Breathe through your mouth and don’t close off your nostrils. Let the water go in/up one nostril, through your sinus cavity, then out the bottom nostril ( while your head is tilted to one side.)
Here is a little cartoon on YouTube showing how to use a Neti Pot. There are hundreds of videos on there showing how they work if you don’t like this one.
Thanks. I read the instructions and watched a couple of videos. The one thing no one mentioned was whether or not to block off the nostrils from the throat. The water came out the other nostril no matter how I did it so I wasn’t sure which was right.
It really doesn’t matter because if you lean forward slightly, it won’t go back into your throat. If you have a problem with it going down your throat either close that off or lean forward more.
I was leaning forward at the waist but my head wasn’t tilted enough. I adjusted the tilt and it worked perfectly.
I woke up this morning with my sinuses feeling tight and my nose feeling very dry. I took a long hot shower to loosen up my head. Then, I used the Neti pot.
This totally gives new meaning to getting the juices flowing.
Anyway, between the shower and the Neti pot, my nose stopped feeling painfully dry when inhaling and my sinuses loosened up. I did that around 12:30 pm. The tightening started coming back around 7pm and didn’t really start hurting until about 30 minutes ago. I’ll do it again before I go to bed. My nose still doesn’t feel dry.
Today was the first day in months that I could wear my contacts without my eyes feeling like they were going to explode.
I think I love this thing.
yay, another convert =)
My biggest problem with the neti pot is that every time I try it, I end up confessing to being a member of Al Qaeda.
I fill my squeeze bottle with distilled water and add the packet. While I’m doing this, my sink is running with hot water and the drain is closed allowing it to fill up. I then stand the bottle up in the hot water in the sink and let it sit for a few minutes while I do other ahem… bathroom things. Works great for me!
It is better to have the salt solution slightly hypertonic. I use 1 teaspoon measured with a standard teaspoon measure.
The three things to get right are the tonicity (saltiness), temperature and pH. If the solution is not salty enough it will burn. The temperature should be lukewarm. A quarter of a teaspoon of bicarb soda buffers the pH (optional).
Use a pure salt that does not have anti-caking agents, NOT table salt. Rock salt is too slow to dissolve and may contain impurities.
I also add some xylitol.
Here is an article you can read up on if so inclined. I love the naming of the Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test or SNOT. Those otolaryngologists guys are a crackup.
Exactly. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the water, and I know many people that say it tastes fine to them.
I can taste the chemicals they use to treat it and it’s nasty. I can taste a lot of things that other people can’t, so I’m used to that.
I drink the same water filtered, so it’s not like I’m concerned about the quality. I can’t taste it in my nose, so that’s not a problem. 
congodwarf, welcome to the fold! I’ve gotten at least a half-dozen people hooked on netis. It’s tremendous being able to breathe!
I’ve got a question for all you experienced neti-ers. I took my pot with me while travelling this week - I only use it sporadically, but I was coming down with a cold and thought it might be helpful. I used it once a day and quite possibly it’s reduced the sore throat (not sure how, but I’ve awakened with a somewhat sore throat each morning and it went away after using the pot).
Well, one evening, I used it an hour or more before going to bed. I turned onto my left side when I was ready to go to sleep… felt something funny, sniffed - and was rewarded with a mouthful of salty water. Rather a surprise, for sure!
So the question is: where was that water all that time? was it lurking in a sinus? just pooled in some main nasal passage?
Water can pool in your sinuses. I usually stand up and then lean forward again after I finish. Most times I do get some extra water out that way.
I know how it feels to have that warm water flow out onto my pillow. I’d been having nosebleeds and freaked, thinking I was bleeding onto my pillow.
When I started doing the nasal saline (I use the bottle), it didn’t do anything for me. Found out that it was because my sinuses were so blocked up that they required surgery. Once I got over that, it works much better, and I can definitely feel the water going up into my frontal sinuses.