Two Dog Tales
Yoga- Another Universe?
By Jack Davis
Let me try and paint a picture for you. Picture a guy. He's got a back injury doctors say they can do nothing to improve. He finds a chiropractor who gets him to pain-free status for the first time in ten years. The chiropractor recommends yoga as a way to maintain good back conditioning. Yoga? You have got to be kidding! But hey, the chiropractor's track record so far is 100%. He decides to try the yoga but has serious misgivings (and tons of biased preconceptions). I was that guy. I remember that tangled biased dude and all his preconceptions. Not a pretty sight!
I also remember the very first yoga class I took. Here I am, the only guy in a class filled with women, listening to this instructor (Annie) talking about "breathing into my sit bones" while I stand with my hands against the wall doing something called a Right Angle pose! I thought I had landed in another universe! This was not for me. Then something unexpected happened. After that one class I started to feel just a little bit better. Not a lot better, just a little. There was a "something" quality lurking deep inside all this Yoga stuff. So I said "okay", I'll sign up for one eight week series so I can fix my back and learn all about Yoga.
That was over 13 years ago, and I have been studying Yoga ever since. The guy who came to fix his back stayed and his life is immeasurably richer as a result. Plus, I'm starting to know a little bit about Yoga, and my back is fine! (Has been for some 12 years except for when I do something foolish) And I still attend Yoga class at least once a week, as well as doing a home yoga practice.
I stay with Yoga because it makes me a better person in every sense of the word. I've learned more about patience, anger management, compassion, trust, faith, commitment, and who I am as a person, from doing Yoga on a mat than from anything else I have ever done in my life. It has been challenging, scary, and tough at times, but it has, in the end, been incredibly rewarding. Through Yoga, I have developed into a more positive, caring, self confident person than ever would have happened without it. I really believe that, because I remember that guy who showed up on the first night!
While I've taken yoga classes from other instructors in other studios, Two Dog has always been my touchstone. It's not just because that's where I first started. It's because of the spirit and culture of the place. It is real and alive, constantly evolving: just like life. Over the years, I have taken classes from a variety of the instructors at Two Dog, and they are all excellent and caring teachers. Two Dog is more than that though. In addition to the excellent quality of the instruction, there is a spirit at Two Dog that is difficult to put into words. Perhaps a metaphor will help.
There is a quote from Barbara J. Winter that perhaps comes closest to defining that difficult to verbalize quality Two Dog has. She said, "When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen:There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."
For me, Two Dog Studio is that "something solid" And Two Dog has restored my ability to fly. It really doesn't get much better than that!
So as far as I'm concerned, Annie and Wendy and Bill and Cleo and Dawn and Tracey and all the rest of the instructors at Two Dog Studio are true jewels as humans and great flight instructors! I thank all of you for being a part of my life, and for the joy you have enabled me to bring into my life so far. Let's keep at this for a lifetime!
Namasté,
Jack Davis
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