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Gentle exercise and keeping active are very important parts of keeping your body strong and as flexible as possible and when you have RA. Stress and anxiety can affect your ability to cope with your disease and meditation is often recommended, as well. There are different kinds of exercise that help you build strength, as well as deal with stress. Tai chi is one and yoga is another. Both are a sort of meditation in motion, so you get two for the price of one!   One of the great things about yoga for a person with RA is how it allows you to build strength and flexibility while staying within your limits. More traditional forms of exercise has a tendency to build strength by pushing you past your limits and when you have RA, this will likely result in you spending several days being in a lot of pain. There are many varieties of yoga and some are quite strenuous, so it's a good idea to do a bit of research, maybe on the Internet first or go to your local yoga studio (if there's one in your city or town) and discuss your situation with the staff so they can recommend a class that will suit your needs and not be too intense. Depending on how active your RA is, you may also want to run it by your rheumatologist, although I suspect that they will recommend exercise and physiotherapy to keep you joints mobile.   When you're doing yoga, whether it's in a class or from a DVD you're watching in your home, keep in mind that depending on the damage to your joints or how bad your RA is on that particular day, you should adjust your yoga practice to the state of your body. Your limits will likely vary from day to day and it's a good idea to stay within those limits, even if it means you are able to do less on Wednesday than you were on Monday. Think long term, not short-term - you're looking to slowly build strength and flexibility over time and definitely not looking to be able to lift a minivan by the weekend. Also, keep in mind that yoga often feels so good that it's easy to get carried away and push past your limits, so be conservative until you discover how much a body can handle.