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2. When grounding the lower back in a prone BEING pose, place the bag directly across the back perpendicular to the spine, with the short ends of the bag facing each hip.

3. Any time you use the bag to ground the shoulders in a supine BEING pose, the back of the outer shoulders should not be more than an inch off the floor.

SANDBAG DON’Ts

Never place the bags directly on the knees unless you are following a particular therapeutic practice to encourage a specific result that you fully understand. The weight of a sandbag on the knees in some straight-legged seated positions with additional prop support can help to stretch tight ligaments. But you must know exactly how to do this and why you are doing it. People will place a 10-pound sandbag just about anywhere, thinking it will help. This will not help when used unwisely.

In general, be mindful of how and why you use sandbags around joints.

Meditation Pad/Zafu

A meditation pad supports a lift of the spine while in a seated position. Some practitioners use a zafu (from the Japanese word for “round cushion”). Will your meditation be better while sitting on a zafu or pad? That depends. My first meditation teacher taught me how to calm my mind while sitting on a street bench with traffic bustling around me. Would sitting on a zafu have made it better? I have no idea. Some people, however, choose to use one because of a feeling or discipline they’ve assigned to the object, as some also do with yoga mats. Can we have an active asana (posture) practice without a mat? Absolutely. Do we care for our yoga mats as though they were real estate? Some of us do. In the end, the basic value of having a meditation zafu or a meditation pad made from folding a blanket is that it lifts the pelvis higher than the legs, which makes sitting upright easier.