I gave my post a Nike slogan, Just do it! It sounds like a cliche, in fact it is a cliche but let me explain. As Nike launched this slogan, I always thought it to be a very good concept. Short, simple, sticks with consumers, empowers the community and it actually drives sales! As a marketer that was all it meant to me. However, my first real experience with this sentence was when I was having a discussion with my husband about running. I HATE running! I hate that I have to tell myself to change and get ready, I hate that while I’m getting ready I’m already feeling the torture that hasn’t even happen yet and I hate the boredom I feel while running. Of course I told my husband all these thoughts, the reason I refuse to run. I would say ‘I need to exercise, I need to lose weight, I want to be healthy and I want to be stronger, I know I should run because it does all the above but I don’t want to!’. After tolerating me for awhile he told me to STOP thinking and just do it. Come home, change, put on your shoes and just run. Don’t let your mind interfere, do it like a robot. I realize then that I was driving myself crazy with all these thoughts.What he said stayed in my mind for awhile, but that was it.
Then in one of my yoga classes our Master was telling us about living in the now, actions without planning or expectations. Don’t say ‘I’ll try’ because you are already allowing yourself to fail, just do it. Only then will your performance come in the most simple, purest form and the most powerful. For me this translates to be your inner strength and your true capability, which sometimes are pushed underneath by self doubt. Self doubt is formed within us from when we are little, the society has formed and defined what a successful person is like. How they should look, talk and think. What they should have and what they do. It even goes as far as who they have around them. These expectations from society alters our true self. We become afraid of not meeting these standards and afraid of becoming what the society defines as a failure. So we tell ourselves to keep it safe, we do what we are told is right and we follow a path that others defined for us. We keep hidden our true talents to the point that we don’t know it exists. But how? It’s not so easy to just forget all of that!
To be honest, I don’t know yet. What I have experienced with this concept is still very insignificant. I know there are layers and layers that go deeper within myself until I can unlock my true self and talent. But I’m starting my small, tiny steps. First I stop my crazy mind! I’ve stopped debating in my head whether I should meditate before bed or not, why I should or should not, how long and where I should sit. I just think of meditation and I just do it. I’ve stopped debating whether I have time to practice my Yoga or if I’m too tired today, I just do it. I’ve refrained from meat for 10 days and I manage to not think about it too much and just do it. My belief is that once you get use to letting your inner voice guide you without letting your mind interfere, it should lead you on the right path. I guess it’s similar to children, who do things in the purest motives. They just want to! And they love it!
I”m still very far away, but with this thought, I invite you to try it out with small simple things and see how it goes. Is your mind a little bit more quiet? Are you more at peace?
Tanya R. 200 hr TTC noon Sept’13
