Techniques to help quit this destructive habit (from Holy Nation)
Purity of thought

Controlling and rectifying one's thoughts is an important technique in defeating this habit.

All sin comes from thought. Intentional sin first starts with sinful thoughts.
The most basic, sound way that one can battle temptation is through thoughts control.

One needs to guard oneself from foreign and unholy thoughts. Instead one must have clean thoughts, think thoughts of G-d, Torah and G-dly service

"The good inclination looks for pleasure in learning, in the good and the noble. The evil inclination looks for pleasure in women, in wine, and in arrogance. "
AVOT DE R. NATAN IX, 7

Control over one's thoughts creates mastery over ones actions which can win any battle.
One who has no control and is subject to unclean thoughts is easily prone to sin. Protecting ones mind protects the brit.

When one is overwhelmed with unclean thoughts it is best to try to ignore them altogether. The more one tries to get rid of these thoughts the more the thoughts tend to intensify

It is not possible to have two thoughts at once. One can drive away an unclean thought by thinking about another thought in its place, Torah, avodah or even business.

One can direct ones thoughts exactly where one wishes. It is very comparable to steering a horse that veers from the road. One simply grasps it's reins forcing it back onto the right path.

The lust for impurity can only be removed by distancing ones sight and thoughts from this subject

Practically, we can control our own minds. For some people, the following technique works well: Think of a "clean" pleasurable image of a place you've been or an experience that you enjoyed. Concentrate on this image for a while with your eyes open or closed. Feel the feelings, see the picture and hear the sounds all around you. Now every time an old image or fantasy comes up in your mind which you want to get rid of, simply replace it with this good image.

Studying Torah daily elevates the mind, that is why the Torah is called in the Talmud the antidote to the evil inclination.

You might say that studying Torah daily is a bit much, I would reply that wasting yourself, your resources, your health on a horrible habit is way too much.

anonymous_14 wrote:


i would reply that studying torah daily (and nightly) is a BIBLICAL OBLIGATION, like tefillin and lulav. so we JDI, המרבה והממעיט.

peloni almoni wrote:


Ditto!

thanks for the chizuk,

Lets not forget that we have to learn to THINK of hashem,

If we think a thousand times LEIS ASAR PUNIE MENIE( there is not a place were hashems presence is not felt) then it will sink in.

Yidden that have true devekus in hashem walk in the street and mutter to themselves hashem is here with me now, now I know that we are so caught up with enjoying ourselves that we are not interested in saying or thinking these things, as far as we are concerned hashem is a bitter pill to swallow, that's why we have tzadikim and sfarim from tzadikim so that we can take our smart minds(we think we know and understand everything) and smear it on a piece of bread like a delicious jam, and just trust these tzadikim, they have taught us that hashem is the sweetest thing in the world!!!!!!!!

The yetzer has us so wrapped around his finger that we think THAT A BEUTIFUL WOMAN IS THE BEST THING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

So lets all take our minds which got us in to truble in the first place an lets just think of hashem and daven to hahem even if we DONT want hashem let me mevatel ourselves once and for all to the real truth, even though a lot of us are not in the madragia now to really want hashem but we will keep on WANTING TO WANT HASHEM, couse we all know how life turns out with out hashem.


I hope this will help somebody, happy elul.