THE DUELS OF NOFAP REFORGED: NO PMO TOURNAMENT | OPEN FOR ALL

That makes totally sense brother. Yeah, I may have been conscious, just dead tired not to be aware of my own awareness. Let's call it a relapse, you win I wanted to be honest. I thought it was actually just a few secs, then I looked up a program called TimeBro MemTime and I could see exactly the amount of time I had the video opened, and it was 2 min 14 sec for one video and a bit over 30 secs for another. I was shocked myself actually, auto-mode for that long was weird.. But it happened and it has happened before I guess (bot not on a streak with you). On that note, I should meditate more, for sure. I did read quite a lot by Tolle and other authors, but it didn't really help me even though I understood their points. If I missed a key point by Tolle, feel free to reiterate it here - probably good for me to refresh my knowledge

I greatly appreciate your offer. But I'm not sure I should go for another round atm. I'm still in a challenging life sit. and I believe this relapse plays into that. But I let you know once I feel ready to go another round

 

Check in
Yesterday I had to do the Goggins challenge at 3AM. I don't think it was that smart to do, because I was missing out on sleep and I wasn't working efficient. Next time I just have to start earlier.

 

Checking in brother @KingPiece ! How was the first week of our duel?

Welcome back brother! Excellent choice! Hypnosis? Would you be open to share what in particular you are doing?

Well decided brother! I believe he does, he mentioned that he meditates 2 hours a day. Although, he does that while he stretches. How long will you aim to meditate for?

Glad to have you on the Challenge brother!

Glad to have you on for this brother! The side quest that you elect to follow during this challenge is one that must be done daily. Would there be something else you would prefer to do for this side quest? (Of course keep doing the meditation after your Kung Fu session)

Sound good brother! Thank you for participating!

Great choice brother! No need to check in daily, to be honest you only need to let me know at the end of the month. But I think it would be good if you can update here and there, on how you are faring(with your regular check ins perhaps, as @timonk mentions).

Actually, meditation was my side challenge in February. I've been meditating now for about 3 months consistently again, 30 mins first thing in the morning. Currently I am doing

As far as what meditation I do, I start with a body scan/spatial awareness and then focus on the breath. Bringing back the wandering mind to the flow of my breath. I would agree with you for the most part on the automatic/unconscious thoughts, but I have a lot of unresolved emotions/memories. I've only started addressing them about a month ago. Long list of a back log, so these things pop up with raw emotion and some strong thoughts. The journaling (specifically about that) helps a lot in this regard. Which is why I selected it as my habit.

 

April and May Goggins Challenge brothers!

Participants for April

@Talz 2 sessions of hypnosis to address old memories and unresolved emotions. Delving into the darkness of the mind.
@Ūruz daily daily meditation.
@timonk Write at least 1 hour a day until report is done. Once completed, 1 hour of job search a day.
@Simorgh
@Toni7 Prayer the Rosary
@voltex 30 minute drawing daily
@Redemptionisrequired 30 mins of exploring old memories and addressing unresolved emotions via journaling daily. Delving into the darkness of the mind.

 

Checking in with @voltex

today is my 26 mile marathon day! Wish me luck buddy! I’m terrified!!!

 

Okay Its on

 

Good choice!

@Redemptionisrequired It's like a super advanced guided meditation basically. Not the same as stage hypnosis. You can pull bad subconscious programs to the surface and remove them. It's very intense though, I want to pull out what I have left. Unfortunately the PMO addiction has not been helped much this way... It is just too chemical at this point.

 

What matters is the practice though. If you say it did not help much, I wonder how much did you practice then? Like, you can understand everything about the biology of running and how it's healthy, but if you don't jog every day then it's not gonna give you any health benefit. Understand why the exercise works is fun and all, and might be motivating to work out, but not that beneficial for getting the actual results. Did you practice daily? How consistent you were with it? Did you stick it out for 90 days or so at least? Just like with weight loss and muscle building you not gonna see a very noticeable improvement with brain exercise after just couple weeks.

Basically, just focus on the sensations of the 5 senses (plus mind included as the "sixth sense" of sorts); touch (your palms touching your phone as you hold it, sensation of your legs moving when you walk, arms swinging by your sides, warmth of the sun, etc), smells, sounds, tastes, the mind (just observe the thoughts without engaging—the thinker, likes, dislikes, boredom, anger, sleepiness and other feelings).

That's about it really. No need to understand Tolle's philosophical babble—once we extract the meditation method from it, the book is 90% filler anyways. His method is just refurbished centuries old Zen Buddhist meditation called Shikantaza, just with a secular new agey spin on it. The point is to practice awareness whenever we can. In a nutshell, we are using whatever physical sensation (or a thought, or a feeling) catches our attention as an anchor for that awareness.

Sure thing man, let me know whenever. Meanwhile, take care for now.

I am starting with 5 minutes and plan to slowly build it up to 20 minutes, then probably to 30 minutes next month. Will of course do it every day though, but I'm not gonna stress anymore, like I used to, if I don't meet the duration goal some days.

That's awesome friend! I want to get there again too. And good for you on doing that shadow work stuff man, it sounds uncomfortable, I definitely would not wanna do it myself, haha—I just like to suppress everything, that's how I roll lol, at least for now. But it's probably very healthy to process all that stuff out though.

 

Alright, thanks for clarifying brother. I will be ambitious in light of the recent comment by @Ūruz and attempt "Shikantaza" for minimum 5 minutes every day.

Well, thanks for this brother. I did meditate when I was younger. I even took a course in buddhist meditation in a buddhist temple. But honestly, my mind really likes to jump all the time, and I rarely have the patience to stick with one thing for very long. I confirmed that I do not have ADD or something, but I may have tendencies lol. I know I really SHOULD try to stick with one thing for much longer. So, considering your wise words here I will attempt 5 minutes of Zen meditation/shikantaza for minimum 5 minutes each day (a start, at least). I live a very hectic life with family and kids, so I really need to squeeze this in whenever I have the time for it. So, 5 minutes for a start it is. Observing the mind I find particularly difficult. I sometimes did it when inspired by the readings of Guy Finley and looking at videos from Ajahn Brahm (really insightful to listen to both of them!). However, like I said, I didn't stick with the practice for very long. Perhaps maximum 4-8 weeks. I just realized that I lack the ability to focus on one thing over time. I had this issue my whole life, to be honest. I jumped from one practice to another, from one sport to another, without mastering the art. "jack of all trades master of none". It's not that I don't find it important anymore, but I find something "more interesting" and I get diverted and just plain out forget my practice. The only area where I didn't do this was in my career which has been quite successful. By contrast, when speaking of sports, I graduated about 10-12 degrees, but in different martial arts. Still, I decided to stick with Kung Fu, so in terms of training I kind of settled. This tendency of my mind gets exacerbated during difficult and stressful life situations. I really appreciate your long and thoughtful answer @Ūruz I'm considering whether I should do a new challenge again already. It's not always good for me to just drift in "open space" without any space station or satellite in sight. How long do you meditate each day?

 

Ok let's start

 

Ok checking in for the Goggins challenge: I just finished 10 minutes of what (I believe) was Shikantaza meditation. I followed these "guidelines":
https://zenfields.org/what-is-shikantaza/

 

Check in @Reghu and Goggins check in

 

Checking in @Redemptionisrequired

It's been a breeze for me. I do have to clean myself somedays after waking up. However, no urges like I used to have. How was yours?

 

@Toni7 I have to confess I didn't last long and ended up bringing terribly. I should still be under the three day limit for this round though, so let's keep going.

Brothers, I fear I may have undone a lot of my progress after these last two binges and am expecting to have to go through withdrawals over the next 2-3 weeks. I most definitely need to start limiting my computer time again... I am going to start checking in weekly, choosing Sundays. I would like Sunday to be a free day spent at home to reflect, set goals... Just chill and be with myself. On that day internet is fair game, but Monday-Saturday I gotta restrict myself for now.

As for the Goggin's challenge I have so far kept up with my goal. After a few years of doing this core work on and off I can sense I have achieved a greater level of mastery over the skill of hypnosis, and I can sense I may be close to completely ridding myself of the once overwhelming toxic shame I used to carry around. I broke through to a new level recently and my inner world has had the most substantial shift yet. I feel a lightness and freedom inside I have never experienced and this is in spite of the fact that I am living through one of the most challenging periods of my life by any objective measurement. Everything feels different.

 

Stay strong buddy. Yes we are still in 3 days rule.
Thats a good plan. Limit your computer time. For me is fine if you check in once a week.

 

Can relate to that, kind of same actually. Well, with many things anyhow. I also thought I might have ADD, but have not confirmed, so I have no idea.

Sometimes we can use these breaks as an excuse to relapse again or to binge, at least that's how it works for me, so getting busy with a new goal asap helps. But you decide for yourself friend.

The best thing about Shikantaza method is that you don't have to be "just sitting"—you can be playing with your kids, or making dinner, doing laundry, etc and still in your mind you meditate. I don't know if by that point it counts as "Shikantaza" lol, cause you are not "just sitting", but it still counts. I mean, if carrying wood and chopping water is Zen lol, then so is doing laundry, hehe.

I quit for a while, so at the moment my goal is 5 minutes every day and then build to 20 min again over weeks, and then to 30 min. All though some days I feel particularly motivated and go for longer when it feels effortless; yesterday was almost 40 min. I used to meditate for 2 to sometimes even 3 hours a day years ago, then I quit for couple years, meditated again regularly, quit again, etc lol. So I am not super consistent with it either, all though it has stuck long term anyways. That's sitting meditation; I do occasionally squeeze in Shikantaza/Tolle's method in there as well, usually when I am hiking.

 

@Yowasgood Where did you go? Still keeping up the fight? I seen you've made it over a week.

 

Check in & Goggins check in (for yesterday, as always).

Today is day 21, so I'll only check in 2 twice a week from now on. (Thursday and Sunday to be specific)

 

Checkin in for another round @Ūruz
Goggin check-in for the day: 5 min x 8 Shikantaza = 40 min meditation

Be cool folks.

 

Let's go! Checking in.