First of all, despite my enthusiasm or the good press out there regarding meditation, please banish the thought that meditation is going to get you something that you've been craving, such as good health, stress relief, better sex, clarity of mind and motives, sharpened business acumen, improved athletic performance, inner peace, functional behavior, or even the just now mentioned high ideal of the reeducation of the mind and self knowledge or, with some of you, certain supranormal experiences. In a culture of heightened utilitarianism such as ours, it is a normal temptation to look past meditation to the desirable things we think meditation would bring. We assume that even if meditation is hard work, it'd still be worth it if it could bring certain rewards. This is the same Midasian mind in us clamoring for glittering gains, the same Faustian thirst for an advantageous trade. So, if you do meditation at all it should be because you want to do it and stay in it, rather than because of some overriding ulterior desires.
Meditation is both the end and the means to itself.
Well of course with diligent practice, stress relief and sensory acuity and other desirable things may manifest in varying degrees. But they are only byproducts. Do not dwell on them. To do meditation while having them lurking in the background of your attention is not the proper frame of mind to start the practice. It is a tempted state of mind, which is rendered unfree to study its fundamental nature.