In anything you do you impose a set of limits upon yourself. Those limits define what you are trying to do.Driving a car you are limited to a car and the road you are on unless you are driving off road. By doing the act of driving you restrict yourself to being in a car. However, you also free yourself so that you can get from one place to another quickly... assuming you are using roads and the roads are relatively clear.
In the act of creating roads, we create limits. We define or divide the countryside into parcels. Those same limits help us to define places, and they help us to move between them.
Imagine creating a series of roads so that you could go easily from one place to another and in the process learn what was in between each place. Imagine then that once you knew the lay of the land you could get rid of the roads and go to each place by walking, flying or teleporting. You and the land would no longer be encumbered with roads, but because you used the roads to explore, you now know where you can go, and even better, those places serve as a jumping of point for further exploration.
While it is difficult to get rid of roads once they are in place, we can use our mind to create limits so that we can learn within those limits and then afterward we can get rid of them.
Learning Clearly Defined Ideas
In learning the idea of driving, you can learn efficiently, with a minimum of effort but not "no effort" by breaking down what you are trying to learn into meaningful elements. You can learn those elements to the point that you don't have to think about them in order to do them. As an example, practice using the brakes, then the steering wheel, the gearbox and clutch and then the accelerator.
The important thing is to clearly define what you are learning so that you can recognize when you have learned it and so that you can use what you have learned.
To make this process more efficient, practice grouping what you are learning into small enough packages that you can retain what you are practicing in your short term memory. Then as you practice, what you are learning then becomes a part of you. You move what you are learning into your "permanent memory."
Once you've learned how to do each action independent of each other you no longer need to divide them from each other. Instead you can use them individually or together depending on the situation at the time.
In part this is because you clearly defined "small units of meaning" which you then made a part of yourself.
The idea of creating limits is so that we can learn what is within those limits so that we no longer need the limits. You can make each thing a part of yourself so that it is no longer limited. Limits are a way of learning so that you can use what you have learned freely.
Getting back to the idea of learning how to steer, brake and accelerate, once learned you can use these elements while driving. Because you don't have to think about them in order to do them you can thus handle the change that is on the road whether it is a curve in the road or the traffic that is on it.
Frameworks for Learning
In yoga or martial arts, we learn a way of doing a pose or action according to a "well defined" idea. That idea is limited but the idea itself isn't the goal. It can be a framework for learning a pose which afterward we can vary from. It is a starting point. Real freedom is when we can define the pose or action depending on our circumstances at the time.
In martial arts we practice forms, but the form itself is a means of practicing the elements it contains. In a real fight you would use the elements as the circumstances dictate. Imagine each technique you learn becoming a part of you, unlimited so that you can use it freely as the circumstances dictate.
The Dance of Shiva
In dance of shiva the limits are a set of positions and the movements between them. The positions are clearly defined, delineated, a set of limits, and these positions in turn help to define the movements between them.
The goal of the dance of shiva is to learn the movements necessary so that you can connect each position to each other. Then you can freely "dance" between these positions. The more positions you learn, the more connections you create within your brain. All points pertinent to dance of shiva become connected to each other.
The positions and movements of the dance of shiva can be learned in small easy to practice packages. The more you learn the more free you become, but because the dance of shiva is so simple (and yet so complex) the freedom you develop in learning the dance of shiva makes it easier to learn things like martial arts. The practice itself lends itself to the ability to being able to quickly define and redefine limits so that you can learn and understand more efficiently.
You may find that your ability to be present is greater, especially when doing the dance of shiva regularly.
Eventually, with enough practice, you learn all possible movements to the point where you can do them freely, without having to think about them. This "patterning" is reflected in the brain. You may notice as a result the ability to define limits clearly and to think within those limits freely. And if those limits are inappropriate, you can then select new limits without getting stuck in the notion of one way of looking at things.
In martial arts, as well as in life in general, this mental rewiring, courtesy of the dance of shiva, can make handling change as well as creating change easier whether you are battling an opponent, learning a form, solving a problem or creating a piece of art.