Swapping Rituals
Have you ever finished acting out and the first thought you have is, “What was I thinking!?” You feel the fog being lifted and experience guilt from realizing what just happened. That’s the sneaky nature of rituals, we find ourselves playing them out and only realize what happened once we’re on the other side.
Lil’ Wayne put it aptly, “It’s like when I cum, I come to my senses“.
But did you know that rituals can actually be good things? Brushing your teeth before bed, working out, prayer/meditation – these are all things you can do on a daily basis that benefit you greatly over time. Rituals put us in a trance-like state where we do things automatically; extremely useful for positive habits we want to build.
Being aware of your porn or masturbation ritual is step one. The next thing to do is consciously replace it with something else. The underlying principle is it takes a habit to break a habit. There has to be something to replace the empty space.
This goes back to the illustration we used in the beginning of the course, the yellow and green circles. What green circle activities can you create to replace your yellow circle activities (your ritual)?
Let’s take some action!