By LEAH WEATHERSBY

In the early '80s, Annie Stocker, owner of Two Dog Yoga Studio in Lake City, went on a college trip to Southeast Asia as a shy, lovesick teenager with a stiff body and poor posture. But thanks to Yoga, which she was first introduced to on that trip, today she is now a happily-married, self-confident business woman.

And she's in pretty good shape for 40.

While in college, Stocker and other students at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma traveled through several countries in Southeast Asia for five months, studying the cultures and traditions of the area.

While in Sri Lanka, Stocker learned about Yoga, the ancient art of concentration, meditation, prescribed poses and controlled breathing, at a temple where she was studying Buddhism. During the same period, the father of her host family in Sri Lanka gave her a ticket to hear Krishna Murti, a renowned spiritual teacher, who has since passed away.

Stocker said those two experiences were the beginning of a lifelong journey in self-knowledge and awareness in her body, mind and spirit.

"(That trip) helped me get in touch with the path for my life which was to work with people and help them access their own, innate healing and body wisdom within themselves," Stocker said.

Upon returning to Washington, Stocker moved to Seattle and began studying at the Center for Yoga (formerly located at Green Lake, now in Ravenna). One day in 1983, she looked over an noticed a fellow student, Ray Robinson. She recalls that what first attracted her attention was his legs: they were half red.

Robinson had been climbing Mount Rainier the day before, but thanks to his knee socks he'd only sustained a partial sunburn. After a few more meetings, Robinson pulled up after class on his motorcycle and asked Stocker on their first date. Soon they were a couple and eventually they got married.

Stocker was emerging from her shell in more ways than one. Naturally shy, she had often sought the back corner spot in Yoga class. However, when Stocker's instructors at the Center for Yoga recruited her to teach, she realized she'd have to shed those insecurities. She credits those experiences in public speaking (and posing) with helping her build confidence.

In addition to teaching Yoga, Stocker became a masseuse. She also took a job as a receptionist at a holistic health clinic, where she learned a lot about running a business and about alternative health care. (Later, she became a practitioner of Hellerwork, a type of body work somewhat like massage which focuses on energy, flexibility and posture.)

By 1990, Stocker decided she was ready to start her own Yoga studio, and she knew she had the perfect place - her own home.

Stocker and Robinson, who had become a landscape architect, had moved to Lake City several years before, renting (and later buying) one of the neighborhood's oldest homes. It was a fixer-upper on a large lot and had a room over a barn/garage structure on the property which Stocker knew would be a great place for her new business. They'd already put their share of elbow grease into the property, rehabilitating it from a former strip-o-gram company headquarters that had been strewn with cigarette butts and broken-down cars. Now all they needed was a name.

Stocker's sister, Karen, who also works in Lake City as a therapist at One Sky Medicine, dubbed the school Two Dog after Stocker and Robinson's two Labrador puppies, Ponder and Willow. Not only were both naturals at the "Downward Dog" pose, but Willow especially loved the Yoga students. The dog would often lick their feet and steal their shoes while in class. Even on her dying day, Willow ran out to greet Stocker's customers.

Not only does the "Two Dog" name reference beloved family members, Stocker also chose it because it added an element of fun and playfulness to the business - an element which other Yoga school names sometimes lack.

"(Self-discovery) can also have levity to it," Stocker said.

The first studio had homey appeal in spades, but over the years it grew too small to host the 120 students who came to the house each week. Feeling committed to the Lake City community where she and her husband had set down their roots, Stocker looked high and low for a space in the neighborhood that would accommodate her growing business. She finally found found a spot that would quadruple her class space in a mixed-use building at 12549 28th Ave. NE. Two Dog Yoga Studio moved to its new home in autumn of last year.

So what about her teenage stiff body with bad posture? Stocker said that practicing Yoga has benefited her in several ways over her long career. Physically, she said, Yoga allowed her to give birth to her two children at home without intervention and also allows her to continue to work as a masseuse - a profession some people must leave after a few years, she said, due to the physical demands.

But, Stocker added, Yoga is not just poses but also a journey of self-awareness and knowledge. Because of this, she said, Yoga has improved her personal relationships in many ways, including helping her remember that work isn't everything.

"My business has not taken a front seat in my life," Stocker said. "It's had to fit into my whole life."