I recently made public a post from back in December about feeling tired after practicing Shiva Nata.  I even wrote to Havi a while back asking about whether this was normal.

Well, it seems to have percolated away in the back of my mind for a while and has now re-appeared, along with a structure (cause I *love* building those) to help me explain it to myself.

I’ve written about it over at my other blog, but the applicable bit for here is that I’ve maxed out my current energy and I need to improve that before I’ll be able to do more regular and intensive Shiva Nata practice.

Why do I want to do a more regular and intensive Shiva Nata practice?  I’m so glad you asked…

Another ongoing issue

I like Shiva Nata.  I like it because it has noticably made a difference to my awareness of my thoughts since I started it, but I also like it because I’m naturally good at it – ego love!

Of course, anyone who’s spent some time reading Havi’s writings on the subject knows that the latter isn’t necessarily such a good thing.  It’s been a great way to get into a practice with the intention of going wrong, and thus work on my perfectionist streak, but I haven’t had any epiphanies really since cracking Level 3.

The very clever Duff sparked thoughts about this a while back (thank you!) and it has also been percolating in my brain as I start to realise what it is I’m getting out of the practice, or not as the case may be.

Now, I don’t intend to stop, not yet anyway, but it ties in to what I wrote above in that I think the practice would require much more energy from me to make it complex enough to get the magic flowing.  At the moment, I don’t think I have what it takes to make epiphanies this way.

So what now

As I said, I’m not giving up.  I’ve got the instructions for Levels 4 and 5 from Havi and I’m going to go through a similar process as I did with Level 3 for those, which should pass some time.  Whilst I’m doing that, and going at a pace slower than I would like, I will work on the stuff that I need to help me push further: my diet, my sleep and my friends.

Wish me luck.

It wasn’t working.  I really needed an epiphany and I was getting nowhere fast.  So it was time to really up the ante.  This evening I did a monster practice as follows:

1. The entire series for Level 3, using 8 different words for the 4 horizontal and 4 vertical positions (H: Clarity, Awareness, Intuition, Heart; V: Blissful, Energised, Peaceful, Synchronised – these were targeted as I was after some answers around what made me happy).  With my eyes closed.  And my feet off the floor.  (Yep, I was falling about all over the place).
2. Followed immediately by a super quick run through of all of Level 2 with eyes open and feet off the floor.
3. Followed immediately by a super quick run through of Level 1, saying the positions at speed, with my eyes closed and feet off the floor.

I really wanted an answer, ok.

The result

I had originally just decided to do the first part, but even though I slowed right down at times and was constantly falling over, I still wasn’t getting that brain stuck moment.  [Ok, I finally caved.  I've emailed Havi (or rather marissa, I hope someone gets it anyway) and have asked for the info for the higher levels.]  So I decided to keep pushing and quickly made up parts 2 and then 3.

Same result.  The odd stumble.  The occasional realisation that the sequence was a little off and start that section again, but no complete brain-freeze stuckness.

[Disclaimer: I'm sorry if this seems like bragging, or rubbing it in to anyone reading who might be struggling with Level 1, but I'm trusting you to understand that my motivation here is simply to express where I'm at with the practice, and not to try and make me feel big with it, or you feel small.]

What next?

Well, I have a couple of ideas:

• Let it be known that I want to take it further and see what info comes my way – DONE
• Make up something completely freaking crazy, like a pattern that never comes back to where it starts, or does so only after 64 moves or something like that – TO DO

I figure I’ll give plan A bit of time to kick in before launching plan B.  Either way, could be interesting.

I’ve been doing level 1, 2, 3 & 4 (ish-maybe) with legs raised but not really getting that <erk> moment that is the so-called Epiphany Generator!

So what am I doing wrong?

I’m not sure at the moment.  I’ve a couple of inklings, around focus/intention, or about trying other ideas to make things harder (I’ve tried Level 1 with colours, but not the higher ones) so I’m going to look through the notes I got from Havi’s Starter Kit again and see if anything there sparks up some ideas.

I still don’t feel like I’ve shaken the intention to ‘learn’ Shiva Nata, which is the nice way of saying ‘master’ it.  Which since it makes Havi laugh so hard she starts coughing, I know isn’t going to work.

Still, I can do the moves, but it’s feeling a bit hollow – not got the substance in there (plus, yuck, I don’t want to suddenly find myself going back to Level 1 because I did it all wrong!)

Well, whatever happens, I’ll try and write about it a bit more – if nothing else it will help me to remain a bit more mindful with my practice.

Hugs to all my fellow Shivanauts,

James

So Level 1 is getting easy for me and I want to up the challenge a bit.  Checked out the theory from Level 2 and had a quick play with the arms – it’s a fairly logical progression up from Level 1 so nothing too frightening there.

I always want to see where I’m heading with something (I’m dying to see what Level 7 looks like!) so I snuck a peak at Level 3 also.  Very cool!  Now I want to skip Level 2 altogether and jump straight to Level 3!

The problem is that I feel like I “ought” to do Level 2 first.  That I “shouldn’t” just skip straight to Level 3.  These are words that normally trigger flashing red lights but in this case I’m sticking with it anyway.  I guess there are some other reasons in my thought soup.  Maybe the following will help you, but at least it will help me get clarity…

Why I decided not to skip Level 2

So why didn’t I just skip Level 2?  A couple of reasons really:

• I hate missing out – skipping Level 2 would mean I might miss out on something.  Not a great reason but one of mine nonetheless.
• There’s a reason it’s there – I’m assuming that there’s a reason Level 2 exists over and above annoying you by making you wait for Level 3.  Probably something about ‘preparing for the work yet to come’ or keeping a ‘steady progress’ or some other yucky, annoying, perfectly sensible reason.
• I’m a completionist – probably related to reason 1, I hate to not have a complete set of something.  If Level 2 exists you can be sure I’m going to do it.
• Sense of achievement – I know I’ll get a sense of pride out of making myself work through the process in order.  I heart systems and doing things in order!

Any ideas for slightly better thought out reasons for not skipping a level?  Or perhaps reasons why I should?