Today I stumbled into an absolutely massive pile of iguanas.
If you are not familiar with the iguanas, I’m referring to the Inowanna variety: those things you just don’t feel like doing.
Today’s iguanas are all at least tangentially related to Shiva Nata, the brain-training practice that has altered pretty much everything in my life for the better.
Things on my Inowanna list pile:
Inowanna!
- updating the Shiva Nata blog, that hasn’t been touched in over two months.
- answering a bunch of questions
- updating what events are happening when and where
- updating the Shivanautical faq so we can press the pooblish on that
So of course I’m going to be processing the process.
Because the thing with iguanas (just like with monsters) is this:
Ignoring them doesn’t help. Fighting with them doesn’t help.
Pretty much your only option — other than directly doing Dance of Shiva on the stuck in order to get some insights — is to commit to interacting with the iguanas* and with yourself.
In the most conscious, intelligent, loving way you can stand.
Right. Not there yet, but headed in the general direction.
* Or at least interacting with the fact that they exist, if not with the iguanas themselves.
The Shivaguana Internal Rally starts today.
I’m creating a non-container of a container — more like a sukkah or a pirate ship to spend some time with this.
A mini-Rally. Maybe ten minutes. Maybe a couple hours.
But I’m going to dance it up. And ask questions.
To find out what my discomfort has to say, where my walls are, what the iguanas need to feel safe, and what needs untangling.
I don’t have to get anything done. I’m just collecting Useful Information.
There will be video game moments and monster conversations and much letting things be the way they are.
As well as much letting myself not like things being the way they are.
And putting things to bed. Possibly including myself.
Anyone else want to go iguana-watching with me?
To say this:
“I don’t need to fix you yet, I don’t need to understand this yet, but I’m here, and I’m peeking in your general direction and I’m willing to learn one thing about what the next piece is.”
Yes?
And … comment zen for today.
Dealing with iguanas is hard and painful. Or can be.
I do not even slightly mean to imply that it isn’t.
We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff. Sometimes it’s old and tangled and full of hurt. I’m so sorry.
Here’s what we don’t do in the comments: unsolicited advice. Really, it’s the best way to avoid the spitting iguanas.
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I will go iguana watching with you! Iguanas have been following me everywhere lately. Even to the places I *want* to go, which is extremely annoying. If they start spitting at me, can I spit back?
I will gladly go iguana-watching with you! I’ve got lots of ’em. Maybe I’ll gaze at the pretty, shifting patterns in their scales before I tuck them in.
Love!
.-= Kathleen Avins´s last post … Re-invention =-.
Right now I feel SURROUNDED by iguanas. They are possibly circling me. And every now and then they hiss. Which is making me very very nervous and uncomfortable. Because they are…not soft. But if the answer is to begin by watching…I can do that. I shall think of myself as the David Attenborough of my Iguanas. That makes me feel a little better.
.-= Ella´s last post … Polaroids and Panoramas =-.
Oh! Cynthia and I were going to pitch a shiva nata guest post soon! We need to get started on that, maybe it would help with one of these iguanas 🙂
Yeah. There’s a bunch of stuff Inowanna do. I’m trying to slog through it, but then my migraine monster showed up. I tried to bribe the migraine monster to go away with sunflower seeds. He hasn’t decided whether the seeds are worth it yet. Maybe my migraine monster and my Inowanna Iguana need to have a chat.
.-= Riin´s last post … Random- ’cause that’s how I roll =-.
Hi Havi,
I have been a reader for a while, and love your blog. I’ve been on the verge of commenting several times, but never actually hit that “Submit Comment” button. Will I do it this time? We’ll see.
I am also feeling overrun with iguanas, and your mini-Rally sounds like pure genius. BUT my problem is that the things I am avoiding are so urgent, and my day so full as it is, that I feel like I can’t spare the time it would take to do this. Even though I know in the long run it would be a better use of my time than… oh, all kinds of things. And as I type this, I realize that this is a situation you address in the Monster Manual, and think I should make a start by going back and rereading that. See, this is the sort of thing (answering my own questions by recalling other things you have written) that has kept me from commenting before.
But not this time!
Thanks for everything!
I need to do some Iguana watching. I have a million and one ideas for research projects but when it comes to suggesting some topics to work on with a co-author, I just can’t do it. I’ve been successfully avoiding this for months now. Acknowledging the stuck and just observing is just what the doctor ordered.
.-= Katie Sauer´s last post … Whats on My Mind Wednesday =-.
I’ve had a MASSIVE iguana sitting on my kitchen table all day. It’s on top of a pile of things-I-really-should-have-done-by-now, and it’s exuding an air of everyone’s-going-to-be-so-disappointed-in-you-because-you’re-a-crappy-flakey-slacker.
It’s still there, but now I’ve read your post, I’ve decided to let it know I can see it, and I’d possibly like to maybe hang out with it in a non-threatening and non-judgmental way.
It’s not convinced.
After all, it’s a MASSIVE iguana. It has dinosaur-esque proportions. Maybe I’ll just turn out the lights in my kitchen so I can’t see it. But if I do that, I’ll just end up focussing on all the other iguanas. There’s one flicking its tongue near the dramatic mess I call my workspace. And another one near the phone. I am overrun.
So yes, I’ll go iguana-watching with you. My iguanas are all I can see right now, so it’d be hard NOT to iguana-watch.
.-= Eleanor´s last post … Madness! =-.
The iguanas have conspired to multiply, fast, and now there’s a whole bunch of them around here…so I’m doing my favorite thing in the face of that. Chai. Library. Writing. Working with one iguana at a time. 😉
@Kate – right? Is there no stopping the way they multiply? They’re like rabbits. We need a think tank to figure out how to slow the iguana population explosion in a nonviolent way. Maybe we can distract them.
@Eleanor – oh, that sucks. I’m so sorry. Wishing you the sparkly power of present-time so you can zap the room with some NOW-ness. And maybe the parts of your iguana that aren’t from NOW won’t have to be there so you’ll have a little space around the giant one. xox
@Alice – kiss!
@Riin – ow. Oh no. Hope the sunflower seeds help.
@Ella – the David Attenborough of my Iguanas. Awesome. I love it.
@kimberly – me too! I mean, they show up the most when it’s places I want to go. 🙂
I posted. Yay. At the Shiva Nata blog. On the topic of “What is a Shivanaut”, which was only one of the gazillion questions that was driving me batty because I didn’t know how to answer it.
See: http://shivanata.com/blog/ask/whats-a-shivanaut and rejoice with me.
Still a hundred and seventeen million iguanas to meet, but I’ve met some. And I seem to remember that at a certain point they start collapsing in on themselves.
Or that one iguana will give you some necessary information that makes the iguanifying process less horrible.
I am adding that word to my mental dictionary.
“Iguanifying”.
Yes.
I would love to sit and watch the iguanas. Maybe there can be popcorn that we could toss to them like geese. Unless they come to attack you, like geese. Maybe they like cheese instead. Or cake.
As I’m facing my monitor right now, I can feel the baleful eyes of the many iguanas around my office. Then there are the ones in the dining room. Gah!
Maybe I can entice one of the monsters to distract the “not now” iguanas. For the good of the team.
I’m going to try feeding radishes to my biggest and baddest iguana. And possibly pickles. Maybe even pickled radish greens. Surely it will be less imposing with bunnyrabbit radish breath.
*weary sigh, hugs to all*
.-= Mechaieh´s last post … clippings- the holy battle to resurrect the entire world =-.
Havi, I just purchased your Shiva Nata starter kit and explained my reasons on your Shivanata blog: http://shivanata.com/blog/ask/whats-a-shivanaut/#comments
My own iguana at the moment is rather a frail old thing, easily defeated I think, and it has to do with widgets and sidebars and badges (oh my!).
I love the art. It’s the technical stuff that doesn’t excite me; hence, my iguana, frail though he may be. Let me just *ugh* pick him up and *grunt* move him *gak* out of the way now…
.-= Rupa´s last post … A Monk and His Unicorn =-.
MASSIVE Inowanaguas here… Just want to retire in a cave (no light, quiet) for a while and let them stomp around for a while… Then, I will throw them something to eat and then we’ll see…
This was just what I needed to see right now. I have a few iguanas snoozing right in my lap. They’re making it very difficult to get up.
.-= Shannon´s last post … New Bite-Sized Transit Stream! =-.
And how funny that I came over to find something shivanautical to link to, and you have this shiny new post! Thanks 😀
.-= Shannon´s last post … New Bite-Sized Transit Stream! =-.
I love the imagery. Iguanas! Slightly intimidating creatures that resemble their dinosaur cousins far too much, bullying the lot of us around.
I have a Painting Iguana that’s due tomorrow. It’s on my lanai, rapidly swinging its tail back and forth, making soft hisses. I’m going to gently approach it and distract it with a beer to better my chances of coming out unscathed (RE: eyes not hanging out like a morbid party favor), but first I have to put the Math Iguana to bed. The other ones will just have to wait in their pen.
*Writing Iguana raises head at the mention of “pen”*
.-= Kaleena´s last post … Maps =-.
I have to deal with an iguana tonight. Oh man, Inowanna. Not even a little. It’s making me ill to think about it.
But this is one that has to be tackled tonight. For the sake of my sovereignty. So I’m trying to be gentle with myself, and not try to talk myself out of not wanting. Because it’s OK to not be totally evolved all the time, right?
I’ll maybe deal with evolving tomorrow. Tonight I’m letting myself not want to do something even as I do it. Somehow, knowing that it’s OK to not want to makes it a little easier.
.-= Amber´s last post … In-Laws- Outlaws and Dreamers =-.
As a recent addition to the shivanaut program (exploring inner and outer space!), I would get a lot of value out of hearing how you us Shiva Nata to release these particular little lizards as an example. (All very meta – using Shiva Nata to solve Shiva Nata issues!)
I’m loving the practice, and seeing patterns everywhere that I can shift, transform, or just embrace. This wacky yoga-y thing is like walking around my life with X-Ray Specs on.
I’m also stuck at the precipice where my body is starting to make sense of the moves, but my brain is wanting to know “How do I learn the Level One patterns so I can do it without the DVD?” I think that would be harder and more brain-confounding (in a good, rewiring way) than just following along.
Or maybe I’m exactly where I should be.
At any rate, thank you for sharing this great gift of a practice with us!
Just to follow up on what I posted earlier, I listened to the first “Dust off the DVD” audio — even though my DVD is far from dusty; I was just curious — and all my questions were answered there.
So if anyone else is in the “Am I doing this right?”, “What should I be doing with this?” place after starting to work with The Dance of Shiva, I recommend they listen to Havi’s accompanying audios, because there’s a LOT of good, useful, and kind direction in there.