Julie Carmen and I met filming a movie together in Tucson, Arizona. Several years later, we found ourselves virtually as neighbors living in Malibu, California. It seemed serendipitous that we would find each other again. I enjoy Julie’s technique; she has studied with several of the great yogi masters, and her approach is gentle yet informative. She explains each position thoroughly and motivates us to want to do the positions perfectly. She is a natural teacher, and I think you will get turned on to yoga after reading her interview, even if you have never thought about it.
SS: Thank you for your time. Through you as my teacher, I have come to love my yoga practice, but for those who have no idea of what to expect, walk me through the reasons why one would want to do yoga.
JC: Yoga “tunes the instrument”—in other words, your body. I couldn’t imagine if, for instance, I was in an orchestra and played the violin, that I would not tune my instrument before playing. Each day, whether we’re going off to a stressful job, or being with children, or perhaps struggling with a personal illness, you can deal with your day more effectively if your body has been tuned.
SS: Yes, but most people are interested in an exercise program because they want to get their bodies in shape. Tuning the instrument comes afterward because (as I now know) you get turned on by what yoga does to your body. You see results like never before.
JC: Yes. Yoga has been practiced for more than five thousand years, so it’s a time-honored system. Yoga aligns the joints into their natural, healthy posture, so that in a short period of time, muscle groups develop and maintain that alignment with a beautiful sculpting. With a balanced yoga practice, you’ll notice that there is definition in your glutes. Your stomach becomes more scooped; there’s more of a waistline, and your torso elongates so that your rib cage lifts out of your pelvis. Yoga helps you develop the muscle strength to be able to maintain that lift, so whether you’re sitting in the car or at a desk or computer, your waist is still long.
There are a lot of spine stability exercises in yoga. It really depends upon what the teacher teaches, but those spine-stabilizing postures help keep length in the waistline, and this also increases digestion and respiration so that the lungs aren’t sitting right on the stomach. There’s some space in there, so you can actually take a deep breath and digest more efficiently. Also, the neck is held long through yoga practice, and that gives a lifted feeling. A youthful look is about posture. A twenty-year-old who has been carrying a backpack and sitting over a Game Boy or video games can look older than his years just because his posture has collapsed.
SS: That’s so true. Look at elderly people. My father-in-law had beautiful posture and walked erect and straight at the age of ninety-two. He always seemed so much younger than his years. Yet an elderly person who is hunched over looks frail and fragile.
JC: Absolutely. You see a sixty-year-old with magnificent posture and say, “Wow! What’s their secret?” The secret is posture, and yoga is famous for developing magnificent posture.
SS: Frankly, Julie, I don’t think sixty is “old” (laugh), seeing how that is my age!
JC: You are so right! Sorry! It’s difficult to equate that age with you. It used to be deemed “old.”
SS: But no more! I worked out for years with a trainer, and I always had fat deposits around the upper part of the back of my hips and waist, and then there was this extra “stuff” that popped out from under the back of my bra strap. No matter how hard I worked out, it wouldn’t go away. With yoga it is melting away. Why is that?
JC: Yoga is thorough. There are thousands of postures. A teacher is able to look at a body without a lot of clothes on and see where there are fat deposits. Usually the muscles in that area need more developing and strengthening. There’s a balance between stretch and strength. So the answer to your question is twofold: Number one, the cardio system has kicked up, and a strong yoga practice can make the heart beat fast for an extended period of time so you’re burning fat. And number two: You’re strengthening the muscles underneath where there are fat deposits so you’re toning that area. It’s different from weight lifting in a targeted way. Also, it relates hormonally because hormones are affected by yoga postures. For instance, if we’re upside down for five to seven minutes in different comfortable inversions, just being in that position affects the thyroid gland and stimulates thyroid action.
SS: And we know from this book that the thyroid is a major hormone. I love the visual you create when I’m upside down. Can you tell me what you say?
JC: Well, the blood flows in reverse and stimulates the thyroid. If you just have your legs up a wall, lying flat on your back relaxing, the blood will flow down and pool. I use poetic images such as “Imagine it’s a waterfall, and the blood and all the liquid in your body is draining out of your feet, draining out of your legs, and pooling or landing into a beautiful lake into a pool, which is your thyroid.” Those relaxing images also allow the brain to relax and not pump the stress hormones. Now if you have a hyperactive thyroid or high blood pressure, you should check with your doctor about having your head below your heart.
SS: The first time you did that image for me, I could feel this lake at my thyroid, which I loved. Now what about constipation? As we get older, it seems that everybody has trouble with constipation. Is yoga good for that?
JC: Yoga twists are good for constipation. You first want to warm up the body and then do gentle twists where you’re compressing the digestive organs, twisting and putting pressure on the colon, on the liver, and on the kidneys in your back. Then you unwind the twist and release the pressure. That area then fills up with nutrients and oxygen and blood, and then you twist again. You create stimulation in that area. Being upside down also helps because gravity is pulling in an opposite way. If you’re standing all day long, often blood pools in your feet or intestines, and there’s a downward pull because of gravity. If you’re upside down in a shoulder stand or a headstand, eventually gravity’s pulling in a different direction.
SS: Everybody’s stressed. Is yoga a destressor?
JC: Yoga is a calming form of exercise. It has a calming effect. I divide thoughts into past, present, future. If you are thinking about things that you need to do later on or tomorrow, that’s future. If you are thinking about what was, that’s past. In yoga, we concentrate on being in the present. You focus your mind on the simple path of inhale and exhale. The definition of yoga, which means “yoke,” is the yoking together of the mind, body, and breath. There are moments in yoga even after practicing for a short while where all of a sudden you’ll say to yourself, “Wow, that was it! I wasn’t thinking about my shopping list or picking up the kids from school. My mind was really on the alignment or the breath or the flow, or the movement, and the noise in my head didn’t bother me. Nothing distracted me in that moment.” What we search to do in yoga is extend those moments of unity. Yoga is not merely exercise; it’s a practice that we do as often as possible, hopefully on a daily basis. It unifies our mind with our breath.
SS: Yes, but the beauty to me is twofold: Yoga calms and focuses me while sculpting my body into a shape I’ve never had before, even when I was young. I have never had any exercise that I have enjoyed this much or seen better results physically. Initially, I found it difficult to focus and concentrate on each movement because of all the “noise” in my head. You know, all the “future” stuff.
JC: A sensitive teacher will make it just hard enough to quiet your mind, but not so hard that you add stress. It’s in a range between being a couch potato and being a total overachiever. There is a delicate balance where you find the edge, and you have to focus enough that you won’t be wiped out by the next wave. I treat yoga as an extreme sport in that way, because I like to find a person’s edge, where there is no room for extraneous thought.
SS: How long can a person do yoga? Could an eighty-year-old do yoga?
JC: Yes: 103-, 106-year-olds do yoga, and pretty strenuous yoga at that. It’s a matter of knowing your body. It’s like anything; it’s a process of getting to know “who you are.” Your “self” is manifested in your body and in your strengths, weaknesses, and illnesses. Getting to know all that constitutes your “self,” including your hormones, your injuries, and your stage of life, will allow you to adjust your yoga practice to fit your level of ability.
SS: Is there a danger for an older person? As we age (without BHRT), men’s and women’s bones get weaker. Could they hurt themselves?
JC: Everything should be done in the context of that person’s overall health. I say it’s better to exercise than to risk getting diabetes and cardiovascular disease from doing nothing. A sensible yoga practice in the context of that person’s overall health is right for anyone at any age with any condition.
SS: What has yoga done for you?
JC: It has completely transformed me. It has made me a better mother and made me more present with my child and in my life. I am less anxious, and it has made me more joyful.
SS: When you’re in the car, or temple, or at a school function, do you find yourself consciously breathing or adjusting your posture or sitting up straight as a result of yoga?
JC: Well, I try to be aware of my posture. Of course, there are times I forget, but I do find I am more awake.
SS: I find that I am also constantly adjusting my posture to breathe more deeply to relax and bring up my energy.
JC: Yoga is an energy system. We’re extending the life force; we’re extending our breath. If we feel sluggish, we want to increase our energy. If we’re feeling hyper and manic, then we want to slow down, and yoga will help. Throughout your whole practice, Suzanne, we use a practice called Ujjayi. That’s a strong inhale, strong exhale, and even breath. When I say, “Empty all your air out, and then take in a breath into your lower lungs, hold it, then into your middle lungs, hold it, then into your upper lungs, hold it, hold it as long as you can, and then let it all out with control,” you can feel the breath working.
SS: Yes. I swear, that is how I believe the fat that I couldn’t get rid of literally melted off … through this kind of controlled breathing and stretching. To me it’s miraculous. Women my age have joint pain, watery eyes, sinusitis, allergies, and other conditions from the drastic drop in estrogen and progesterone. I believe yoga is a perfect complement to bioidentical hormone replacement. Yoga keeps you limber at a time when your body wants to stiffen up. It stimulates the hormonal system to counteract these conditions brought about by hormonal decline.
JC: Well, hormones are your area of expertise. I am learning from you.
SS: That’s how it works. We women help one another. What about men? Most men think yoga is for girls, that it’s a sissy sport.
JC: Half of the people in my class are men. Things are changing. Some men come to me and say they want to do yoga because they are not flexible anymore.
SS: Look at Alan, my husband. When he started he was very stiff …
JC: And now he stands on his hands and does back bends in only two years of practice.
SS: He loves yoga, and his love handles have melted away. Yoga has reshaped his body with no significant change in his diet (which has always been good) and lifestyle. We still go out a couple of times a week and enjoy our life immensely.
JC: Love handles disappear because there is a lengthening of the waist and strengthening of the muscles that keep length there. When you stretch and elongate, this lengthens the spine, without congesting or compacting the area. A lot of men are dealing with heart disease, depression, high blood pressure, and stiffness of the joints. Yoga has helped people deal with those conditions. Did you know that yoga was done only by men until the 1930s? It was only meant as a practice for Brahman boys.
SS: There you go. Once again, we women have had to struggle even for the right to do exercise. What do you say to the person who doesn’t want to do any kind of exercise? What would you say to that person in order to turn them on to yoga?
JC: Eventually, everybody who has a consistent yoga practice looks and feels remarkably better, and it has a positive feedback loop. That’s when people start saying, “Oh my God. You look so great, you look so much better. What have you been doing?” So the physical changes are stimulating and encouraging. But it’s the change in energy that really gets people turned on. You don’t realize how sluggish you can get until you take the steps to reverse it.
SS: Yes. I find on the days I do yoga there is a spring in my step. I feel lighter, more joyful, and of course I love that my body looks so youthful as a result.
JC: Yoga fills your brain with a thought of inhale/exhale, stretch, and contract. If you fill your brain with those thoughts but think about it as breathing in compassion, breathing out compassion, it leaves no room for negativity, worry, depression, anxiety, and stress.
SS: What a lovely way to end. Thank you.