November 20
Unexpected benefits of Shiva Nata
I realised today, now that I’m doing a slightly longer practice (warm up with fun run throughs of level 1 and/or 2 then challenge myself with level 3), that one of my biggest challenges is keeping focussed for the whole length of time. If I start to let my mind wonder then I start going horribly, horribly wrong!
I said before that never finished that post about how my mind wandering was one sign that I’m not challenging myself enough (and I will admit that I kept it at the same difficulty level so as to give myself the boon of getting all the way through the sequence) but it made me realise that when it’s not too easy I’m being singly focussed on my practice to the exclusion of all else.
Shiva Nata has helped me practice mindfullness! I totally wasn’t expecting that one (though now I think about it I’m pretty sure Havi’s mentioned something like that before) but still, it wasn’t what I was aiming for (I got into this for the epiphanies, man) but it’s excellent when you’re doing a practice for a certain reason and you start to see other related and equally desirable benefits pop-up and go, here you are, a free bonus for you!
Great to find a site of someone talking about their personal Shiva Nata practice!
As a fellow dancing geek who made it to level 3 of Dance of Shiva (I love that DoS spells DOS, as in MS-DOS–installing new brain software?), I agree that mind wandering means you aren’t doing a level of DoS that’s complex enough to challenge you.
Keep on dancin’,
~Duff
Duff’s last blog post..Beat the Recession/Holiday Blues with Core Transformation
@Duff: I’m still excited every time someone new says “I’m a shivanaut, too”! It sounds like you stopped though – what’s happening in Duff-land?
Hey James,
I stopped due to maxing out on level 3 with Lappa’s DVD, then found Havi on a Google search and asked her about the higher levels, but haven’t actually practiced them yet.
I expect that I may take up DoS again sometime, but I’m currently feeling called to practice two other transformation technologies primarily. The first is called Core Transformation–a way of transforming unwanted feelings and behaviors with a specific formula of appreciation and penetrating inquiry. The second is Bradford Keeney’s Shaking Medicine–a practice of ecstatic, spontaneous moving, shaking, speaking, and healing.
I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for Dance of Shiva, as wacky as it is. And the more I learn about the nervous system, the more it makes sense how it works. EMDR seems to work in a similar way.
Duff’s last blog post..Beat the Recession/Holiday Blues with Core Transformation
@Duff – I can certainly understand why you’d only do one or two at a time. It can be pretty intense working on this kind of thing, and I could easily imagine many practices causing ‘unusual patterns’ or side-effects from inter-relating in odd ways!
Core Transformation certainly sounds interesting (I’ve followed links of yours before from Precision Change) and is on my ‘reserve list’ of things to try. The Shaking Medicine sounds a little bit like some of the contemporary dance warm-ups I’ve done in my time!