Make. It. Hard.
And then make it harder.
The other day I overheard (well, it was on Twitter, so I saw rather than heard) someone say that Level 2 Dance of Shiva wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be.
Yeah?
Good. Then make it hard.
Do it with your eyes closed.
- With squares.
- With colors instead of numbers.
- With different numbers (try 5-8 instead of 1-4).
- With legs super high.
- With transquarters.
- With music.
- With serious speed.
- With complex breathing patterns.
It’s your job to find the challenge.
Unfortunately, it’s not the job of the dance to make you work at it. That’s your job.
It’s only the job of the dance to transform your brain. And it will. Like crazy.
The second something is easy for you, it’s your responsibility to move to the next level. Or to shake up the level you’re currently working on.
Or you can always come to the weekend epiphanies workshop in North Carolina (three spots left, by the way) and get the mind-expanding experience of a lifetime.
You’ll hate it.
This workshop won’t be fun. But you definitely won’t think that it’s easy anymore.
And you’ll learn lots of ways to find the challenge and make it work for you.
There is no learning without challenge.
This is one of the reasons why Dance of Shiva transforms perfectionism.
Perfectionism isn’t possible in a practice where the goal is to do it badly.
Because you’re constantly trying to do it wrong.
There is no glory in getting it right. It’s all about taking on the challenge and stepping up to the yeah, I’m ready to shift stuff and it’s kind of going to suck for a while point.
Not that you can’t rest into the dance sometimes. Because you can.
Because the practice will carry you. It’s strong enough to hold you in complete safety while you do this wacky, hard, frustrating transformational work.
But ultimately you’re going to have to invite yourself to find the next challenge.
And I’ll be there to help you.
So what if you’ve got the opposite problem? I’ve gone from Shivanaut to Shiva-not, owing to my fantastic success at being horrible at it. A month of nearly daily practice, and I still couldn’t do Level One slow speed without boogering it up. For a little while, I rejoiced in my badness, and in the small flock of epiphanies I was accumulating. Then I got embarrassed. I was so very bad at it, and I wasn’t getting any better. Other people were performing beautiful magic with their brains and bodies. I sucked. Daily. Then weekly. Then not at all. No, I take that back. I continued to suck–just not at Shiva Nata.
Regret can be a daily practice, too.
Twitter: kimianak
I hope you’ll help us make it hard in Taos too, because that’s where I’ll get the chance to work with you, and I definitely could make use of such help.
I’m at level 1, and slow is easy, fast with only the arms isn’t too bad, but I’m still messing up a little. I can’t do it fast with the legs, though, and I suck so much at it that I feel like it’s not working at all. What I can do is too easy, and what I can’t do, well… is hard enough that I can’t even mess it because I can’t keep up! So yeah, I’m kind of feeling a bit stuck at this point.
Josianes last blog post..Exposing some flesh
@Melynda – Oh, hard. Hug.
And I kind of have to say … sounds like a pattern, sweetie. :)
If it makes you feel any better …
I couldn’t do Level One slow speed “without boogering it up” for SIX MONTHS. So I’m way ahead of you on the horrible. :)
If the point is to be constantly challenging yourself … what if you challenged yourself to not be in regret? Or challenged yourself to let yourself be in regret.
Or challenged yourself to continue to something else (transquarters! level 2!) without having mastered it or even been remotely okay at it.
Maybe your epiphany for now *is* this pattern of being embarrassed about being where you are. And maybe the shift has to do with recognizing that and not having it be the end of the world. Just a thought. Ignore if it isn’t helpful.
@Josiane – ah, the in between part. That’s where the making-it-hard-on-yourself part comes in.
Either do Too Hard followed by Too Easy followed by Too Hard. Or do Too Easy but with an added challenge (exhale, exhale, inhale, inhale) or with closing your eyes or with using your stomach muscles.
Or mix it up and start doing level 2 transquarters for a while and then come back to level 1. I won’t tell. Plus it really helps.
And anyway, it takes a very long time to combine legs and arms so no worries there!
xo
havi
Twitter: kimianak
Thanks Havi! I love that you’re always coming up with new suggestions, so that our repertoire of ideas to make it harder is constantly expanding!
I’m really looking forward to getting some live guidance in Taos too. In the meantime, I’ll work with those new ideas!
Josianes last blog post..Exposing some flesh
Oh. Oh!
Hello again, Perfectionism. Nice Embarrassment-and-Regret costume–did I make that for you? If you want, you can come sit in the living room while I try a little Shiva Nata. Or you could just wait outside till I’m done. Either way.
Thank you, Havi, for using your X-ray pattern vision superpower on my behalf!
Melyndas last blog post..It’s Not All Gracious Living Around Here
@Melynda – Nice!
Looks like you’re more of a quick study than you realize – you just internalized that understanding amazingly fast. Very impressive.
Anyway, my wacky superpowers (which I owe to Shiva Nata too, of course!) are at your disposal. :)
@Josiane – Excellent.
And I am also completely excited to meet you in Taos. Very cool.
How nice to read this post.
Because I’m just ok in L1 with V & H.
Still no legs movements, so here comes the fun.
I love (and hate at the same time, you know) so much the challenging part of this work.
It makes more sense to me than any other kind of yoga I new about.
I found the Neil Keleher web (because I have many questions like what is the right sequence to count transquarters, Andrey didn’t explain it in the DVD. And maybe you have not enough time for everybody. And Taos is far from my country and wallet this days, and answers by mail take some time, I know. Plus, I don t like to wait. If I work it when is hot, maybe I can fix it. If I lose momentum, maybe I ll never do it. )
Neil’s approach, even a little different (Maybe more complete, with more patterns. And a more clear and easy way to index the V with letters and H with numbers) looks interesting too.
He have a lovely daughter, Selma would love it. And he links to this site, of course.
I digress.
Making it hard.
Well, thats what my life is turns into when I try to make my dreams come true.
[...] quote at the beginning of this post is from Havi, again. It’s sort of exhausting, at first, but the post continues in the most reassuring way [...]