I started doing yoga almost by accident. I have issues with pain in my lower back, and since no doctor has been able to tell me what precisely is wrong with me, I tried following along with an online yoga tutorial, just desperate to make the pain stop.

I was seeking pain relief. What I actually attained through an (almost) daily yoga practice went beyond anything I could have asked for. When I start my days with even 10 minutes of practice, my whole focus shifts. You know that feeling you get when you listen to a song for the first time that you can tell is going to be your new favorite? That weird euphoria, satisfaction, and almost-giddy joy? That’s what yoga does for me.

Every damn day.

I was seeking pain relief but you might be seeking a way to lower your anxiety and stress, a way to sleep better, to strengthen your muscles, or to cure your insomnia. A million benefits anyone would love to have, and the best one of all: yoga will make you feel alive.

In the world we live in, it’s easy to coast through life without stopping to take moments to be electric, on fire, alive. Yoga allows you to connect to your body, the floor beneath your hands and feet, and the existential universe and all you have to do is put in some effort each day (that you can).

Important things to know about yoga:

1. You don’t have to attend a class to start your yoga practice. Trust me, I’ve been doing yoga now for about a year and I’ve never stepped foot into a yoga studio. You need an open space in your home, in your yard, in a park, wherever you can stretch out. A yoga mat is preferable, but doing yoga on the floor or a laid-out towel works just fine.

2. You don’t have to be flexible or strong. Practice for long enough and those things will come but all the benefits you can get from yoga, you can get as a beginner.

3. You don’t have to be a girl! Just because the mass majority of yogis you see on Instagram are females, doesn’t mean that yoga is a feminine practice. The human mind and body benefits from yoga, not just the female human mind and body.

4. You CAN start easy. You just have to start. Tell yourself you're going to try 5 minutes of a video and if you absolutely hate it, then stop, and try again in a week or a month. Just make sure you challenge yourself. Nothing good ever came easy.

You can find two yogis I swear by below to get your practice started. Adrienne, creator of 30 Days of Yoga, is the yogi who guided me through the start of my practice. She's an amazing instructor, adorably dorky, and humorous.

Michelle's yoga tutorials are typically a little more advanced, but you should still check out her hilarious rants about life on her channel! Here's a fairly low difficulty level warm up tutorial.

Even if you don't want to spend each day invigorating your life with this practice that will give you a natural high every time, you should try following just one video, even if it's just to cross "try yoga" off your bucketlist.