She plays the prickly Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the medical drama House. But as the 40-year-old actress who thought she�d undergo a lifetime of spinal surgeries explains to Dana Meltzer Zepeda, she has her ratty yoga rugs and 4 A.M. yoga sessions to thank for keeping her out of the real-life operating room.

The first time I took a yoga class I didn�t relate to it at all. But 9 years ago my doctor told me that I was going to need spinal fusions (sawing the bone off my pelvis and putting it in my neck) for the rest of my life because every few years my discs would go like dominoes. I was in pain so I started doing Bikram yoga. Within 3 months, I was pain-free. After 6 months, I never had a neck injury again.

A lot of pain is emotional more than physical. I read a book on back pain and realized that what was hurting me the most was the way I was handling stress.

I don�t like saying I �opened my mind� to yoga because that sounds really hippie-dippie. I really just had to be hungry enough for another solution.

Within a year I fell in love with Mysore-style Ashtanga (self-led, specific series of poses named after the place in India where it originated). It�s old and traditional. I don�t feel like it�s an Americanized version of yoga or an exercise class.

I have to be at work at 6:00 A.M. Mondays. My whole practice takes an hour and a half to 2 hours. When I tell people that I�ve done a practice at 4 in the morning, I feel like I�ve already had a day that they don�t own but I do.
 
Having a disciplined practice is a really powerful tool. It teaches you that you can show up for yourself no matter what. I live in a world that�s very chaotic. I have stability because of my practice.

Am I the most stable person in the world? Absolutely not.

I wear the same yoga pants until they fall apart. My yoga mats are these rugs from India that are falling apart. I love them because they�re worn and I�ve worked so hard in them everyday.

The mat that I have in New York I�ve been using for 9 years. I just can�t be bothered. That�s not the point.

I�ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager�when I was a kid, they called me Rabbit�but I grew up in a family where we had meat everyday, and where green beans were gray. I didn�t try broccoli until I was 16.

I eat chocolate every day and I have an aggressive life. I drive like a New York cabbie. I�m a bobber and a weaver.

You have to constantly let go. That includes your pain. Pain is always going to come and pain is always going to go. It�s just part of life. These are things that we all know but to have that tangible experience on the mat daily is a nice, healthy reminder.

When you approach postures that are terrifying or painful and you breathe calmly�that is useful for the rest of your life.