I want to share one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received: Lower your standards.

Not everyone agrees with this advice because it sounds, on its surface, like a road to mediocrity, but I believe that it's a road to steadiness.
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The advice comes from poet William E. Stafford (1914-1993) who famously woke up everyday at 4am and wrote a poem. One poem every day before his family woke up.

How was that possible? The poet e.e. cummings said that a writer could spend 25 years on one line of one poem, and we know that writers agonize over their words and can be reluctant to call anything complete.

When Stafford was asked how in the world he writes a full poem every day in the space of a couple of hours, he replied, "It's easy. I lower my standards." 
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What I took this to mean is not that he didn't go back and revise ever but that he wouldn't let perfectionism stop him. He wrote a poem to an end in the allotted time every day. 

The advice -- lower your standards -- applies to so many things in life (my favorite application is house cleaning), but I think it applies especially well to meditation. From one day to the next, we don't know how our meditation is going to be. One day it could be full of distracting thoughts. The next day, it could be very peaceful. We could feel a darkness pervading one day and showered with light another. In all scenarios, we are meditating and more importantly developing the habit of meditating. In all scenarios, we are showing up for the deep work of connecting to our inner wisdom and however messy it is in the mind, I believe our souls take notice. 

So please don't let perfectionism stop you. Please drop your expectations of how meditation should be. You closed your eyes; you went within; you sat for the allotted time... you meditated. 

It's not about having a perfect experience or blissing out, it's about showing up and moving through it. If we can liberate ourselves from perfectionism and keep showing up, we can be steady in our practice. And steadiness is the most important thing, providing the container for the wisdom to pour through, the insight to burst forth, the peace to rise to the surface day after day. That's what Stafford did with his writing practice.

Lower your standards and let the soul respond. If Stafford's body of work is any indication, it will. You can read one of my favorite of his poems below. 

I know that some people avoid meditation because they think they can't do it or they won't get it right. If that describes you, I pray you will lower your standards because the rewards of doing so are many. 

Right NOW -- this weekend -- is a great time to make a positive change. It will be the New Moon in Taurus. As we learn in the teachings of Kundalini Yoga, the New Moon is always a powerful time to set a new intention. With this New Moon, the energy of Taurus  supports lasting change. You can think of yourself as the bull -- determined and grounded in strength and confidence. 

Are you thinking of making a change? Do you want to eat better? Move more? Wake earlier? Drop a bad habit?  Shed a self-limiting or hurtful thought? Then, let's start NOW. If you've been considering a positive lifestyle change, start NOW. Give yourself every advantage. 

I've put together a list of 10 tips (which includes seizing the opportunity of the New Moon in Taurus) for giving yourself the advantage and anticipating and helping yourself through some of  the challenges of change because change can be tricky. Before I get to the tips, let's look at why it isn't always easy to step into new good habits.

No matter how much we want to step into a positive future full of good habits, our old patterning may threaten to overpower our positive intentions. Old patterning gets in the way in the form of discomfort. For example, you can imagine that you may feel off if... 

• ...you're used to plowing through a sleeve of cookies when stressed but instead you try to focus on your breath. 
• ...you're used to falling asleep in front of the TV but instead you lie in bed, scan the body for tension to release, and then wait for sleep to come. 
• ...you're used to hitting snooze a bunch of times and crawling to the kitchen for coffee but instead you try to get right out of bed, splash cold water on your face and sit in meditation. 

We are wired to relieve discomfort, not ride it out. This doesn't mean we are bad or unable to create a new habit. It just means we're human, and we need to help ourselves in our human tendencies. If we anticipate these tendencies and use helpful practices to deal with them, we can indeed get to other side of discomfort.  Tips for that are coming.
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In addition to the old patterns, we also have the constant chatter in our minds that can knock us off course. At times, many of us are flooded with unhelpful and distracting thoughts. Our minds can throw us off track. For example... 

• In the midst of a 40-day practice, you might think, "Well, I've gone for 22 days. That's a lot. That's got to be enough. What do they want from me?"  
• If we're endeavoring to eat more whole foods and less processed junk, you might think, "This isn't fair. Other people get to eat junk. I deserve treats too."
• A reminder goes off on your phone that it's time to go to yoga class. You might think, "But there are bills and dishes piling up. That's more important. Yoga is a luxury." 

We have to deal with our chatty, chatty, chatty minds who may get even chattier when we have made a decision to do things differently. We can observe these thoughts and not be upset. We can say to ourselves. "That's just the mind doing it's thing. I don't have to listen." Again it's about anticipating and using tools to support ourselves through the storms of the mind, with those lightning streaks of sabotage. 

Kundalini Yoga has a plethora of techniques for overcoming the tricks of the mind and the entrenchment in old patterns. I've put together a list of them below with a couple other things thrown in. Pick the tips that appeal to you; pick the ones that you feel will nourish you and carry you through. But, for goodness' sake, support yourself. Spoil yourself with support! You deserve it! 

 Don't know who Syd is? Well, he's this super chipper Buddha who believes in you, believes in your vision and your ability to change. You can tell that he's saying, "You've got this. I love you." At MKY, we have a special connection to Syd because his creator is our dear friend and student, Ellen Atkins, aka the Suburban Monk. We are a proud Suburban Monk affiliate. You can click here to see all 14 colors of Little Syd, meet Big Syd, find out a little bit of how he came to be, and purchase a Syd for yourself and for your change.  

I hope these ideas serve you as you move closer and closer to a vision of your life that is the most expansive and joyful and aligned. Happy New Moon! Happy Change!