Restorative Yoga Therapy. Leeann Carey

used in gyms. Imagine being in Savasana (Corpse Pose) with a few large round weights stacked on top of the pelvis and legs. Don’t laugh until you try it. I’ll try just about anything that I think might provide the kind of support I need at any given time. However, sandbags work even better than weight plates, and you can make your own. Whether you use sand (don’t steal it from the beach; buy it from the store), pea gravel, rice, or some other substance for the bag, be sure you do not entirely fill the bag, because it needs to be manipulable so that you can rest only part of it on a limb if needed.

      SANDBAG DOs

      1. When placing the bags at the top thighs in a supine BEING pose, be sure the knees are either on the same plane as the hips or no more than 1 inch above.

      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.

      HOW TO USE: Sit on it, and practice being still. That’s it.

      Foam Roller

      Two words: Love it! Foam rollers come in several sizes and degrees of density and help to massage large muscle groups and fascia, the fibrous tissue that covers the muscles. Using a roller is almost like getting a massage, except you don’t have to pay for it, remove your clothes, or get greased with oil. It does a great job of breaking up lactic acid, and you’re in control of the pressure and duration. Of course, rolling on a tennis ball also does the trick, but the body rollers are far superior because of their size, shape, and density. Sometimes I like to start a class, a private session, or my own practice with the foam roller to encourage oxygen and blood flow to muscles. Other times I might end with the roller. It all depends on what I’m trying to support in the practice.

      HOW TO USE: Just roll your body across it. You can roll across the front, back, and sides of the body. Roll slowly. If you rip through this action at lightning speed, you won’t feel or realize its effects.

      Tennis Ball

      As mentioned above, if you don’t have a foam roller, a tennis ball can be an adequate and inexpensive replacement. What’s effective about using tennis balls is that they can really work the small muscle groups.

      HOW TO USE: Roll the ball with the soles of your feet — wonderful for those suffering from plantar fasciitis, a symptom of tight tendons in the soles. You can use it for the spine as well, basically like the foam roller, but since the ball’s surface isn’t nearly as large as the roller’s, be careful when using it near the spinal column. Don’t push it directly against the spine; just roll it on either side. You can also tape two tennis balls together so that they can roll in tandem up and down each side of the spinal column.

      Eye Pillow

      Choosing an eye pillow is sort of like the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” You may like an eye pillow that covers the entire forehead. Or perhaps you want one that covers only the eye lids and the bridge of the nose. Or perhaps you want one that falls somewhere in between. Why not have a collection of all sizes so that you can use them as you wish? If you are handy with a sewing machine, you can make these yourself. Eye pillows are typically filled with a mixture of flax seeds, lavender buds, and peppermint and/or chamomile leaves. The smell of this mixture can be very calming and soothing. If you do make any for yourself, please be sure to make them with a removable and washable cover to avoid eye infections from the dirt and dust that accumulate from continued use.

      HOW TO USE: I consider eye pillows wonderful little gifts from yoga heaven. They can be used to block out the light, give a little bit of weight to the forehead or the palm of your hands, or provide a cool support under the back of your neck. They support a meaningful turning inward.

      GOING DEEPER: THE RIGHTNESS OF PRACTICE

      Much of an intelligent and creative yoga practice is getting yourself to see the wisdom of what you are doing and why. It is up to you to bring the kind of awareness to your practice that will clarify what you choose in order to make your practice meaningful. You will never know what comes from your practice if you don’t practice with devotion, concentration, and faith.

      Learning a Skill

      The right prop support can teach a skill necessary for experiencing a balanced approach for doing, being in, and breathing in a yoga pose. Some solutions for addressing difficulties in a pose may often be found in other poses that require less. And solutions will always include a soft breath and a calm mind — in essence, a yielding body and mind. Yoga poses require not only strength, stability, flexibility, and mobility but also skills such as proprioception (the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself), somatic movement (movement that relies on an awareness, desire, and ability to become more self-determining; somatic refers to your ability to sense the processes going on “within” you), and a mind that doesn’t react to its own fluctuations. If one or more of these skills are significantly impaired, the benefits are that much harder to achieve. For instance, let’s use a simple back bend as an example.

      Back bends require the chest muscles to stretch, the mid and upper back muscles to contract, shoulder mobility, and the fibrous tissue between the mid and upper back vertebrae to move forward. Muscles that are too tight and joints that are too stiff end up relying on help from other areas of the body that aren’t meant to play a significant role in the pose. In a classic back-bending pose, this can put strain on the lower segment of the spine and disrupt proper rotation of the shoulder joints. These imbalances, if not addressed, make it difficult to open and lift the chest with strong back body support, a skill necessary for a safe back bend. Therefore, safe and enjoyable back bends are often inaccessible to many students.

      The photo above demonstrates a simple chair-supported Ustrasana (Camel Pose). This variation (see page 51) allows you to breathe and soften in the pose and explore areas that otherwise would not safely be available in a back bend. With the chair, you can investigate the skill necessary to stretch and contract the