Yoga has become a fad. Ten years ago, it was impossible to find yoga mats, clothes and accessories in stores like Wal-Mart. At best, one could find a yoga workout DVD from the public library and give it their best shot in their living room.

Now, opening a yoga studio is automatically viewed as a smart investment, as long as the classes are ones that the community can afford. The physical benefits of yoga are almost too good to be true, and the mental stillness it brings to any busy person is tempting.

I do yoga, and have consistently taken classes for the past two years. Like most people, I started because I wanted a good workout. When I first did hot vinyasa, or fast-paced yoga in a room of at least 90 degrees, I realized Id found the most physically and mentally challenging activity Id ever done. Always pushing myself, I made myself go back and do yoga until it was no longer the hardest thing I had ever done. What I found was much more than overcoming a physical challenge.

The practice of physical yoga is called Hatha yoga and is just one aspect of the yogic path, which is a life path. The yogis of the east have adopted contortionist movements, as well as an entirely yogic way of viewing the world.

The Self Realization Fellowship, founded by the Yogi and teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, publishes the most comprehensive definitions and types of yoga.

The fellowship outlines the types of yoga: Hatha, which is the yoga we all know, the movement between poses for the purpose of physical purity, preparing us for meditation; Karma Yoga, which is service to others without expectation of something in return; Mantra Yoga, which is using words or phrases and repeating them to center ourselves; Bhakti Yoga, or striving to see the love/god/divinity in everything; Jnana Yoga, or using wisdom and your smarts to distinguish between what is healthy and not; and finally, Raja Yoga, which is the synthesis of all these yogic practices.

Yoga literally means unity. If you also do yoga, perhaps ask yourself what sort of practice it is. What is your intention in doing yoga? A workout? A meditation? Both? A new perspective on the world? Whatever your reasons may be, know that yoga can be a powerful tool for personal transformation and the transformation of the world. Id rather not say that I do yoga, as it makes it a separate activity apart from my day-to-day life.

Instead, Ill say that Ive chosen to live yoga and to adopt not only the physical practice, but the other aspects as well, which ultimately challenges and influences the way I see the world.

By choosing to live yoga, you are choosing unity between your body and mind, your spirit and the exterior world, and yourself and others.

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Weekly Zen: Integrate yoga into your life