Some stuff from the ether. I mean, from the fabulously flailing Shivanauts.

It’s like kung fu, but without the killing.

My thoughts exactly!

Loved this post from Bill about doing Shiva Nata at the North Carolina retreat.

Patterns get built and systematically taken apart before they’re rebuilt. It messes with your head and the rest of you too.

The rest is here.

Flailing without failing.

This one is from Amy about how the not-failing kind of flailing is helping her feel less like an uninspired poo-poo head.

Which is a wonderful thing to read.

Conscious awareness and your job hunt

Love how Miriam brings wacky awareness stuff into the very traditional thing of job-finding.

She’s been playing with Shiva Nata and figuring out how to work the concepts into her work.

Which is a totally Shiva Nata thing to happen, because that’s what happens when you start seeing the connections between everything. Awesome.

Even Havi calls it “wacky,” and it is nothing if not a bit unconventional – teaching your brain to act differently by focusing on patterns, deconstructing them and building new ones!

Shiva Nata for perfectionism.

Thorin wrote a terrific piece about dancing away perfectionism with the Dance of Shiva stuff.

It’s extraordinary.

When I’m doing Shiva Nata, and I get totally lost and just start flailing around, I feel so…free. I feel completely elated. I laugh. Hell, I giggle. Because I’m silly, and it feels good. Just like when I was a kid.

So thanks for helping me give myself permission to be silly again.

Isn’t that the loveliest thing? I think so too.

Okay. I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch. So if I’ve missed yours, let me know in the comments so I can not make that mistake again.

xox
h

If this seemed like your thing, you might like these too:

• Shivanautical updates!
• Shiva Nata for Roller Derby! And why it’s so crazy useful.
• Shiva Nata workshop in Boulder, CO!

And I keep forgetting to update.

So. Here’s what’s happening.*

* Yay! Stuff happening!

More Dance of Shiva classes in Berlin.

My friend Jackie is teaching a Shiva Nata series in Berlin for the month of October.

The first class already happened (sorry!) but there are three more. And they’re awesome. Jackie is a terrific teacher. Highly recommended.

Happening every Wednesday from 8 – 9:30 pm (20.00 – 21.30) through October 28th.

The course is open to all levels. It takes place at the lovely Theaterhaus Mitte:

Wallstraße 32, Berlin Mitte – Haus C, Raum 203

Nearest train station is: Heinrich Heine-Str. Or the U 2 to Märkisches Museum.

The cost is 12 € per class and slightly less if you sign up for the month.

Talk to Jackie (phone: 0176 – 25584034 or email: jackietauil AT yahoo PUNKT de) to see if there’s still room.

Shivanauts in the Boston area?

One of the guys who took one of my Berlin workshops wrote to ask if there are Shivanauts in the Boston area because he’s going to be there for several months and wanted some people to practice with.

And I know there are, but I totally can’t remember who.

Help me out?

Also, Heidi? Chas? Kat? Are you guys still Shiva-ing it up in those parts?

A neat opportunity … possibly. Yay!

So some of you know that I had to cancel my big interview with a huge German women’s magazine.

And even though I’m pretty sure we’ll able to reschedule it for some time next year, there was definitely a lot of sad around that. Sadface!

Right. So now in that fabulous “one door opens as another one closes” sort of way, we just got invited to do another interview for someone else. Will update when I know more!

Patterns. Patterns. Patterns.

All Shivanauts (and people who may eventually get around to trying this crazy stuff) need to read this one.

It’s an article from the New York Times called How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect.

It’s about how absurdity reveals patterns.

Absurdity reveals patterns.

Which we already know. Because we do it.

Disorientation is good for you. Flailing? Also good for you. Doing it wrong and shaking things up? Good for you.

And implicit learning is enhanced by the introduction of some goofy chaos.

Luckily, that’s how we do things around here. Total Shivanaut moment. Yay!

Thanks to Andi who is @annaline_39 on Twitter!

Twitter. It makes me the happy.

There are so many Shivanauts hanging out there that it’s kind of ridiculous. Usually under the hashtag #shivanauts but not always.

A great reminder of that this week when @jyotsnam wrote:

“y’know you can have shivanautical epiphanies even if you haven’t practised in 2 weeks-awesome.”

Which was so perfect because I had also just had a huge epiphany about a week after my last practice.

And it was as if all these tiny little zappy moments of whoah, ohmygosh had all been percolating under the surface. Bubble bubble bubble whoooosh!

Anyway, these tiny little conversations online have been a really inspiring reminder for me that none of us is in this alone. So thank you.

Shivanauts in derby!?!?

Well, there will be some soon.

That’s because if there’s one thing Roller Derby needs to be even more outrageously great than it already is … it’s mad hot coordination.

And guess what? Guess what? Guess what?

Selma and I (along with ShivaNata.com) are sponsoring a roller derby team here in Portland.

We’re supporting the Guns N Rollers. They’re hot. They’re tough. They’re proud. They call themselves “the gayest team in derby”. What’s not to love?

And they don’t know it yet but they’re also on their way to becoming the most badass Shivanauts ever.

I’ll be teaching a class or two. Though I hope not on skates. And they will be rocking. Because that’s what they do.

It’s one of those things that makes me shake my head at the crazy fabulousness in my life. Rejoice with me!

And … I’m pretty sure that’s all the news for now.

I’m off to flail around. To music. In my office. Shiva-ing it up over here.

Anything I missed?

If this seemed like your thing, you might like these too:

• Shiva Nata for Roller Derby! And why it’s so crazy useful.
• The one about corollaries.
• The Levy Flight. Patterns. Again.

Man, you just have to read this.
– Havi

Transformation, skeletons and the most beautiful story.

Dear Havi (and Selma),

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for creating the Dance of Shiva Starter Kit. I bought the kit last Saturday without really knowing what I was doing or why.

But I loved that it was endorsed by a duck, and I had a feeling inside me that said, “You need to own this.”

So I read the worksheets, puzzled my way through the arm movements, and started keeping a daily journal. I got confused, felt lost, and loved the warm fuzzy brain feeling that came afterwards. Six days later, I had the most amazing experience.

For the first time in twenty six years, I can stand on my own two feet, and it doesn’t feel wrong.

I have always hunched. It’s a caved chest gangly neck look my mother, grandfather, and cousins share. I never thought much of it. It was simply the way I stood, and I didn’t know how to stand any differently.

Last Thursday I did my morning Dance of Shiva. During shavasana, I saw this image of a skeleton cringing as if from a blow.

It was the pattern of that familial hunch, and I knew I didn’t have to do it any more.

I stood up.

I didn’t hunch.

My head balanced on my spine. My spine balanced on my hips. My hips balanced on my legs. My legs balanced on my feet. It was the first time in my life I’ve been able to stand without it feeling wrong, or awkward, or graceless.

I can look people in the eye, because my gaze no longer follows a hunched spine to their feet. It’s one of the most profound experiences I have ever had.

So thank you for bring Dance of Shiva to me. It’s an amazing, crazy, scary, awesome treasure, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Namaste,
Frank Mitchell

Am I right or am I right?

Beautiful.

If this seemed like your thing, you might like these too:

• An amazing Shiva Nata story.
• Excitements! The Shiva Nata app is now live!
• What will I do when I finish Shiva Nata?

Every once in a while I get an email from a total stranger that’s just pure distilled awesomeness.

Like this one from Erika Harris (reprinted with permission):

Havi,

Hot-buttered-holographic-mantrixdala-cerebral-caresses… and crunches. Dammit.

In other words, the DVD arrived today.

Yay? Nay? Yes!
Erika

P.S. Synap… is mighty close to: Ssss-nnnnap (like a brain crackle & pop). Hmmm, maybe instead of a duck, I’ll practice Shiva Nata with two Rice Krispies treats. You know, just to keep my palms flat and facing heaven :-)

P.P.S. All brain-scramble aside, I’m totally excited about — and terror-fied of — this process. Already.

You know what I love?

When people get how great this is going to be before they even start.

That tingly sensation that’s equal parts oh boy and uh oh.

And all I can say about that is Wheeeeee!

Because Erika, you’re in for a ride.

Also, this is seriously the coolest email I’ve gotten all week. And I get great email.

I LOVE it.

In fact, I might have to put this on my wall.

Or embroider it on a cushion. Or tattoo it on one of my students.

Yes, Dance of Shiva is very, very snap, crackle and pop-ey.

Go in small doses, take your time and enjoy the buzz.

And if you do practice with Rice Krispie treats, you MUST take pictures because it will be the highlight of my life. So so great.

Can’t wait to put this up because it will put a smile on the face of every single Shivanaut I know!

And I’m very excited to hear how it goes.

Enjoy the scrambling and unscrambling, Erika! And same goes for the rest of you too.

Oooh, one more thing.

So I go to Erika’s website, thinking … who is this masked woman of mystery?

And it turns out that she runs a wonderful little place online called Joyful Work for Sensitive People.

Now, if you’ve read my stuff over at The Fluent Self you know that I am also a Highly Sensitive Person. So this is very fortuitous in all sorts of different ways.

Anyway, say hi to a brand new Shivanaut and start hanging out with Erika. Because I like her.

And fill me in on how your practice is going! My duck wants to know.

If this seemed like your thing, you might like these too:

• Ten basic Shiva Nata principles.
• What’s a Shivanaut?
• The Levy Flight. Patterns. Again.