This morning, I completed my final day of the 40-day challenge! Which means I actually used the Neti Pot 41 days in a row.

So, what was this like? Well, I’m honestly not sure there is any overall improvement in my sinuses – although I haven’t come down with a virus since I’ve been irrigating daily. I think the test now will be to see what happens when I stop doing it every day, and see if I notice myself feeling more congested. If that happens, well, I’ll go back to doing it every day (or most days; I’m not sure I’ll ever feel the need to have it as a strict daily practice again).

As for watching my mind during the process (which is really the reason for doing this sort of committment, IMO), I never hit any big resistance to keeping my word about doing this every day. I expected to just dread doing it some days, but that never happened. There were a couple of days when I forgot until late in the day (once I think I even got back out of bed to do it), but that was just forgetfulness, more than, “OMG, I really don’t want to have to do this!”

There were times when I procrastinated, and was aware that I needed to go do this throughout the day. I definitely found that I felt “better” about things on days when I’d remembered or made the effort to do it first thing in the morning, or at least earlier in the day vs. later. This same thing holds true for my daily asana practice, as well. When I’ve done all my daily practices early in the day, I had a nice feeling of completion – “okay, so now I don’t have to worry about those anymore today.” Not in a tired, crabby way – just in a way that I felt accomplished, and free to move on to other things. That was probably the most interesting part of the experience for me – realizing that I feel better about myself and my activities when I’ve gotten the real priorities done early on in the day. That would be something to remember and carry forward into the future. :)