"Downward dog certainly didn't cure my eating disorder, but the practice did teach me how to relate to my body in a more compassionate way."

Many of the women thought yoga was just for the thin, or the super-athletic, or suburban housewives. Once they realize yoga is available to everyone, they get excited.

This is an interview with Peg Oliveira, who has taught yoga for years in schools, detention centers, preschools, after-school programs and inpatient and outpatient mental health centers for youth and adults in and around New Haven, Conn.

This is an interview with Traci Lundstrom, who began learning yoga while serving time in the Boulder, Colorado, county jail the fall of 2009.

This is an interview with John Morgan, an Army veteran in recovery from alcohol abuse. John's yoga service began on Veterans Day 2012 at a treatment center in eastern Connecticut for veterans, active duty personnel, and dependents.

"It's time to offer yoga electives in social work and other helping professional degree programs (for nurses, therapists, special educators, first responders, etc.). These professionals and their clients will benefit from an education in the foundational principles of yoga healing."

The gift of yoga is really the gift of ourselves. By meeting ourselves on our mats, we meet the world and our families from a more complete place, able to give our heart and soul to everyone we meet and everything we do.

Watch and be inspired: Deepak Chopra discusses the different, subjective ways we can define happiness. For more on happiness, click here. ...

Welcome to "You Tried It," a series of video posts from top trainers, who will share clips from their popular workout DVDs. Please try the moves o...