What was your wakeup call? + how I dealt with it.

!_____! = A warning (May be triggering or senitive)
1A: What is a wake up call?
1B: What is an example of a wake up call?
1C: Have you had a wake up call? !Gets a tad bit descriptive!
2: How do I deal with a wake up call?
2A: Action
2B: Sleep
2C: Exercise (Weights)
2D: Exercise (Body Weight)
2E: Exercise (Stuff in your Room)
2F: Gaming?
2G: Reddit / Youtube?
3A: The Stubborn.
3B: It's your life & your choices.


1A: What exactly is a wake up call?
Someone or something becomes aware of a not so great situation & want to take action against it.

1B:What's an example of a wake up call?
Well it could come in any sort of way. A good example is realizing that masturbation or porn is ruining your life.

1C:Have you had a wake up call? !Gets a tad bit descriptive!
Quite a few as a matter of fact. My main wake up call was my father ending up in the hospital due to Diabetic issues. He was told "clean yourself up otherwise you'll die from this" so that's what he did. Why is this my wake up call? Well at the end of 2019 I went to the weight room for my first work out in almost a year. What was my weight? around 350 lbs. I guess the constant soda drinking + not working out has built up right? A similar situation happened to my uncle recently. He wasn't able to talk or walk right & went to the ICU. The doctors tried everything, now almost 2 weeks later he's buried next to my grandmother.

Another example of my wakeup call is how I started on NoFap. I was studying for finals / getting work done. I had taken 7 days off from PMOing & I really felt better with myself. I decided after finals were over I would reward myself with (of course) PMOing. Fastforward to November of last month. I was having a break down & on the brink of suicide. I don't know why but I have 0 motivation & didn't want todo anything but play video games. I started going over reasons why I feel so depressed. The last thing I checked was PMOing. So I tried it. Started in November, didn't work. Tried it in December, didn't work. Had a streak of 5 days that ended on January 3rd at 3:56 AM. I tried in January, this time I put more effort into it. 36.95 day streak. What ended it. The same thing that ended the last streak. Tried it again this month I got 4 days in and I started doing prostate things which ended my streak. It felt "pleasurable" enough to get myself addicted to that. So now I'm back to (almost) square 1. 2 1/2 days in. Urges are worst then ever (with 3 ways to "pleasure" instead of 1).

(I tend to get side tracked with these I apologize. I just figure, might aswell tell the entire story)

Back to the main topic.

2:How do I actually deal with a Wakeup Call?

(Warning! I am not a professional when it comes to this stuff. The examples I mention in this are stuff I did + I feel might work.)

2A:Action: As I say "Doing something is a lot better than Doing nothing". Make a plan. Change habits. Resist & Fight the urges. Do not let Grief consume you.

2B:Sleep Better: One of the things that could be applied first is to simply improve your sleep schedule. How? Well first, you need to drop your electronics. By this I mean stop using phone, computer, consoles, everything before around 30 mins - an hour before going to bed. If your in the early stages of Nofap you may face a common problem. Insomnia, it stops you from falling asleep. Well in cases like these having your phone in bed is a terrible idea. In those cases it maybe best for you to do an all nighter, tough it out through the day & fall asleep at a decent time the next night. How about a cup of tea? about 15 mins before I hit the hay I like to drink a cup of Sleepytime tea.

2C:Exercise (Weights): Next thing I would recommend is getting a decent amount of exercise. If you have the ability to I would HIGHLY recommend signing up for a Strength & Conditioning class if available. (This is talking to Middle School - College Folks) The class would give you the ability to under working out, techniques, cardio, & your limits. High School & Above folks however may get a chance to hit the gym (if they sign up or have one on campus) on their own term & simply explore & research on their own. The nice thing is that you don't even need to be there for 2 hours! You can start small and go for as short as 30 mins. You can slowly build up your time & eventually be there longer!

2D:Exercise (Cardio / Body Weight): What If you can't do any of this? Well fortunately you have your own personal weight all to your self! What is it? You of course! Body weight exercises (pushups, situps, jumping jacks, etc.) work just as well as weights (it may even work better if your trying todo endurance things)! If you don't want todo any of those The easiest thing you can do is just simply go for a walk! It doesn't have to be huge but like working out, start small & slowly build up.

2E:Exercise (Stuff at the Desk): Don't want to leave your room? Well easy solution, just do some situps, pushups, & other small things like that every 30mins - an hour. The easiest thing to start with is by getting a gripper and doing 3x15 reps for each hand.
Idea if your playing video games. Everytime you die in the game (say COD or CSGO) you do 5 pushups & 5 situps. If you die less then 10 times next game increase the reps by 1. (6 pushups & 6 situps) Speaking of video games...

2F:Gaming?: Don't do em (well kinda). Try to find a book that interest you & read that. I'm love video games as much as the next guy but they waste your time in the day. Saying "One more game" or "One more run" isn't actually true. You tell yourself that but you end up playing 2 more hours of it. By the time you stop it's daylight. You ruin the sleep schedule even more then what it is now.
If your like me & you must gaming change your type of game you play or play with friends. Playing with friends make you think of others. When they get off you get off. If your playing on your own, I would say stick towards single player games. Play them in small burst, by small burst I mean 30 mins - an hour. It would give you a chance to play for a little while and not have a crazed addiction for it. Fire Watch is a great example of a game you can play. It's beautiful, calm (majority of the time), & has a great soundtrack.

2G:How About Youtube/Reddit?: Same things as previously said, small 30mins - an hour burst. If you start watching it for hours you should know it's a problem. If you use it for music/background noise go for it! (But I would recommend switching to spotify, soundcloud, bandcamp, etc.)

3A: The Stubborn.
Sometimes even after a wakeup call people are blind to problems that may affect them short or long term. If that's the case they need to go down their own path. They need to find out on their own. My sister is stubborn as a mule I've warned her about losing weight & just being better. She says "it's not my life & just because it works for you todo this stuff doesn't mean it will work for me" & she's right. My examples & experiences may not work for you & work for others. So I just gotta accept her & live with her. Eventually she'll have some wake up call that will change her for the better. This brings me to my Final Point.

3B: This is your life & your choices.
At this point you've read this far in & are either agreeing or disagreeing with me. I have to say that all of these points are completely optional. I want to help folks that are in similar situations to me but it doesn't mean I can control them. You, me, anyone, have freewill to make their own choices. So if you disagree with me that's completely fine. Like I said, these are just recommendations & what worked for me. It doesn't mean it'll work for you.

Thank you for reading, since you gone this far maybe you can add something to this? I'd like to help others tell their wake up calls because i've said mine. After all, Sharing means Caring.

Song of the Day: Five Finger Death Punch - This is My War (Official Audio) - YouTube

 

*cricket noises*