stress up your body, pushing it up with relaxation, until all the stress exits your body thru the crown chakra (Intro - chakra's... told ya best not to skip ahead! 
. You may open your eyes.
FOCAL TARGETS:
Now we get ready to meditate. Sit up straight, with your head level. Keeping your head level, look straight ahead, and find a point halfway between your current eye position and the position that's as far up as you can look, without moving your head. Find a focal point in this eye position. It's as if you're looking thru your third eye chakra. This position of the eye is important, because for some reason we don't fully understand, it helps to ease the brain into the alpha state (Intro - how it works) . If there's no focal point, you can set something on a table or shelf that puts your eyes at the right level. Some people find a candle particularly helpful.
BREATHING:
With eyes focused, now we'll focus on our breathing. There are 2 types of breathing - chest and abdominal (diaphragmatic). To help learn the difference, place 1 hand on your chest, and the other on your solar plexus chakra, just above your bellybutton. Exhale, and take a huge breath in. You will feel your chest hand rise. In meditation, we want to breathe diaphragmatically. This might take a little practice, but it's as if you push out with your belly, and leave your chest relaxed, and un-moving. When done correctly, your chest hand will not move, and only your belly-hand will move. This is the kind of breathing we normally do when sleeping. You can return your hands to their resting place.
When we breathe, we inhale slowly thru the nose, and into the belly. When we exhale, we breathe slowly out from the belly, and imagine that we are exhaling from the crown chakra. Yep - you heard me (or rather read me) - in thru the nose, out thru the top of the head. If you do this, after a while, it WILL FEEL as if you're breathing out your crown!
By keeping our visual focus on a point thru the third eye, and our mental focus on our breathing, we are beginning to calm our inner voice (or if you're like me, my 13 inner voices - or am I the only one with multiple inner voice personalities? .
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article: meditation for anxiety study
TRANCCENDENTAL MEDITATION (TM)
Sleep meditations / stories 
Nothing relaxes me anymore.
Anxiety (Place to relax?)
