The Lord of the Rings Challenge

I am back, starting from scratch again.
I hope to go 500 days no PMO

 

Brother! I'm sorry that you're feeling this way. I agree with you that we shouldn't say that is okay to relapse. But think about it! I'm sure Rise's AP needed to think and post something like this to don't feel bad about it. It's a defensive way of thinking..

I need to tell you something. You can't allow excuses to yourself. Don't let them seduce you. If you have that door open, you will find an excuse and fall sooner or later. There is no excuse man. If you fall, it's on you, your own choosing.

And I tell you from own experience that number of days do count. It's encouraging for yourself and others, it's another reason to stay strong during urges. It's prove that being free is possible. Of course it does count.

Finally, your main support it's not your day streak, nor having a better life (even tho it's important for all of us), but God and not betraying him, not getting away from his Grace, because that is what really f*** us

 

Brother let me invite you to a side challenge just for you. Survive this hard time, and see for yourself how good and proud you will feel after it. It will be a strong, really strong weapon in all your future dark times.

If you accept this challenge, you need to do it with devotion, by own choosing. Not forced in any way, because if you do it like that, it won't work in our favour.

 

I agree with you both @ListenPaul and @Kairose .

I will put it this way, when one relapses, full ownership should be taken. Do not deny and give power to someone else but also, do not drag yourself down big the relapse occurred.

I do not speak for our brother, but I don't believe our dear brother @RiseToGreatness meant to advocate for a relapse. What he means, is this. Who is better off, a man who relapses 3-4 times in a year and consistently works on learning from his emotions and reactions, or a man who doesn't work on himself and just count the days?

I personally advocate for both, as they go hand in hand. We must work on our emotional management, set up positive tools to overcome a trigger and strengthen our resolve with knowledge against PMO as we abstain.

 

Day -8 - Uruk – Hai

 

Checking In day 13! Still going very strong having no urges whatsoever. I’m not gonna slack Even A second I know they Are right around the corner! Good saturday to all of you

 

590

 

Day 1!
An orc now, today I will go to a party, so will be a good day!

 

2 days to be a dwarf, let's gooooo!!!!

 

Welcome man enjoy the party and dont catch covid!!

 

It's a good question, my friend! First off, it's okay to be serious about the challenge. I am as well, this is a good sign. I had a ton of doubts and fears at first, I doubted my recovery. Tension is due to withdrawal and pent up sexual energy. I was fearful that I would always remain the same, stuck in a world of anxiety , tension, anger and fatigue. As far as doubting if this will work or not. Perhaps at the beginning, but I also decided from the get go that enough was enough. I had lost too much to PMO to ever return. Even with this resolve, the insane amount of insomnia I felt at the beginning lead me to MO(no porn) on day 72. (This is exactly why I have a counter of free porn and my day counter matches my time free of MO). Even with that, I got up right away and kept going forward, because I knew that indulging is not the correct path to take. At that point, being PMO free became a value. I increased my study, practiced awareness and kept delving into emotional management.

It's okay to have momentary doubts, but have the habits that will disprove them. I.e success stories, what others lost due to PMO..things of that nature.

 

Yes it has value on their own-it supposed to teach you to dwell in the state of angels, which do not have a gender and Chastity is considered one of the greatest virtues, but don't keep it away from other virtues in your life as the fall is often due to indulgence in Pride,Greed,Gluttony and self-reliance instead of having trust in God.
The Lord has said: “Look not round about thee in the ways of the city, nor wander up and down in the streets thereof. Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about upon another’s beauty. For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as a fire.” (Ecclesiasticus or Sirach 9:7-9)
And you would do good by stopping watching good looking women on Youtube etc to change the percentages around to 5 out of 100. Fast and pray to stay on the path as Jesus said unto His apostles,' This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.'

 

Checking in day 28. It's not over yet..Walked quite a bit and prayed a bit, feel slight headache and am about to go to bed. Keep faith in being White wizards here and now and in the face of all life's temptations stay true to it!

 

Day 1! Nothing new, No feeling no need to be stressed about these first 3 days... I'm actually thinking of a spectacle, and what would make as a spectacle today? in this day and age

 

Adding my 0.03$ to that interesting discussion:

If you welcome and allow to grow doubts via seeing value in relapse then relapse is what’s going to happen-not some additional grow or anything like that. Period.

Tricky part of NoFap is that it’s hard to track real progress or even precisely define goal-that is why there is value in day counting-it’s linear, transparent and easily comparable.
There is also motivational value in breaking own limits, far easier to notice such progress by other bros and adjust support based on that-it’s IMO the way to go!

On top of that there are some hidden assumptions which need to be satisfied in order to make that counter go further than couple days, i.e.:

-avoid temptation-that can indicate things like forcing you to change habits and limit time wasting activities

-change your mindset-that kinda indicates strengthening willpower, getting to know yourself better in order to avoid vicious cycles, it IMO indicates pressure to grow

-utilize additional time & energy-you need it to handle it in order to maintain, I am not surprised that nearly all bros are trying things like sports/workout and developing various hobbies/healthy habits. You cannot enable yourself to stay couch potato and see counter increasing without huge waves of urges and that’s just unsustainable

-endless feedback loop-if you continue streak then you are kinda proud and share what sounds like your tips&tricks, if you fail some have huge (maybe unnecessarily huge) feelings of shame, but still there is status update. Still there is process of analyzing oneself and that’s not you can normally see people do at all.


Each one of us has own strategy but IMO there is value in linear simplicity of counter-and OK counting days itself will not do much, but if you want to break your PB you just need to better yourself-and that correlates with that “not appreciated, oversimplified” day countin’.

Stay Strong Bros!

 

Slow day today. Not very productive but rested and tried out some new tasty vegetarian recipes for both lunch and dinner that will hopefully help me to keep a better diet in the future

1. Stay accountable. Done
2. Physical exercise. Done
3. Qigong or meditation. Done
4. Eating in moderation. Not done (Overate snacks again after dinner...)
5. Study about the reboot. Done

 

I'm joining in!
I want to get to hobbithood in one go. I would be a Christmas hobbit then. Hooray!

 

Day 15

I’m a Hobbit! Feels so freeing to have made it to this milestone again, but still have a long way to go until I surpass my PB.

Had a great chat with my friend today who is also fighting PMO - he recently reached 100 days without relapsing and mentioned how his fiancé helped him celebrate, really warmed my heart and reminded of the support we are to one another on this forum.

I take my first steps out of Hobbiton, and the real journey to Mount Doom begins! See you there brothers.

 

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. I fell off the wagon hard. I'm still not quite sure I'm completely back on said wagon, but trying to get there.

Five days down, orc status.