Hey all 
Thanks so much for all the comments and sharing of first day excitements and resistances in the comments yesterday.
Something else VERY cool happened in the comments yesterday…
I discovered that several of you have started blogs (or are writing on your personal blogs) specifically for these 40 Days. For those of you not following the comments as closely as I am, here’s a roundup!
Here, our own Kalyani Glass is sharing her experiences dancing as Spider(wo)man. It’s pretty great!
Over at Dance of Destruction, Wrenna Robertson is tracking her ability to shift patterns. I’m really excited to follow her 40-days.
And, thanks to the magic of twitter, I just discovered that Anna Lawrence is posting on the theme of Focus over at MissAdventures of the Dance of Shiva. Awesome!
In summary:
You are welcome to share your adventures in the comments here at ShivaNuts Unite at any point during these 40 days.
You are also welcome to post to your personal blogs. In that case, please do leave a comment here linking to your post so that we can all read it (unless you’d prefer to keep it secret, of course).
Every few days I’ll create a post like this one linking to everything that has been mentioned in the comments.
My Day 2 Update: I did 5-6 minutes of L5 to super fast and intense drumming by Glen Valez.
I found it quite interesting how Day 1 induced so much panic and resistance and how very little resistance there was today. It seems that now that I am actually *in* the expedition, I can relax and trust that it is okay to listen to my body. And, it feels easier to remember all the reassurances and permissions already built into the structure for these 40 days.
And now, how does Day 2 of the Expedition find you?
Happy Exploring!
Yesterday was utterly crazy-making, but before I fell into an exhausted heap in bed, I realized a pattern that could be made better with one of my movable sticky note calendar reminders, so maybe I did some shiva nata after all.
Today, I did Havi’s pink wig of power video. My brain is still scrambled enough that I’m having a ton of trouble typing straight, Going to do some journaling about Insane Carp while I’m in brain esplody mode.
Insane Carp. I think I could use a good dose of journaling at *that* as well.
It finds me well. Today, I did part of L6 with the words “Once upon a time” for H and qualities for V, walking backwards and forwards. ‘Twas good.
Wow. That sounds super intriguing and makes my brain feel all tingly just thinking about it. Hot damn!
slightly disorientated, a bit sad, not comfortable…shift is happening then! x
Ah yes, this practice is definitely not always ease and joy. However, it does provide a great container for when the less pleasant stuff starts to emerge. Here’s a post from the last Expedition that might be helpful:
http://shivanata.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/day-29/
sending love to you, Sheila.
My First Two Days of the Expedition have seen me trekking through small but significant Shiva Nata sessions. Lately, my arms tend to hurt before my brain does, but I can still get confused and giggle even with a short session. On Day 1 I did two pieces of Level 6, and Day 2 I did two pieces of a random variant of Level 3. I got a bit of mind-mush from them, but not a lot… just enough to feel perplexed during it, slightly spinny while sitting with my eyes closed afterwards, and slightly less scatterbrained afterwards, somehow.
My thoughts, with eyes closed, drifted on their own accord to the weaknesses that are currently tripping me up, and the thoughts proceeded to flit gently around these weaknesses in a way that seemed… curious… nonjudgemental… and supportive. I was filled with encouragement, in the sense of actually gaining small doses of courage, just enough to step forward on a few little things that were blocked.
Hmm. I didn’t quite realize how powerful my practice was today, until writing about it. I guess that’s what journalling is about, eh?
Sounds like *quite* the powerful practice to me! I find the same thing often with dreams. I’ll wake up thinking my dreams were utterly mundane and meaningless only to discover hidden treasures when (if) I take the time to write about them. Yes, journaling is super effective at pulling out the hidden bits.
I decided to play around with different levels, so I did SP 1:1 at Level 5, 2:1 at Level 4, 3:1 at Level 3, and 4:1 at Level 2. It was a lot of fun. And it helped me easily and quickly go through a ton of piles on my office table until I it was almost completely cleared off.
What a great idea! And, a really neat way to vary the practice while still following the normal starting pattern. Awesome.
haha whoops – i forgot about the whole posting back here thing. i’ll get into the habit by the time 40 days is up!
No worries. Happy to have you joining in!
me too!
Got caught up with work yesterday, and before I knew it it was 15 minutes before my husband would come home! I like to do my flailing in private (especially the writing afterward) so I quickly pounded out level 4 and half of level 7. Without thinking them through beforehand, so nicely confusing and buzzy.
No real bings to report, but I was bouncing around with excess energy for the rest of the evening. Nice.
Awesome. I’m imagining you like a puppy all bouncy and happy.
While my first day of Shiva Nata was awesome ( in the little pagoda of our tiny japanese garden in the park) I was filled with über-amounts of resistance yesterday. Actually that resistance is not about Shiva Nata but something else, still it blocked practice. As I needed to go to sleep (I resist sleeping right now too. So much that on Tuesday I had a bout of insomnia that kept me up until 4am. Yes I was super tired and grumpy yesterday.) I took out my journal and wrote down the algorithm for Level three and wrote out some of the numbers. It’s the first time I have done anything other than L1/2 so that was good. It looks really exciting.
My insights have been relatively closely related to the actual practice (Like the reason there is no starting position 34 is that it has the same relationship as 12. Ah… the important thing is always the relationship and not the absolute positions. And though something might look like the goal, it could maybe just be a step on the path.).
Resistance to the thing itself (habits…) usually hits me on the second day, so I am not discouraged, but I really need to look into this resistance to sleep thing.
“The important thing is always the relationship…” Absolutely. Nicely put.
Also, interesting about the resistance thing hitting you on the second day. It was SO big for me on Day 1. I love hearing about how others experience these things. Thank you for sharing. And, best wishes with the sleep thing. Sending ease.
Day 2 was good. I returned from an evening self-defense class, where we did lots of kicking and shouting (very cathartic!) to do L2 all the way through to “Alleluia” by On Wings of Song & Robert Gass. It was a nice contrast to the class. During SN, my intention was to bring ease and peace back into my heart and I focused on keeping the spirals of each arm flowing while doing legs as well. (Legs only lasted until 2:6, then I was confused enough to just try keeping up with arms.) Shavasana revealed nothing but perhaps helped release the aggressive energy I’d built up during class.
Casey, I love flailing to that song, first heard it at the Playground and recently bought it for my classes. But it’s like 27 minutes long!!! That’s a LOT of flailing!!
L2 to Alleluia sounds like the perfect thing to help unwind after a self-defense class. Nice!