How to get your kicks in a no-PMO life?

Love this OP thanks.
This is all so true for me. In the old days dopamine kicks came from searching and finding food like bushes with berries on it. Just to go on NoFap for 1/2 hour each day gives me a nice dopamine kick. Even just drinking a nice cup of tea and being happy to be alive. The main thing is contentment. That is what I have found from my reboot. Just being happy to be alive and being able to touch the keys on the keypad as I type this gives me a lot of happiness and I could say pleasure or bliss. The more I go on with my reboot I see that happiness is within the everyday activities. Then when something exciting happens I really enjoy it but I am not as attached to it as I would have been. I can experience it in the moment and don't have to hold on to it which takes away from the experience. I do like Eating Out and having a Cuban Cigar after with my friend when I have the money.

 

Day 80. Last night and today I have been seriously lacking in gratification, I feel so crap.

I don't know what to do to feel better but lay in bed.

 

Hope you are feeling better today.

 

That is why the beginning of NoFap is the biggest hurdle.

For the first few weeks and months even it is going to be very difficult. You are missing those rushes of dopamine that you allowed yourself everyday. It's hard to find satisfaction without it for a while.

But what you will notice is that once you get farther into your journey you will start to enjoy the smaller things in life that you weren't getting a "kick" from when you were jerking off daily. I get more joy now working out than I ever have. I feel confident and like I am not average, because I am not average. Most males my age are still jerking off and watching porn everyday. I have the strength to hold myself to a higher standard. This tolerance for higher standards will overlap into other areas of your life too. For instance, I am also off nicotine for 9 weeks.

NoFap is a win/win. The question is whether you are willing to put yourself through a little bit of pain in order to achieve something spectacular.

 

@Lingy_Dude, I completely get what you mean. I have also been struggling to replace that dope kick I used to get from PMO. I don't miss PMO I just miss the feeling/release. I fully appreciate and love noticing the small things but let's be real, it's not the same. It really seems like there is nothing that can truly compare to that intense PMO kick. Unfortunately I think the only things that give the same kick are hardcore drugs. As a result I have been pretty bored lately (I'm much more happy with myself, but still bored). I am doing a hard mode reboot with no end in sight yet, so yeah I can't wait until the day when I can feel that kick again (in the healthiest way possible). The boredom sucks big time but it's just the price we have to pay, the benefits of abstaining far outweigh indulging in the 'kick'.

 

That is very modest of you. You know though that there is a special quality to that boredom. It is a goodness within you. A contentment that lasts the whole week long. It is hard to identify exactly what it is but you know it is reliable and there is much less suffering than before. You know you have more energy and you may still feel like your missing something but that is becoming less and less. There is something hard to name replacing the kicks we used to get before. Now they don't seem that important. The kicks don't seem that important and instead there is a broad sense of confidence. You could call it happiness but it is too deep and fulfilling to be mere pleasure. What is it then we are finding? Getting the breakfast now has quite a lot of enjoyment to it. There is not that drag or mad rush feeling to it and from time to time the taste of the food gives a special feeling that resonates throughout the body and the surroundings. There is a gentle smile of contentment and an ease with other people that was difficult to find before. Every person is not too bad and even the people we don't like we can manage them. There is no real fear of next week or the distant future. Looking after ourselves becomes easy. Happiness, peace, confidence, joyfulness, humour, resilience, comfort and ease naturally becomes a way of living. We need to recognise we are experiencing this cause the media and other people around are telling us that the dopamine hit the kick is the way of happiness.