Hi, I'm Beth. I create: words and art. I do yoga. I cook tasty food. I publish Shimmer magazine. Now 37% more purple. Needful Things
Hi, I'm Beth. I create: words and art. I do yoga. I cook tasty food. I publish Shimmer magazine. Now 37% more purple. Needful Things
NaNoWriMo! One gleeful month of permission-filled novel-writing madness. It’s a wonderful thing.
It can also be a hard thing.
Your creative gremlins start grumbling. They tell you your novel is stupid. They say you have no idea what you’re doing. They point out that you’re already behind and it’s only the second day. Why are you wasting your time, they ask, and suggest that you should go watch Survivor instead of writing this wretched novel.
Or maybe you run into a plot tangle and can’t find your way out. You have no idea how the time-traveling interdimensional matador meets the magical beekeeper, let alone what the beekeeper did to piss off the ninja witch that he’s secretly in love with.
Give up, whisper the gremlins, instead of doing helpful things like suggesting awesome new plot twists.
Or maybe it’s just hard to find the time and energy to write. You work hard all day and you’re just so damn tired at the end of the day that writing is impossible.
Give up, whisper the gremlins.
Sometimes, the permission and glee and community of NaNoWriMo just aren’t enough to get you through. Sometimes, you need a little more.
Shiva nata (also called the Dance of Shiva) is a system of moving meditation. You’ll learn a set of simple arm and leg movements, and then start challenging your brain by combining them into increasingly complicated patterns.
The challenge of shiva nata is where the magic is. Just like challenging your muscles by lifting weights makes your muscles stronger, challenging your brain with shiva nata makes it smarter, faster, and better. It gives you energy; it gives you ideas; it gets your neurons firing; it builds enthusiasm. It’s good for your brainmeats!
The very best part? Because the Dance of Shiva is so hard, the critical part of your mind — the voice of the gremlins — gets so confused and overwhelmed that it just gives up.
That’s right. The gremlins just shut up. No more insidious whispers about how much you suck. No more gloom and despair. Just silence.
And in that silence, the creative parts of your brain can do their work. This novel is so much fun, your creative mind says. And, wouldn’t it be fun if the time-traveling matador accidentally caught the beekeeper in a space-time vortex and they land on the Titanic? Wait! And the ninja witch blames the beekeeper for not delivering the honey she needed for the spell that would save her mother! Yes!
And then you’re off and writing for thousands and thousands of words.
Shiva NaNo is a series of four shiva nata classes. It will be taught via G+ hangout on every Saturday in November, from 2:00 to 4:00 Mountain time. (Here’s a handy time zone converter.)
In each class, I’ll lead you through several exhilarating and challenging shiva nata sequences to get our blood pumping and our neurons firing. After a short rest period, we’ll sit down and write for an hour. We’ll take advantage of all the energy and enthusiasm and ideas that were stirred up by our shiva nata practice, and we’ll write from our hearts and our bodies and our brains.
You’ll need a G+ account – but they’re free, and I can send you an invitation if you need one. It’s ok if you don’t have a web cam.
Click the button to sign up – and sail through November with me. The class costs $20.00 per session, or $60 for all four.
That sounds awesome. Sign me up!
Beth
I’m Beth Wodzinski. I’ve been a shivanaut since 2009, and am certified by Andrey Lappa, the originator of the system, to teach. I’ve used the Dance of Shiva to help get clarity about my life, improve my personal productivity, and recover from a devastating ear problem that destroyed my balance. Now I’m using it to revolutionize my writing.
I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo since 2001. This year will be my 12th Nano — and with a boost from the shiva nata, it will be my 8th time hitting 50k.
Date and time: Every Saturday in November, 2:00 to 4:00 Mountain time. (Here’s a handy time zone converter.) That’s November 3, November 10, November 17, and November 24.
I’ll teach you shiva nata for an hour; and once we’re bursting with enthusiasm and motivation and ideas, we’ll work on our novels for an hour.
You can either sign up for all four sessions (best deal! best momentum-building glee!) or just select individual dates that work best for you.
G+: We’ll be using G+’s hangout feature. This is Google’s group video chat program – we’ll all be able to see each other. So you’ll need a G+ account to participate. (If you’re not on G+, I can send you an invitation.)
Technology: If your computer and internet connection are robust enough to watch streaming videos, that’s good enough. It’s best if you have a webcam, but I’ve also taught lots of people without them, and that works well, too.
Experience: No Dance of Shiva experience required at all. You also don’t need any dance experience, or flexibility, or coordination. Really! The Dance of Shiva is much more about your mind than your body.
Space: You’ll need a private space that’s big enough to move your arms around freely while standing up. You’ll also need to be able to sit or lie down comfortably to rest.
A Way To Write: Once the shiva nata lesson is done and we’re bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, we’ll work on our novels for a whole blissful hour.
So click the handy button below to sign up. There are only nine spots in each session, so don’t wait. The class costs $20.00 per session, or save five bucks a session and get all four for $60.
That sounds awesome. Sign me up!
P.S. 9 spots. Enthusiasm. Motivation. Creativity. Glee. I hope to see you there.