When it comes to porn it’s sometimes a bad idea to run away. To run away from what’s keeping you hooked. To run from the pain in your life that is being kept hidden. To run from the very people who could help you through.
Then there are the times when running is the best thing you can do.
The times when backing off is the best way to move forward.
These are the times that we need to flee temptation.
How does this look? Here are some helpful tips that I have learned along the way.
1/ Fleeing Locations.
Where you are determines a lot about whether you are tempted or not. So if you are sitting in your living room with your Mom, Dad, Gran and little sister watching Saturday night TV you are probably not in any danger of getting the laptop out and having some happy time. That’s not good wholesome family time. On the other hand if you come home from school, the house is empty and you’re all alone for a few hours then you might drop your pants pretty quickly. Even if the dog is watching you’re probably going to find it tough to resist. So why not get together with some friends to study together? Why not get outside and enjoy the sun? Why not start an accountability group in the very place that you used to view porn? Be creative. Just don’t invite your Gran.
2/ Fleeing times.
So you’ve found a way to flee the temptation of certain places. Great. But what about late at night when everyone else has gone to sleep? This is the porn viewer’s best window of looking at naked people. Your family is asleep, the dog is barking at the neighbor’s cat and you have the house to yourself. No one is wondering where you are or what you are doing. Time to play. Or maybe you can take the time to catch some much needed sleep after being up the previous night looking at porn. You’ll feel much better for it when you aren’t dozing off during 1st period. Or maybe it’s the end of a hard day. You want to relax so you know this is a good chance to open the browser. This could be the time to start putting your time to good use. Fill up your diary with people and activities that are going to give you and them, life. Help mow the lawn before your parents get home (seriously massive brownie points coming your way), take out the trash for the sweet elderly couple who live next door. When you start giving your time for others you won’t find that “me” time you’re used to having quite so appealing.
3/ Fleeing the Internet.
Many of you won’t have heard of Hugh Hefner. That’s because you’re not used to buying dirty magazines. I used to have to spend days psyching myself up before I walked into a store and pretend to “browse” the sports mags before I picked up a copy of FHM to buy. It was risky and kind of exciting. But now you don’t have to. Porn is literally at our fingertips. So maybe you need to install x3watch and let your best friend hold the password. Maybe you need to block the entire Internet during those times you are alone and have time to kill. Maybe…and you won’t like this, but maybe you need to trade in the shiny iPhone 5 for the scraped and quite frankly temperamental Nokia with one game and a crappy torch that couldn’t light up a matchbox. I can’t guarantee you that you will be the envy of your friends, but I can guarantee you getting porn whenever and wherever you are will be impossible.
So there you go; some ideas to get you started, but be creative. Think outside the box. Figure out where you struggle most and get some friends around you to figure out an escape plan.
The interesting thing about running away from something is that it inevitably requires you to run towards something; and what we run towards is often more important than what we are running away from.
So run. Run like the wind. Run like no one is watching. Or is that dancing?!
Either way, run and don’t look back.