People are always curious and intrigued by yoga. I get so many questions, from “Do I also need cardio?” to “What type of yoga should I do?” The questions and information never ends.

So to answer all these questions, I’m going to start by explaining what yoga means to me and my history with this practice.

I’ve been doing yoga for nearly twenty years. I really started when I lived in Los Angeles, because my gym offered several classes and I knew a few people who were into it. (Yoga has since become a craze a hundred times as large.)

When I started, I was still someone who endlessly obsessed about food and didn’t think that any exercise was valuable if it didn’t leave you dripping in sweat or seemed like intense cardio. I now refer to those workouts as “fear-based.”

I remember my first yoga class. I left halfway through. The slow, intense, focused nature of the poses was frustrating and maddening. I couldn’t even sit still in it and it seemed pointless. A few years later, I tried another class that I liked. Still I didn’t understand yoga nor did I know about all its different varieties.

To say you don’t like yoga is like saying you don’t like lettuce. Well, there is arugula, red leaf, boston, frisee, romaine, iceberg…and more. You may not like one, but love another. I simply didn’t even understand how many options there are. There is a type of yoga that works for everyone.

I particularly like Vinyasa yoga. Vinyasa is a flow. Although there are many poses that you repeat throughout the practice, it varies every time and with each instructor. Ashtanga, on the other hand, is a set series of 26 poses that never change. That isn’t to say that it won’t seem different: no two days are the same nor are any two instructors. This practice I like less because I like to be surprised.

There are so many types of yoga that you have to find what works for you. Many centers offer gentle yoga or classes with names like Yoga Flow. I suggest a general yoga class like Hatha yoga, another type of practice.

Now to the most important thing: not all exercise needs to be maniacal. Yoga is pretty much all I do. I walk or surf or rollerblade when I can, and I will do the elliptical machine from time to time. However, yoga is the basis of my fitness routine. Not all exercise needs to leave you gasping for air and burning thousands of calories. I used to be obsessed with spinning, doing it five times a week. I was fifteen pounds heavier and working out like a madwoman. I would spin, then be starving, eat like crazy, then vow to spin like a lunatic again the next day. It gave me no peace.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spin or run or do whatever you like. What it means is to find what works for you. For me, yoga quiets my noise. It is strengthening, lengthening and like getting a massage each time. It focuses you and forces you to be present. It also quiets Food Noise because it is peaceful and centering. Yoga inspires you to make sensible, healthy food choices because it quiets you down rather than make you run to the refrigerator to carb up after an intense workout.

For me, the centered feeling and peace that yoga creates in my life permeates to my eating, work, relationships and body.

The most important and different thing about yoga is that it isn’t ego-based. You may not be able to get into a pose that someone else can. It is your practice. Think of what the word “practice” means. You keep striving to be better. Some days I am a rubber band, and on others I can’t move.

Also, don’t have an ego about class levels. I’ve been practicing for 20 years and I sometimes do a gentle yoga or beginner class because I’m tired, because of timing, etc. I can always make it what I need it to be. I can push harder in a gentle yoga class or do half as much in an advanced class. Make it your own practice.

Try it and try it again. You just might get something out of it. You can incorporate it into whatever other activity you are doing. It can be once a week or every day. Make yoga your own, and I think you’ll find, like I did, that is a rewarding experience.