There are, of course, infinite ways to challenge yourself and make your Shiva Nata practice hard. This list of one hundred and one is a great starting place. And it’s also barely the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Here are the ones I pretty much always use, just as a [...]

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. Anyway, here it is: 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 [...]

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 [...]

At the last Rally (Rally!), we were getting ready for our first Shiva Nata class. And I asked the group — some of whom were experienced shivanauts and some of whom had never done this ever — to make up words for the eight basic positions. I often do this when I teach. Do you [...]

I have been enjoying this fascinating book by Stefan Fatsis called Word Freak, about competitive Scrabble. And my favorite part, of course, is about how about studying word patterns strengthens memory patterns in the brain. As you study patterns, the synaptic connections get stronger and go deeper, encoding the new patterns and embedding them. Here’s [...]

I came back.

Had a glass of water.

Paced around the room.

Knew what needed to happen.

Found the opening.

It was obvious.

I had to set up a new section. And I knew exactly what to call it and where to put it and how to describe it and how it would work.

So I was teaching about how Dance of Shiva is all about the relationship between deconstruction and rebuilding. Create and destroy. Take something apart and then build something new with the old components.

That’s why Andrey calls it the liberation of consciousness. Because you can take any pattern — physical, energy, emotional, mental, spiritual — and use the parts of it to bring in the new pattern.

And the new pattern heals the old pattern. Patterns rewrite patterns. It’s like homeopathy but bigger.

Here’s the problem with epiphanies. Those Shivanautical moments of bing and zing that show up and make you go oh. They’re really hard to explain to anyone outside of your head. Because a lot of the time they sound kind of obvious. It’s kind of like big spiritual truths. Right? Like you have a serious [...]

ometimes twice.

On the beach. To The Clash. With words and sounds and seriousness and silliness and transcendence.

And my mind is boggling at all the incredible things that came from practicing with this amazing group of (extremely brave and tolerant!) people.

So over the next week or so I hope to share with you some of the extremely weird and fantastic things I have realized, discovered, seen, re-seen, understood, processed or been given.

Because ohmygosh. Big big stuff.

I was standing outside the door of my bedroom. The space that I want to bring more grounding and stability to.

And realized it was flanked by trees.

There is a tree on the mezuzah (you might have to wikipedia that one, sorry). And a tree is the central theme in the gorgeous painting I bought from Leah Piken Kolidas, which hangs on the other side of the door.

Right. The space I want to ground is surrounded by trees on both sides.

Also the room itself has lots of wood. And a brown floor. And all the other colors are first and second chakra colors. Hello, grounding.