Have you ever had a moment where things just clicked? Where the pieces to a problem you were working on just fell into place and you said, “Ah, that’s the answer. That’s how it’s all supposed to work.” Those insights happen when the neurons in your brain form new connections, bringing subconscious knowing into conscious awareness.
For most people, creative sparkles like that are rare. But that’s simply because they haven’t taught their brain how to have moments like that on a regular basis. Dance of Shiva is a system of yoga that actually teaches you how to have subconscious insights in a conscious fashion. It does this by creating an environment of ever increasing complexity and multi-sensory stimuli that your brain can play and grow in.
Andrey Lappa, the Ukrainian yogi who created Dance of Shiva, calls it “a system for conscious liberation”. Visually, it’s a set of complex flowing arm and leg motions that look something like dancing. Havi Brooks has a demonstration video if you want to see what it looks like.
What’s this about subconscious insights?
Our brains are amazing at pattern recognition. Think about how you tune in when someone says your name in a crowded airport. But a lot of the pattern recognition and response that goes on in them is subconscious. We learn something, our brain puts together a pattern for it, and then we don’t have to consciously think about it any more. Convenient for learning, but inconvenient when you want a new idea or insight about the problems you’re working on.
Dance of Shiva is built on patterns of increasing complexity. First you learn the arm motions, then the leg motions, then the breathing. Then you learn different arm motions, and leg motions, and breathing. Each level adds a new challenge and depth of complexity. The result is a rich and stimulating environment where your brain is constantly experiencing neurogenesis, the creation of new connections between neurons.
When your brain creates new neurological connections, you have those wonderful moments of, “Ah, that’s how it works.” You get new ideas and insights about whatever you’re currently working on, simply because your brain is forming new connections. Consistent practice trains your brain to have more and more of those moments, which makes life a whole lot easier because things just start to click together and make sense.
How did you get into this?
I bought the Dance of Shiva Starter Kit because a little voice inside me said, “You need to learn this.” Eight months later I spent a week in California studying with Havi, who’s the #2 expert in the world on Dance of Shiva.
When I started, I couldn’t balance on one leg. Seriously. I had no idea how people did stuff like virkshahsanna, tree pose, since whenever I tried I just fell over. Three months after practicing Dance of Shiva I could stand on one foot and wave the other one around in little circles. And my balance keeps improving with every practice.
Plus, I used to hunch. My upper body kind of cringed in on itself. I had a hard time looking people in the eye because my head would follow the curve of my spine down to stare at their feet. Six days after I started doing Dance of Shiva, I had an amazing insight about the nature of my hunching. I got up from shavasana, and stood up straight for the first time in my life without it feeling wrong. Since then my posture has just gotten better and better.
Posture and balance are the two major physical things Dance of Shiva has improved for me. But it also improves reflexes, coordination, and the cognitive muscle that lets you task switch quickly. And it teaches you to see the subconscious patterns that play out in every day life.
Where can I learn it?
If you want to learn Dance of Shiva, I teach classes about it. If you’re more of a home study type, Havi’s Starter Kit is wonderful. It includes Andrey’s DVD and tons of supplementary notes and instructions.
P.S. Occasionally I’ll refer to Dance of Shiva as Shiva Nata, nata being a Sanskrit word for “dance”.