Shiva Nata: the Dance of Shiva
This post comes from shivanaut Simone Seol, who created this drawing in a recent fit of inspired Shivanautical brilliance.
Thanks, Simone – this pretty much says it all!
Found scribbled on a post-Shiva-Nata post-it note.
From a few months back, but I found it today.
Which was exactly the right day to find it.
There are two ways to find the clues.
1) Be present and you will find the clues.
2) Be someone who sees patterns, and you will find the clues.
Over the past several months, the clues have been falling into my lap with an immediacy that surprises even me.
But really it’s not that surprising.
It comes from being present. And from being the person who sees the patterns.
And since Shiva Nata is the insanely fast shortcut to both of those states/abilities…
Clues. Pointing arrows. And surprisingly often also the information I need in the exact moment that I need it.
Sitting with pieces and shards of information. Playing with it. Rearranging it. Flipping it. Turning it upside down and inside out. Mapping out the connections.
Turning off my brain and then turning it back on again.
Because that’s the shivanautical approach.
Be curious and play. Be curious and play. Be curious and play.
Each of us is in charge of our own experience. Yay!
So we take loving responsibility for how we interact with concepts, with our process and with each other. We pay attention to what we need and to how we can give it to ourselves.
p.s. I haven’t yet posted here about ohmygod SHIVANAUTICON! Mostly because I was hoping to have more information for you other than the dates and the much-wished-for cotton candy machine. But you can sign up here for details and there will be some excited noises soon.
You guys! This weekend is Roller Derby Championships! And I’m there. In Denver.
Which also meant I got to do two hours of Shiva Nata yesterday with twenty seven wonderful people in Boulder. Awesome.
Today’s post is from shivanaut Laura Eliason, who skates as Demon Llama for Ireland’s Cork City Firebirds. She’s bouting against Amsterdam this weekend, so send some love her way…
Okay. Here’s Demon Llama!
I was recently asked to take on some coaching duties for my derby league.
And I’ve started teaching them Shiva Nata.
When I introduced this practice to the league, one of girls asked how it was useful for derby. I wrote up some notes to share on our league’s board. … and here’s what I’ve got:
The answer is this:
I’m pretty sure that EVERYTHING about Shiva Nata is useful when you’re training for derby.
But here are a few specific things that come to mind, although I’m sure there are many more.
Basically the whole idea of Shiva Nata is that if you aren’t screwing it up constantly then you aren’t going to get that much out of it.
Making mistakes and moving through them are part of your experience, but it’s also one of the hardest things to adapt to at first.
You’re going to look one way and the opposing jammer is going to fly by you on the other side.
Maybe you’re jamming and you trip over your own feet.
If you’re beating yourself up over this stuff, it’s hard to adapt to what is actually happening.
Shiva Nata helps you get used to the idea of not getting attached to the screw-ups; just moving through them and trusting that you will get better each time.
Shiva Nata also shows you the patterns behind the screw-ups. Also the patterns behind the self-recrimination. And what to do about it.
In Shiva Nata, you’ve got one arm spiraling in one direction, the other arm spiraling in the opposite direction, trying to say the numbers out loud too, oh and for good measure you can throw in a leg going in some other direction.
In derby, look forward, you look backward, play offense, play defense, communicate with your team mates, and stay on your skates (among other things).
Shiva Nata trains your brain to be able to handle multiple different kinds of information AND to communicate that with your body.
To think & move at the same time.
Especially when you’re just starting out, mirroring someone else lets you attune to what their body is doing and trust that they are showing you what to do.
This is a great way to get used to the idea of physically working with your teammates — like when you need to form a wall that is capable of staying together and stopping an opposing player.
Even when practicing on your own, you are asking separate parts of your body to cooperate with you, to respond to the messages you are sending them.
The better you are able to communicate with your own body, the better you can communicate with your teammates, and more intuitively too.
Using one part of your body in one way while simultaneously using another part of your body in a different way is useful cross-training for jammers — being able to fake in one direction, while simultaneously getting your legs moving in the other direction.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of taking a hit on skates knows how important core strength is, so anything you can do to build on that = awesome.
Also, I think upper body work tends to get forgotten in the focus on legs & core, but one rotator-cuff strain and you won’t forget it again.
I’m always surprised by how easy it is to fatigue my arms doing Shiva Nata, and unlike weight lifting (which is awesome too) Shiva Nata keeps your muscles dynamic, so they aren’t just strong, but they move with strength.
And being dynamic is fundamental to derby — we’re on wheels!
“The middle” is that dangerous place where you think you don’t need to improve anymore. Shiva Nata celebrates mistakes because that’s where you are pushing your mind and body into new territory, forming new neural connections.
Bringing that to your derby training helps you remember to actively seek out the challenge when something has become too easy for you.
You don’t need to spend an hour doing Shiva Nata to get major epiphanies. I usually do it in 5 minute increments, and have really started to appreciate that a consistent strong effort over a short period of time can yield amazing results over the long term.
Shiva Nata gives your mind a major workout just learning the basics of Level 1, and then suddenly you’re on Level 2 and everything you thought you knew is now totally different.
In roller derby you may go into a jam with a solid strategy, but suddenly your jammer gets a major penalty and now you need to control a power jam: you have to adapt instantly.
Practicing different aspects or levels of Shiva Nata one after another is super useful in developing your ability to adapt instantly.
As a jammer it trains your eye to see the paths through the pack, not the people in the pack.
As a blocker it trains you to identify the other team’s strategy quickly — and counter it.
This is one of those things that is pretty hard to explain without experiencing it.
There are always multiple patterns at play, and they are constantly changing. Developing this kind of vision is one of the greatest gifts of Shiva Nata.
Just do it. And keep doing it. And keep making it harder. You’ll feel and see what happens. And it will be brilliant.
I will be teaching an afternoon shivanauttery workshop in Boulder, Colorado.
Ridiculously soon!
It’s Thursday, November 10, 2011.
3:00 pm – 5:00pm
Selma will be there. The Schmoppet will be there.
There will be epiphanies of the hot and buttered variety. It will be grand.
And it’s pretty close to full so if there’s a chance you can make it, go for it.
Maybe I’ll get to see you there?
All the details are on this page.
Reports to follow!
p.s. Shiva Nata is also sponsoring the 2011 Roller Derby Championships in Denver. You can try to find me there too. I’ll be wearing a purple rainbow toy snake as a boa. Derby shivanauts unite!
So. After six months filled with crazy hard work, our lovely baby — Pocket Shiva Nata — is here and alive and kicking!
As of right now. Hooray!
And there was great rejoicing, but also MAYHEM and HAPPY FLAILING and general brain scramble of the best possible kind. Again: Hooray!
That’s the news….
Happy, happy flailing! Let the crazed zaptastic getting-lost begin!
1) Joyous celebration. It’s done! It’s here! It has arrived in the world! My tiny sweet thing that was also a Gwish has become a tangible, beautiful, amazing, real live gift. Yay!
1.5) Confetti! Shaped like stars! Or asparagus. I don’t know. Invent confetti!
2) Love and good wishes for all the amazing people who helped make this possible: Dave (of Fortified Studios), Richard and Casey: you guys are the best!
3) PLEASE PLEASE as many positive reviews as possible in the app store — the sooner the better.
And here’s the link again: The Pocket Shiva Nata app!
Thank you thank you thank you. And ohmygoodness hooray!
Normally I don’t teach Shiva Nata classes outside of retreats, rallies and shivanautical trainings.
On Toozday, July 26 (soon!), my duck and I will be leading 90 delicious minutes of shivanautical fun at my studio — the Playground — in Portland, Oregon.
And then there is a 3 part series in August too. Yay!
If you like, you can bring a pattern, a stuck, a Gwish or something you want to work on or get better at.
But you won’t have to tell anyone what it is! And if you don’t have one, that’s okay too!
And we’ll use the mad, intense, flailing and brain training to generate insights, alternatives and surprising simple solutions.
Each class will include ridiculous flailing, secret just-for-you stone skippings, and some lovely calming down.
Any and all levels (including I-have-no-idea-what-this-is!) welcome.
As are any and all ages, shapes, body types, etc.
We will laugh.
You will get better at things like balance, agility, creativity and adaptability. And finding beauty in both order and chaos.
a) $35 drop-in,
b) $15 if you pre-register online, or
c) Nothing at all if you sign-up for the 3 part series in August.
*All the details are HERE: http://shivanata.com/snack-preview-pdx
I would love some happy cheering for this.
If you’re in PDX or the general area, it would be amazing to see you there.
And if not, I would love it if you would help me spread the word, especially if you know people who might be into this.
Let me know if you have questions!
NOTE: I announced this on the Fluent Self blog on Friday so it’s already getting pretty close to full. I think we can fit seven more people in if we squeeze. :)
If you’ve been doing Shiva Nata for a while, you’re already used to contradiction. And paradox. Ahahahaha. Yes.
I am right but I am also wrong.
I recognize the pattern but I can’t explain it or repeat it.
One thing is true but uh oh its opposite is apparently also true.
That’s just how Shiva Nata works. You end up dealing with these constant moments of recognition and understanding that two seemingly contradictory things can be true at the same time.
Maybe it’s that all this new neural connectivity means you’re getting better at holding a thought and its opposite at the same time.
Maybe it’s because all the flailing around and mixing it up (or the permission to flail and mix) helps you release various internal and external rules about how things are supposed to be.
Either way, whenever you encounter a rule or a principle in Shiva Nata, you can always assume that this rule has a corollary. Or at least a couple of important caveats.
Because I’ve been writing up a series of essays for the lovely people coming to the Shiva Nata September Training Intensive — the Academy of Hilarity & Play.
And pretty much everything I say comes with a second half where I totally contradict the first half.
And both sides are right. Both sides are powerful. They each tell part of a story.
And also because I’m sure you’ve also noticed examples of this in the practice.
Like this old favorite:
Form is not at all important! Form is so important!
I’ve kind of talked about that before, but there’s so much more to say. And believe me, we’re not done covering that one.
Anyway, when you encounter a shivanautical paradox and it’s breaking your brain, bring it back to the practice.
Set the intention that you want to understand how this contradiction isn’t actually a contradiction. Or how both parts can be true. Ask the practice to show you the piece that is still out of reach.
And see what happens…
Something super interesting came up on the Shiva Nata sneak snack picnic call.
It’s the fear of being done.
What happens when I’ve learned all the levels, exhausted all of the options, figured out all the patterns? What if I run out of Shiva Nata? I don’t want to run out of Shiva Nata!
Or, as someone put it on the call:
I also have this fear of “running out” — I kind of hoard the later levels so I still have lots of epiphanies to look forward to.
This worry has has shown up for people in every training we’ve done so far*, and I’ve totally been meaning to write about it, so thank you for reminding me! Let’s look at this.
* So it’s a perfectly normal, legitimate, human thing to worry about.
The thing we need to remember about worrying over what will happen when you finish Shiva Nata is that there is no finishing Shiva Nata. There is no done.
For so many reasons.
Being done with Shiva Nata would be like having learned everything possible there is to learn about physics and mathematics in the entire universe: having thoroughly explored every possible equation, hypothesis and possible conclusion.
Being done with Shiva Nata would be like having visited every single one of the billions of cells in your body and examined every aspect of it and then continued to explore all the atoms in the universe.
It isn’t possible.
And even if you could do those things, the beauty, brilliance and power that you would discover would lead you to new things, and they would be a part of Shiva Nata as well.
Even if you were so well-versed and well-practiced in Shiva Nata that you could do Level 7 at crazy-fast speeds (and translating the numbers into Italian) while riding a unicycle, knitting a scarf and solving complex mathematical algorithms on a moving chalkboard….
You would not be done.
You would just be beginning.
There are always more levels. And not just upward.
But mini-levels and transitional levels and half-levels and things that have not been discovered yet.
There are endless permutations. Endless ways to play with each level and make it entirely new again.
Not like with yoga or martial arts, which are also infinite.
Yoga is infinite because you can always go deeper, internally or externally. You can always discover something new about a pose or about how you are while you’re in it.
In martial arts, you can always become more skilled, more agile, more adaptive.
I am not talking about that stuff, even though that stuff is also cool and also happens in Shiva Nata.
Shiva Nata is fractal.
It is constantly expanding, constantly forming and re-forming.
Each algorithm leads you to a new and more complex algorithm.
And there are UNLIMITED algorithms that have not been practiced or invented yet.
As you expand your interconnected networks of neural connections and as you generate moments of understanding, you will find the new ways to do Shiva Nata.
They will come to you, because this is an insanely inventive practice.
You will find endless variations and endless surprises.
Because honestly? The thing that really should be freaking you out is not that you might finish or run out, but that we’ve barely uncovered the tip of the iceberg of what is possible with Dance of Shiva.
The vastness of possibility is intense, and when you encounter it, that is a big moment.
Luckily that discomfort or fear is a pattern too, and any pattern can be given back to the practice and rewritten.
There are two things I always end up saying in response to any question about Shiva Nata.
This is never as hard as you think it will be because every question reveals the thing that is missing or desired.
In this case, there are patterns of Not-Enoughness. And if they’re coming up with Shiva Nata, they’re probably coming up in other places too.
Like relationships. Maybe with people. Maybe with things like money, time, space, love, creativity, support.
Patterns aren’t good or bad — they’re just useful information about where you are right now.
And if you aren’t sure what the patterns are, make that your intention for your Shiva Nata practice. Ask it to show you what the patterns are.
Bring your question and the patterns inside of it back to the practice, so it can help you bring in the new patterns.
Say something like this:
“Okay, I’m about to practice Shiva Nata. I’m going to make it hard and experiment. And I know there’s this thing going on for me where I think I’m going to run out of Shiva Nata. So I’d like to know what the patterns are and what my next step is in healing whatever old pain is behind this fear.”
Or maybe you don’t say anything at all.
But you just bring your attention to the existence of the question.
Shiva Nata will help you figure out how to not run out of Shiva Nata. That’s kind of how it works.
Anywhere we want to.
We can rejoice about the hidden truth (there’s always enough! there’s always more!).
We can notice new fears, worries, what-ifs. And recognize that these too are patterns. And bring them back to our Shiva Nata practice to get insights on how we can rewrite them.
We can imagine the zaniness that will ensue when we are doing Level 7 on our unicycles or other head-explody things.
We can remember that there is time, and we don’t have to figure it all out right away.
We can ask questions. We can breathe. We can take things apart and put them back together again. We can laugh and cry and play and wonder.
And dance dance dance.
p.s. Tiny popsicle stick reminder! Eight days left in the the September Training early registration period. If there’s stuff you’re wondering about, let me know!
So last Thursday we were on the sneak snack picnic preview call in honor of the upcoming September Shiva Nata training.
Note! You can still sign up for recording and Chattery transcript. And you can still join the training. Early registration price good through the 15th.
And Andy (who is @acdolph on Twitter) asked a very useful question.
I had been saying something about how, as a shivanaut, you can apply Shiva Nata principles to everything you do. To anything you’re working on.
Andy, very sensibly, asked what those principles were.
And I was all, Huh?
That’s because I suffer from eternal Too Much Information syndrome.
Being way too close to this stuff, it hadn’t occurred to me that many of you might not be familiar with the basic Shiva Nata principles.
But of course you wouldn’t (though you might already feel them or have a sense of them) because, well, why would you? It isn’t really something I’ve talked about explicitly here.
Silly me! So then — after I stopped stuttering — I talked about some of those principles and how they work. And it might be useful to talk about them here too.
Anyway, here are some of the basic Dance of Shiva principles (and accompanying superpowers). In no particular order.
Things are constantly in flux.
Everything is moving. Go with it.
In Shiva Nata, we’re invariably going to be lost most of the time. When we’re not messing up, it’s not working.
So the rules are constantly changing. The formulae get increasingly complex. Each sequence takes apart what you’ve just learned. Each algorithm is crazier than the last.
And we just deal with it. We adapt. And we laugh at how ridiculously terrible we are at adapting.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Agility, Flexibility and Balance. Also the superpower of “Oh, things are like this now? Okay!”
There is always an opening.
Always a gap.
Patterns are made of elements and the gaps between them. Use the gaps.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Curiosity, Play, Courage, Delight
Pattern recognition is what we do.
Everything is a pattern and any pattern can be changed.
Shiva Nata helps you identify and recognize what the patterns are, without thinking that they’re good or bad (because that’s a pattern too).
It shows you what’s going on for you in any given moment.
Eventually you just start to notice patterns everywhere. And to play with them.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Awareness, Clarity, Flow
We approach things with a methodical scientific mindset of exploration and discovery.
You don’t just make connections and cross the midline to challenge the brain.
You make every possible connection between X number of points. You cross hemispheres using sequential patterns.
And each new pattern reconfigures the elements of the old pattern.
Same thing when you work on personal patterns (mental, emotional, physical, energy, spiritual, whatever you’re working on).
You establish a hypothesis. You play with one element at a time. You document the process.
Pattern-mapping and pattern-deconstructing. Testing things. Taking notes! That’s the approach.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Order, Structure, Form, Curiosity, Play, Inquisitiveness, Investigation, Potentiality.
We do a lot of work with spatial awareness in Shiva Nata, both physically and energetically. And symbolically.
We use force fields. We build buffers. We work on getting to know our internal and immediately-external space.
And we work on maintaining our sense of where our space begins and ends. We learn about our right to take up space. To claim it unapologetically.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Sovereignty, Spaciousness, Containment, Safety, Support, Grounding, Stability, Trust.
This is related to experimentation.
We mess around with things. We are big believers in Try Stuff.
We use words, colors, numbers, directions, anything we can think of.
We approach the practice with joy and with glee when we can.
And with an experimental “I wonder what this will be like” when we can’t.
There’s a reason my center is called The Playground. We play there.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Creativity, Experimentation, Joy, Delight, Wonder, Healing.
This is related to adaptation.
Don’t get married to any particular pattern. It’s temporary.
When you practice Shiva Nata, it will feel so good whenever you have the sense that you’re “getting it right”. But getting it wrong is where the magic is.
So we have to let go of things. Lovingly. With compassion.
It’s hard stuff. It’s the advanced practice. And Shiva Nata teaches us how to do this.
Also, you gotta be okay with paradox. Everything in Shiva Nata has a corollary, an exception, a caveat. Baby, that’s how it is.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Trust, Release, Courage, Strength, Love.
This is an Andrey-ism and it is your reminder to always make it harder!
Seriously. Always make it harder.
But! We challenge patterns with love.
We don’t crush our patterns. We play with them. And we don’t challenge ourselves out of meanness, we challenge with compassion.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Grace, Power, Sovereignty, Harmony.
Flail disastrously! Mess up. Be awful at this. That’s the point.
Plus, it’s good for you.
Get it wrong. Get it wronger! Screw it up even more.
Shiva Nata is a giant permission slip (and a tiny one on a popsicle stick) to be terrible at something. And for that to be really, truly okay. Not just okay, but desirable.
There is no such thing as being good at this. No one ever has been and no one ever will be.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Permission, Flow, Forgiveness, .
Andrey says that the purpose of Shiva Nata is the liberation of your consciousness. Big words. And scary sometimes.
But yes, stick with the practice and you will feel it. At first in glimpses and hidden moments. And then more regularly. Freedom.
Shiva Nata teaches you how to be free (while still taking responsibility for your choices and your actions).
Freedom from having to do things the way you’ve always done them. Freedom to rewrite the patterns.
RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Congruence, Sovereignty, Permission, Possibility. And some other things that don’t really have words.
Shiva Nata is endless. Both infinite and infinitely complex. So these are by now means all of them. Luckily, they’re all connected anyway.
If none of this makes sense to you, no worries. Keep practicing. Keep flailing!
If this stuff that I’m talking about here is really appealing to you, take it to the practice. Ask to be shown more about the principle that speaks to you.
And if you’re coming to the September Training — aka the Shivanautical Academy of Hilarity and Play — you’ll leave with a much deeper sense of how to use these principles and apply them to real life.
Hope this was helpful! Was it?
xox
Havi
p.s. Tiny popsicle stick reminder! Twelve days left in the the September Training early registration period.
This is me wearing a pink wig and laughing my head off in a video segment (12:41) from a casual Shiva Nata class I taught in early May.
The students came up with silly words and we linked them with the arm positions…
The horizontals: shindig, popover, light, Selma
The verticals: pink, power, glitter, puffball
Here we’re doing Level 2 transquarters, which I call FLIP-ITS.
A Flip-It is when you leap-frog one position. So instead of going from one to two to three to four, you jump from one directly to three. Or from two directly to four. Flip it!
Additional notes:
Enjoy!
Me. And my duck. I'm the #2 world Dance of Shiva expert. She's a duck.
The Dance of Shiva Starter Kit at LearnDanceOfShiva.com.
