You enter this world on a breath. You leave when breathing stops. The shape of your life is determined by the shape of every breath you take in between.
Breathing is the most important habit. But almost nobody, except for true yogis, takes radical care of their nasal passages.
Fill this pure copper neti pot each morning with distilled, sterile, or boiled-and-cooled water and a measured saline mix, then rinse each nostril.
You may feel your sinuses clear and your nasal passages open. Even if you don’t think you have junk up there, we all live in a polluted world. A saline rinse can help wash away dust, pollen, and mucus.
This is a ritual. When air enters and fills you, that’s new fuel for life. The more freely you can breathe, the more alive you feel.
The salt is intended to match the salinity of your body’s fluids, making the rinse more comfortable.
Warning: once you start, you’ll never stop. This habit changes your life for good.
I prefer pure copper to plastic when performing jala neti—the yogic practice of nasal rinsing.
This is the best pure copper neti pot I could find. It’s sourced by my friend, who I met at the Bihar School of Yoga, an ashram in Bihar, India. Every morning, the first thing the older yogis did was rinse their noses because it helped them breathe in the day.
But cleaning your nose isn’t a common habit in the United States. So my friend helped me find the very best copper neti pot he could, and we landed on the one his grandpa has used for 40 years straight.
It’s hand-shaped, pure copper, and includes a microfiber towel. Wash it after each use, let the inside dry completely, and dry the outside with the towel to help slow oxidation.
It costs $42, and you can get yours , or visit your local Natural Grocers.