Improving Coordination with The Dance of Shiva

Prior to trying to improve coordination you may find it helpful to know what coordination is.

I would define coordination as "Getting two or more things to work together towards a single, common goal."

With respect to yourself, coordination can mean improving the way that your mind and body work together. It can also mean improving the way the parts of your body, such as both arms, work together.

In either case, the thing that unifies the parts or helps them to coordinate with each other is a clear idea of what you are trying to do.

The Clear Idea is the goal what helps separate parts work together.

Improve Coordination with Clearly Defined Ideas

How does Dance of Shiva help with improving coordination?

First of all, the arm positions used in The Dance of Shiva are simple and easy to define.

Each one is a "clear idea".

As an example, in position 1 the hand is held so that the palm faces upright and is at the level of the top of the head. The fingers and thumb point out to the side.

In position 2 the palm again faces up but this time it is just below the belly button with the fingers pointing inwards.

In position 3, the palm is again upright and at belly button height but, the fingers and the point of the elbow point out. Here again there is room for some adjustment within that definition, but even with some adjustment, what is important is that position 3 is still clearly defined.

In position 4, the palm is upright. The elbow points outwards, the hand is higher than the shoulder and the fingers point inwards. The fingers point inwards.

These are the four Horizontal Positions of the Dance of Shiva. Each one of them is clearly defined.

The goal of the dance of shiva is to learn the movements necessary to connect each of these positions to each other. The movements can also be clearly defined.

Both the positions and the movements of the dance of shiva are clearly defined ideas. So what's the next step if you want to use them to improve your coordination?

Improve Coordination by First Learning the Basic Positions

The first task, if you want to use the Dance of Shiva to improve coordination, is to learn the positions.

The ideal is to learn the positions to the point where you don't have to think in order to do them. Instead, you can just do them. At this point it doesn't matter if the position is perfect. What does matter is that you can put the hand in roughly the right spot and you can distinguish each of the positions from each other.

Once you have learned the positions, then you have a set of clear ideas that you can use to improve the coordination between your mind and body.

Improved Coordination via Improved Communication

So that the mind and body can share the same idea you need clear lines of communication between the two.

One line of communication is via your ability to sense your body. The other is via controlling it.

You can practice developing or improving both lines of communication by doing slow and smooth movements. Your can practice moving your arm into each position and then out of it (relax your arm by your side.)

If your movement is smooth, or if you work at making the movement slow, you develop your ability to control your arm. At the same time, if the movement is slow enough you can practice feeling your arm. You improve communication from your body to your mind and from your mind to your body.

Note, that because you are practicing positioning one arm at a time, you can alternate left and right arms so that you improve coordination between your mind and both arms.

Improving Coordination by Focusing on Smaller Parts

Once you've gotten comfortable with the movements, i.e. you don't have to think about them, you can then direct your awareness to the individual parts of yourself that are doing the movement. As you pratice moving in and out of each position, you can focus on feeling your shoulder, your forearm and wrist, and your palm. Focus on these elements one at a time.

Try and adjust the movement of each element so that it is as easy as possible to position your palm correctly. At the same time give each element the maximum amount of space, or comfort, given the position that you are trying to do.

Learning Limits so that you can Work Within Them

If you are speaking with another person, you take turns talking. One person talks and the other person listens. So that they can communicate clearly it is important that they share a common language. The language provides a set of limits so that they can communicate within them.

If two people can both speak different languages, then it is helpful if they first agree on which language they are communicating is so that there is no communication error. Actually, this is more likely to occur if one person assumes the other can speak a particular language. If you first confirm that the other person can speak in or at least understand french, then you can speak to that person in French.

One way for you (and your mind) to learn what your body is capable of is to break it down into parts and to practice moving those parts to find out what the limits are for that part.

For example, you can focus on the elbow and you can practice bending it and staightening it to get a feel for what it can and can't do. For extra complexity you can bend and straighten it while turning the forearm. You'll probably find that these two actions have little effect on each other, at least not while carrying anything in your hand.

You can do the same thing with your shoulder, find out what its' limits are with the arm unloaded.

Once you can feel the range of motion of each of these parts, you can then position them as much as possible within those limits "comfortably" given what you are trying to do. And this can apply to the dance of shiva arm positions. Learn the limits for you shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands. While you are at it, learn the limits of your ribcage. Then play within those limits as you put your arm in each position.

The more you practice, the more you'll find the position of each part that best supports the arm in what you are trying to do. As a result, the parts of the arm work together towards what you are trying to do. You improve coordination between the different parts of your arm. At the same time you work on improving coordination between your mind and your body.

Gradually and Steadily Improving Coordination

As you practice the positions, and as you progress to learning movements to connect one position to the other, it should become easier to feel your arm and the parts of your arm both while doing the movement.

You can make fine adjustments to make the positions and movements feel more comfortable. By comfortable, I mean, easier for the parts of your body to work together.

You become like the mechanic, designer and driver of an F1 car, noticing how it performs and making adjustments so that it can perform better and with less effort.

Once you are well practiced with doing positions and movements with one arm (and this may take a few minutes, a few days or maybe a few weeks depending on how much you practice and the state of your mind body connection at the time) you can practice using both arms at the same time.

This is easier if you've taken the time to learn the dance of shiva positions and movements with one arm well. If you can feel your arm, and control it while doing the movements with one arm it should be a little bit easier to coordinate the movements of both arms at the same time... Easier, that is, compared to if you haven't learned the positions and movements with one arm at a time.

Hardwiring

Ideally, when learning one arm at a time you learned to feel the positions and the positions of the parts of each arm (elbow, shoulder etc) within those positions. As a result these movement patterns become burned into the wiring of your brain. Coordination between body and mind is easier because you have practiced. Doing movements with both arms is simply another step up.

So that this step is easier, you can first practice positions with both arms at the same time. Rather than worrying about movements, simply practice the positions and as before, learn to feel your arms in each position using both arms at the same time..

You may find that you have to position one arm first and then the other one, but then once you have a rough idea of the position, it becomes easier to position both arms at once. Likewise, when moving from both arms at the same time from one position to the other, you can stagger the movement. First move your left arm and then your right. And then try moving them together.

The process might be similiar to a baby learning to crawl or walk. Little bits at a time. The problem that might hinder our development as we grow older is the notion that we "stop learning" or that we are naturally uncoordinated. Yes, we are uncoordinated at birth. But we have a lifetime in our body in which, if we put our mind to it, we can learn to become coordinated.

The trick is to know what you are trying to do and to unify mind, body and the parts of your body towards achieving that goal.

Read more about the dance of shiva and understanding coordination.