Just Do It: How to Use the Nike Symbol for Yoga Focus and Mantra

Are you ever stuck at yoga, having trouble with your focus, unable to clear your head? Nike has given us the best yoga focus tool and mantra that we could ever ask for.

The ubiquitous Nike slash symbol and their "Just Do It" tagline will take you exactly where you need to go in your practice.How fitting, this symbol by Nike, a company whose takes its name from the Greek Goddess of Victory.

No, it is not spiritual, but it will bring you to your dedication. That will be your dedication to yourself.

Sometimes you are in the studio, or in your home, and you are trying to get through your practice. You want to be in the moment, but your life keeps nagging at you. For some reason, on this particular day, you can't get your focus. There isn't a spot on the ceiling that you can find. Your own eyes won't hold your gaze. There is a sigh, a frustration with yourself.

Enter the Nike "swoosh" symbol. Just look at the wall and picture the switch. And think to yourself, just do it. Repeat it over and over, slowly. Get slower and slower, calmer and calmer.

Now for your gaze. Look for the "swoosh." Let your eyes go from the top of the switch out to the tail, and finish your exhale. Follow this closely- inhale fully, then go to the top of the "swich" in your head, and begin your exhale, then exhale all along the "switch" and out the end into the air. Think of how the "Haaaa" sound fits into the switch, recognizing how your breath trails off at the end of an exhale, just like the "swoosh" trails off into the air.

So you have two tools here- the symbol itself, the "switch," and the mantra of "Just Do It." You can use one, or use both. These can be useful before class begins when you are trying to center yourself, to get your breath.

If it has been a long day, or is the beginning of a tough one, it may start out had and stern, like, "JUST DO IT," then mellow into "JUST Do It," to "Just DO it," slower to " Just do IT," and ending up at " just do it." When you get to the lower case, slow, peaceful repetition you will be relaxing and readying yourself for your practice.

This truly illustrates how you have incorporated the ancient yoga practice into your modern life. By using a marketing symbol and phrase, which was selected by a major corporation, you are using a symbol that has been researched for its successful reception by people. By athletes in particular. Take advantage of Nike's brilliance in this marketing tool and utilize it to bring your into your practice as needed.

Namaste, Nike.