I often found myself falling into a rabbit hole of lust, so deep and dark that very little light could seep in. In other words, my body would focus so intently on what it "wanted" that there was little room for reason to reason.
And so we often think about how focus is the problem.
But I want to think to speak about two ways in which I think focus is part of the solution.
- It is the discomfort that comes from the lack of focus that often leads us astray. Based on my own experiences it is not during times of focus that my urges start acting up. Rather, it is often during moments of multitasking. The body finds multitasking incredibly uncomfortable and thusly tries to direct you toward an activity that involves focus. If you think about which activities involve the most focus it is not surprising why we find our bodies sending us in the direction of p and m.
- The second reason why focus is critical for success is since just like focusing on lust leaves little room for reason, so to focusing on good leaves little room fo bad. Learning Torah is extremely useful for combatting the yetzer hara since it strengthens our connection to reality and thus severs the connection to darkness. But in addition to this learning is also helpful in combatting lust because learning Torah can involve immense concentration. It fills up the mind with goodness and thus leaves little to no room for bad thoughts to enter and grow. Additionally, learning Torah is soothing for the mind because as we said the mind loves focus.
In conclusion, I am going to work on not fighting but rather directing my body. My body wants focus, so I will give it what it wants. Instead of having it focus on destructive thoughts, I will try to direct my mind to focus on positive things.
