STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: In the Human Factor, we profile survivors who have overcome the odds. Confronting a life obstacle -- injury, illness or other hardship -- they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn't know they possessed. This week, we meet recovering drug addict Vinnie Marino, now one of the most sought-after yoga teachers in Los Angeles.

(CNN) -- Vinnie Marino grew up in the 1960s and says a "restlessness" drew him to reading about Buddhism, practicing yoga and eating a vegetarian diet.

But, while in high school, he also found drugs. After dropping out of college, he moved to San Francisco, where, he says, "My first week there I was introduced to shooting cocaine." Eventually, heroin helped calm his "crazy cocaine brain." He stayed in the downward spiral for years before fighting to get clean.

Here are five questions for Marino:

CNN: You started doing yoga as a teenager when you were living in New York, but you didn't really get serious about it until you moved to Los Angeles. What happened?

Vinnie Marino: When I lived in Manhattan, I would jog around Washington Square Park, dreading each lap. I was never a good jock, but yoga just felt so intense. There was a soft side and a strong side to it and a spiritual feeling around it. It really felt like it embodied my whole thing.

So I started going to a few vinyasa flow and power flow classes in Los Angeles. There was music at some of them, and it was really physically challenging. It just kept calling me back. I didn't dread it like, "Oh, no, I've got to go the gym tomorrow." I know people who love the gym, and they go, and it's a great thing for them. That was just never my experience, but with yoga, I was excited about it, and I just kept on doing it.

CNN: You weren't sure if you could make a career out of it, though. Then came a pivotal moment. What was it like teaching your first class?

Marino: I did a lot of teacher trainings. I was studying Iyengar Yoga, and I just resisted teaching as much as I loved it. A friend of mine was teaching at a gym in Hollywood, and he said there were like three students that came. It was in an air-conditioned room at seven in the morning. He said, "I'm going away. Will you please teach for me?" I said, "Absolutely not. I will not. Cannot." He said, "I'm going away. You have to teach for me." So I went and did it.

Read the rest here:
Former addict's relief and release through yoga