By Sarah Cook I had so many things to write about tonight, and now they all seem trite when faced with the loss of a great musical talent and the end of a tragic life. Whitney Houston, once considered the queen of pop music, was my contemporary… with less than a year difference in our birth dates. I grew up singing, and admired the powerhouse voice in Whitney Houston, who descended from music royalty (mother Cissy Houston, aunts Dionne and DeeDee Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin…the undisputed queen of soul). Whitney’s life was filled with great triumph—and terrible decisions. Her troubled relationships and drug addiction have been headline news for decades. So, this death, rumored to be an overdose of crack cocaine, should not be a shock, should it?

But it is. And because I identify with Whitney as a contemporary, it forces me to think about such topics as my own mortality. I plan to be around a long, long time. With grandmothers who died at 99 and 95, I truly think of the 40s as mid-life. Whitney’s death highlights the importance of taking care of yourself, but even more than that, loving yourself. When you love yourself, you think about how you treat your body and your soul… and for me, yoga is a tool that is helping me figure out how to do that better.

So, I’d like to leave you with this question. What part does yoga play in your quest for health and happiness?

Sarah Cook is a Senior Product Marketing Consultant for Dell Storage. Opinions expressed here are her own.