We hear about skills for quitting: Being content is a great one. Pray about it and practice it – it really helps. But you can focus on that all week and still fall. Then we hear about turning aggressively from sin. Pray about it and practice it – it really helps. But you can focus on that all week and still fall. My skill for quitting today is to be around people. Church groups, 12 step, chess club, sports etc. Be active and be around people. Plus, if you quit your addiction and then can't shine your new found light to anyone... is that a perfect success? Pray about being around people and practice it – it really helps. But you can focus on that all week and still fall. 90% of us try a skill for a while and then move on to some other miracle cure. Instead of doing that, focus on turning those skills into habits because we need a bunch of new habits if we are going to quit. Tip: Repent fully of all your sin. Then seek the Lord and ask for direction on which skills you should turn into habits first. Then start to form habits that will give you the power to quit. I use a notebook to plan new habits. I put notes by my TV and computer. I have a specific time for my new habit. I make a decision to do my new habit every day and then do them every day. Key point: Decide on 2-4 skills that you want to make into habits and get started with those. Every few days add another 1 or 2. Now you can see why you need a notebook (plus, going through the notebook is your reminder of what to do). Reality: Some will pull this off perfectly. I won't (yeah I know, I wrote the article). But I am going to try to follow my own advice. And if I mess it up, I will try again. Reward yourself: Giving yourself a tiny reward when you succeed, will remind you that quitting will give you huge rewards in life. Action plan: On page one of the notebook have a list of your skills for quitting. We can add to this list all the time. On page 2 are the new habits. When, where and how will we do them. Have a desired goal – 9 new great habits this month. And have a minimum goal – 3 great new habits. It takes 66 days to form a new habit. The results can be shockingly good. Thanks to STA: For the full article click here https://stoptheaddictions.com/home-page/sex-porn-freedom/5-ways-to-stop-porn-sex-porn-freedom-day-5/
Porn watching is similar to liquor which is a downer. The alcoholic considers that 17 drinks make them cheerful. But downers make us go down. Sure, there can be short term pleasure, but not real joy since the activity is a downer. Sooner or later it takes you down. With porn, a bit like with drugs, you will have shaped a habit in your mind’s chemical circuitry. Web porn has rewired your mind so that when triggered, you think of porn, and begin searching for it. Rewiring is changing from porn once you encounter signals for it, with other activities. When a lust situation tempts you, you could pray, Father, keep me from temptation. We are switching bad habits into good habits. The overutilization of porn dulls dopamine receptors. But strenuous workouts have been shown to extend dopamine receptors. Lifting weights or running (check with your specialist before you start a strenuous program) pumps up the dopamine. Working out could be a smart action and it makes a difference with stress. Finally, once you work up to a great exercise routine you may feel better (it may take a week or three). Once you feel better you will have better self-control and may be able to halt negative sexual behavior.
I think that porn addiction holds many similarities with drug addictions like alcohol. I don't have the experience to make a judgement of one versus the other. I could be completely wrong, however, it seems to me that porn is even more insidious than drugs. Recalling the exhaustive number of days of I allowed myself to be seduced by this sin, I think it was the devil's false promise of something new and different that kept dragging me back. Of course, it became obvious over time that there really is nothing new under the sun and each acceptance of a false promise was followed by the same old ugly shame and guilt. I think for this reason that we must be ready to fight every impulse and run immediately away from lustful temptations. So many good souls have been ruined by the sins of lust, let us be very, very afraid of the same destruction.
There is a great book called the Energy Bus which teaches us to be more positive. It says: “Always try to be persistently positive. Today I am going to recommend working on three new habits. Firstly, read great books. They are great for distraction, and they help us learn new habits. Secondly, work on being more positive every day. We are only 10% as likely to fall when we “think” that we are having a good day. Thirdly, joy increases when we do things for other people. In her great book Making Good Habits, Joyce Meyer noted: “If we have as goals, #1, the happiness of others, and #2, the improvement of mankind. Then, we will be five times happier.” If we are always in deep thought about the new habits we want to form. We will have a lot less time to think the way we used to think. Lastly, work on a system to remind yourself about what you are going “To Do” to change every day. Then plug into your system daily to make change simple and effective.
