My Why - Dan Baker

“I truly wish I had found yoga while I was serving. I can only imagine the better leader, husband and father I would have been. I have so much more patience with myself and those around me.”

Dan Baker - 500RYT & MalaforVets Aumbassador

My "why" for yoga started when I first started practicing yoga. My first introduction to yoga was with the old P90X DVDs when I was getting ready to retire from the Army in 2008. It was meant as a means to stay in shape. I found a local yoga studio after I retired, which started off as a once a week class. Something just stuck with me during those next couple years about the power of yoga. I also attended my first arm balance workshop during that time and that really stuck with me. There was just something empowering and fun about playing on my hands. I eventually decided to become a yoga teacher and quit the rat race as an Army Civilian. I got certified in 2017 from Empower School of Yoga, which eventually became Baptiste Power Yoga Nashville with my RYT-200. I truly wish I had found yoga while I was serving. I can only imagine the better leader, husband and father I would have been. I have so much more patience with myself and those around me.

I also had the typical lower back pain when I retired from the Army. I went through all the usual pain management modalities; opiates, steroid injections, and even got a spinal cord stimulator implanted in my spine. Fast forward five years of active yoga and I haven't taken any pills, injections and actually had the implant removed so every time I hear a student come into my class about lower back pain I just stand there with a big grin on my face and nod because I have just the thing for them. This especially rings true with active duty service members and veterans. Living in a city that is co-located to a military installation I always see service members, veterans, or their significant others in my classes. I consider this as an opportunity to share the power of yoga and hopefully plant a seed within them to continue to show up on their mats. As we know yoga is so much more than just physical poses; it's a tool for life and that is something I speak of often in my classes. I usually have two intentions in my classes; to have fun and challenge. I love cutting up in my classes and will often drop some intentional colorful metaphors as I'm teaching as a way to show the students that I'm a normal person and not some super enlightened guru and as a means of connecting with them.

One of the phrases that I'm known for is "let that shit go!" It's so appropriate for life. Is there something holding you back from being your most empowered self? "Let that shit go!" That tends to really resonate in my classes.

Dan also celebrated a birthday in January…so be sure to wish him a happy birthday if you’ve not already.