I want to banish porn from life forever

Day 1 of reboot: After staying sober for almost two weeks, I PMO’d yesterday morning. I knew trouble was brewing the afternoon from the day before when my thoughts gathered around the intent to watch porn as soon as I had some alone time. I believe the trigger this time came from sexual dreams that I don’t recall from the night before, all I know is I woke up with an erection. From past experience I have found that when this occurs, sexual thoughts tend to become more active that day and shortly after. Sometimes the agitation will subside, sometimes not. After reading some of the forums from my first visit to the site, I realize that this is gold. For decades I have battled this off and on going solo. Not having any support from others has made the challenge to abstain from porn quite difficult. I plan to not only post my own struggles and trials here, but devote some time, maybe an hour a week helping others, to reading and replying to forums on what has worked for me and what hasn’t. I have gone over 90 days in the past on a number of occasions but I’ve always relapsed. I want to banish porn from life forever. Thank you Alexander Rhodes for having the courage and resolve to get this website established, I’m sure there were a lot of hurdles.

Here's my journal:
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/brians-30-day-challenge-journal-hard-mode.86606/

 

Dying_Inside thanks for the warm welcome and words of encouragement!

 

AndySky180 I look forward to making friends and forging bonds here on this site in our quest to overcome the common foe - porn. Thanks for the positive vibes and welcoming me into the NoFap family!

 

I have several strategies that I've developed over the years. Here's some tips that have helped me along the way:
1. Meditation, preferably twice a day, morning and evening.
2. Get enough rest. Being tired weakens one's ability to be vigilant, making one vulnerable to PMO in a weak moment.
3. Avoid stress. This is where I've had trouble. Maintaining a proper life-work balance seems to be constant challenge, as I tend to put too much on my plate. PMO becomes an easy relief from a period of prolonged stress.
4. Practice mindfulness. Be aware of what I'm entertaining in the mind. Preceding periods of relapse I have found that I was sometimes thinking of sex or fantasizing without realizing where this was leading.
5. Keeping a journal here and supporting others. This is a new one. I think by helping and learning from others, I hope to escape the PMO labyrinth forever.
6. Don't get discouraged when relapsing. This has been a difficult one for me, as I've seen from others here in the forums, I'm not alone in this. It's so easy to feel discouraged and yield to PMO over a period of weeks or months until you show determined resolve to bounce back from the depths.
7. Maintain a firm resolve to abstain from PMO. You can't have a weak commitment and hope to succeed. One analogy I sometimes think of is porn as a stranger trying to enter your house. Would you let a stranger enter your house and cause a mess? You have to be firm and recognize what belongs in the mind and what doesn't. The undesirable visitors (sex thoughts and pictures) need to be kept out, with more positive thoughts and feelings as invited guests allowed to stay.