Bring on the (hot buttered) epiphanies: learn Dance of Shiva
Insights on demand.
Just when stuckification is at its most stuckified, it happens — that sweet moment of “bing!”
It’s happened before, so you know it can happen again (theoretically, at least) but it’s really frustrating while you’re waiting for it.
Grrr, stupid moments of spontaneous synchronicity and joyful delirium — how come you can’t get them to show up when you need them most? Light bulb please!
The What of What?
The perfect cure for stuck patterns: Shiva Nata (Andrey Lappa’s Dance of Shiva) is a yoga-based mind-body training system that builds new neural connections and stimulates epiphanies.
Homer Simpson voice: Mmmm, epiphanies.
The more you practice, the better you get at recognizing your patterns, breaking them down into their components and building something entirely new to take their place.
It’s like nothing else you’ve ever done. It’s visually stunning. It messes with your head. And restructures the brain so you can have hugely exciting moments of understanding in a really safe, systematic way.
Sudoku for your brain. A dancing puzzle that sparks moments of ohmygod how did I not see that before. Which lead you to bizarre and awesome personal breakthroughs, usually within 24 hours of practicing.
What it’s for.
So the symbolic essence of Shiva is destruction. Gah. Scary. Substitute deconstruction for destruction (think "winter making room for new growth" and "swords melting to be made into plowshares" ) and that’s what this crazy movement form is about.
How to take out the mental trash (you know, limiting beliefs, stuck memories, unconscious habits and all the noise and stress that clutter up your brain), so you can make more room for mindfulness, clarity and great big moments of "bing".
This is what my students and clients use to figure out all sorts of things that eluded them beforehand, from coordination breakthroughs to huge emotional understandings.
Why this is so cool.
Because aside from recharging your brain, this practice can drastically improve all of these useful things:
- balance
- core body strength
- speed of reaction
- memory skills
- intuitive abilities
- structural thinking capabilities
- “Aha!” moments of emotional understanding
Oh, and a sculpted, strong, happy body. That’s not the point, of course. But not bad as side effects go.
Why Andrey Lappa?
If you’re super into yoga, you probably already know all about Andrey Lappa. He’s a Ukrainian yoga master and one of the most influential teachers alive. And he’s my mentor.
Aside from his deep background in traditional yoga (and his PhD in engineering), he’s also trained in ancient Indian and Vietnamese martial arts and dance. And he revived the ancient Dance of Shiva practice, and turned it into a creative, intelligent modern system for changing the brain. It’s ridiculously amazing.
And why me?
I’m the #2 expert in this practice. Like, in the world.
Selma the duck and I have taught Dance of Shiva to thousands of people around the world.
We’ve developed teaching programs for the first six levels of the dance, and I’m actually one of only two practitioners to have mastered Level 7. I also write and blog about the practice.
But the main thing is that I’ve personally experienced the bizarrely wonderful breakthroughs. From finally quitting smoking to learning German.
My students have big, crazy breakthroughs all the time. If you’re having them too, it makes me happy.
This won’t be something you stick on the shelf to accumulate layers of dust and guilt.
Because that would suck.
But also because it’s intentionally set up so you can do your practice in tiny pieces.
You get to choose between short bits and longer sequences and whether you want to go fast or slow, or play the steps as a loop for a focused practice. So you can always sneak in five minutes when you have the time. One of my students does his daily practice while the water is boiling for tea.
You’re not going to get bored because there are years of material on there. I still use mine, and it’s been over five years.
Plus the starter kit includes lots of good stuff about how to establish a regular, fun, useful home practice that actually works for you.
But I’m not ready yet, I need to get in shape, I’m not twenty-five anymore …
Reassurances! There is absolutely no need to be “in shape” (whatever that means) to do this. It’s much more of a mind challenge than a body challenge, though yeah, you can also use it as a fitness thing. Five minutes a day is plenty to grow your brain and give your body benefit too.
Some of my students are in their seventies. One recently performed this dance on his eightieth birthday.
Plus if you hate it, return it.
What you get with the Starter Kit.
Andrey Lappa’s DVD: over four hours of material that will keep you busy for years (NTSC, all regions).
You get invited by me to participate in a teleclass (no cost) where I answer questions on destuckifying, building a steady home practice and getting what you need from the practice.
Four different 60 minute recordings (mp3) of my Dust off the DVD class — full of ideas for sustaining your practice and making it fun.
The tip sheet: "How to start and stick to a home practice" (tips and tricks for making it work). Plus a bunch of other worksheets.
Getting Started with Dance of Shiva : A 45 page e-book with a ton of highly concentrated useful information).
A collection of articles to kick-start your practice: a 37 page e-book of pieces I’ve written about the practice (these haven’t been published on the blog).
Coupon for a 15% discount on my Dance of Shiva manual (coming very soon)!
FREE shipping anywhere in the world.
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Whenever I practice Dance of Shiva I wake up the next day with another one of those profoundly clear understandings that seemed like they should have been so obvious — and somehow never came up in all those years of therapy… It’s these big "Aha!" moments where these huge realizations about myself come out of nowhere, although actually it totally comes from the Dance of Shiva. Really powerful stuff coming up in a very visceral way. It’s amazing. My body "gets it" now — not just a mental understanding Oh, and even though I have chronic pain in my arms and shoulders, NO upper body pain, which is really unusual. Jill Shaw |
The Dance of Shiva Starter Kit (shipping included)
The Starter Kit is $72 — which is, oh, somewhat cheaper than flying to study with me.
As of right now, the Kit also includes free shipping anywhere in the world. This part could conceivably end up getting on my nerves so who knows. For now it’s a thing.
Any of my students will tell you that everything I do is super high quality and done in integrity. If you don’t love it, I’ll take it back.
p.s. Obviously you can take your time to think about this. I am the world’s biggest cynic (or at least I was before yoga fried my brain) and I kept on rolling my eyes even after I used this practice to do crazy-great things. You’re absolutely allowed to practice with a healthy dose of cynicism — it’s even recommended.
Hang out with us on the blog. See it it’s your thing. No rush.
p.p.s. Last thing, I promise. If you already own Andrey’s DVD and just want the rest of the Starter Kit, there’s an upgrade option that saves you money.