The most horrifying moment of my yogihood so far was when I read the materials list for my first yoga teacher training, and found out I had to buy an enema kit. I didn’t know where to get one, so I went to a hole-in-the-wall local health food store run by an old hippie. When I arrived, he was chatting with one of his regular customers, so I mulled around waiting for her to leave and pretended to look at herbs. Eventually the store owner paused his conversation and asked, “Can I help you find anything?”

“Uh…,” I hesitated, and then continued quietly, “I’m doing a yoga teacher training, and I need an enema kit.”

“What?” he asked, not quite catching that last bit.

“I need an enema kit,” I said as confidently as possible. “Do you sell them?”

Both he and his customer burst out laughing, and then quickly bit their tongues in response to my mortified expression. He told me kindly that he didn’t carry them and had no idea where I could buy one. Some hippie!

Not all kriyas (yogic cleansing techniques) are as extreme as enemas. To read more about accessible takes on age-old cleansing techniques, read this article I wrote for Inner Fire: 6 Age-Old Cleansing Techniques Every Yogi Should Know.