Bullseye Chris' Journal

[Chris]

Hey, guys! I feel like I used to have a journal here but it's been a minute and I can't find it. So here is mine, starting with here I am today. It doesn't give much background info, but I can post some of that another time.

Day 54 of no MO; Day 5 of no P. I've definitely been in a flatline (almost absent libido, hardly any erections or even morning woods, flaccid penis smaller than normal) for a while now. The benefit is it makes Nofap a LOT easier. The downside is you can start to worry if everything is ok and if this will be your "new norm" forever lol. I've been in the Nofap community and tried it for long enough in the past that I know that this is just a phase. It's lasted for a while longer than in the past this time, though. Not sure if that's because I was that much more sexually and dopamine exhausted, or because I'm older, or just because I've been kind of exhausted in general with my wacky and late work schedule and not getting enough consistent exercise. It's probably a mixture of several reasons. In any case, I know that my body, mind, and spirit have been healing, even when it just seemed like things went dormant. I have some flower bulbs that just randomly started to shoot their shoots up out of the soil. It's a bit early in the season for that I think, but as "dead" as they may have seemed, they were ready to shoot up their life above ground. I think emerging out of a Nofap-related Flatline is a similar process. On the surface, it seems like nothing is happening, but in a part of you that is deeper and more hidden that even you yourself can perceive, things are happening and life is growing. When it is ready, it will spring up "above ground" and you will most definitely see it. The other positive side to this Flatline is that I didn't get the emotional lows or just a numb, "dead" feeling that guys can get during it. Things seemed pretty normal for the most part. Sure, some stress and tiredness here and there, but seemed to be more due to other factors than not jerking it.

So that's the context I've been in for the past month or so. Then yesterday happened... Well, ok, let's go back a day sooner. Having felt OK and emotionally steady for some time, I ended up having a pretty lousy day. Nothing too bad, but a situation with a friend of mine got the best of me, and it left me feeling really bummed, upset, and more mad at him than I should have been. I internalized it, and he pretty much only saw the moping part of it. Still debating if any of it is worth sharing with him, or if I should give it more time to see how things work out with it. In any case, I was feeling a lot more emo than usual. I feel like I did a decent job of giving my concerns to God, and letting Him help me mitigate my emotions better. I went to sleep still feeling down and a bit frustrated, though. I did talk with another friend about me needing to be more disciplined with my bed and awake time, as I'm trying to make various needed improvements in my life. Though my work schedule makes it so I can't be consistent with that every day, I can still be a lot more consistent than I have been. So I created a reasonable schedule with that, set the alarms in my iPhone, and let my buddy know to help keep me accountable with them. I am sending him pics of when I get up and go to bed to show him that I am sticking to it. That level of accountability is definitely helping. So that emotionally lousy day was night #1 for that.

The next morning (yesterday) I wake up early with a strong morning wood! Hasn't happened it at least a week, maybe more. I went back to sleep then woke up again just a little earlier than my alarm was to go off. I feel awake and energized but stayed in bed. I had that T-buzz feeling where you just feel virile and good, which I haven't felt in ages. I hugged my pillow and kinda pressed into it and my body felt so good, ha. Thankfully, my alarm went off and I got up and out of bed, safe from the temptation to go further. I immediately made my bed (part of my deal with my buddy), then got ready for the day. I had time to eat something, and my plan was to hit up the gym before work. I had been slacking off at the gym recently, too. I only had about 30 mins for my workout, but man, I felt stronger during it than I have in ages. I showered there and finished with a cold blast for about a minute. The water was extra cold then because of the weather, and man, I was jumping up and down and trying to pump myself up, saying "Let's fucking goooo!!!" to myself, trying to keep it quiet haha, and it worked. I dried off and tingled all over in the best way. I got ready for work and headed straight there, and was still feeling so energized. I started to feel legitimately horny for much of the day, and began to wonder if that was the death of my flatline? I kept feeling those horny feelings in my bits that evenings, and thought, man, I hope I'm getting close to a WD! At the end of the night, I made it into bed on time, and was able to fall quickly asleep.

This morning I woke up even earlier with another strong woody. No WD unfortunately, but hopefully that will happen soon. I went back to sleep and got up to my alarm, snoozed a bit, and unfortunately overslept my grace period, but only by a few mins. I made my bed, and since I had a lot of free time this morning, kinda took a lazy morning, but no PMO or anything like that. I finally got going around noon, and got ready for the day and knocked out some errands. But I definitely don't have the same energy or drive as I did yesterday, I don't feel horny, and am feeling a bit lazy. But I am still being fairly productive and trying to stay positive. I've been finding more motivational content on YouTube that I like, that I am really enjoying listening to, that is helping me overall, both with NoFap and life in general. I am now wanting to change more in my life than just PMO, and that is really the ultimate goal of NoFap, is to improve yourself all around. PMO is something that robs you of your time and motivation and self-image; but having got rid of it, you need to work on the rest so you can become who you are meant to be.

 

[Chris]

Day 56 of no MO; 1 week of no P. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine started out just OK. I was off of work, but was looking forward to having a day off, and getting some cleaning done around my apartment. One of my best buddies and I had talked about spending some time together on Thanksgiving since we haven't been able to hang out in a few weeks, and he was off, too. He had some offers to hang out with others during the day, which was cool, but made it sound like he was iffy about hanging out with me. I thought, man, I guess I'm not that important to him if he's potentially blowing me off like that. So that kind of put me in a funk because I was really looking fwd to hanging out with him; I don't have any family nearby and other friends were doing things w/their families. I texted him back with a bit of a snarky response, then sent another text later, kind of clarifying how I felt. He has a history of being a bit flakey at times, but this wasn't the best time to do that. I had no idea how he would respond. Long story short, he got back to me after a while and rather than being mad or defensive, he was understanding and clarified what was going on on his end. I told him why I felt that way, from him changing his mind last minute earlier in the week with getting together, but it turns out that was a whole miscommunication on my end, and he did want to hang out. I misunderstood something he had said. Then for last night, he also phrased what he said about hanging out that night in a way that, objectively, was confusing. He meant that he wasn't sure about the exact time we could get together, not that he didn't want to hang out. So we did get together that night, he had cooked some food even, and he affirmed to me that he really did want to hang out, it was all a misunderstanding, and I could tell he meant it. I told him I appreciated him having me over, since I didn't have anywhere else to go, and we had a great night talking and catching up. We've been friends for over 5 years now, and I feel like we really solidified our friendship last night. He has a tendency to talk and talk and it's hard to get a word in edgewise sometimes, but he seemed cognizant of that last night and was careful to no override the conversation. (I have a feeling that some other people have brought that up to him, haha). So my day ended on a good note. It's hard to find people you really connect with and trust, especially as adults, and it's important to keep your relationships healthy when you do find them!

I'm feeling the temptation to look at P less currently, but am realizing that my next hurdle there is to avoid doom scrolling. Earlier in my day yesterday, I found myself wasting hours on my phone. Not looking at bad stuff, but just wasting time, when I could have been cleaning my apt and getting it ready to put some Christmas decorations up, etc. Something I wanted to do on my day off. So I'll have to take a look at that more, and figure out a good plan for myself to mitigate downtime phone usage better.

I didn't have a MW yesterday, but I had a solid one this morning; meaning I've had em now 3 out of the last 5 days, after a long flatline. I mention that because that is a good indicator of male health, and also a sign of my reboot working, with hormone levels becoming more healthy and balanced. I resumed a log where I can save a lot of this date, from MWs to how I felt during my day physically and emotionally, how good my sleep was, anything significant that happened during my day, how horny I felt, if I got any exercise, etc. I wish I had kept it much earlier in my reboot, to look for patterns. But I'll try to stick with it moving forward! Back to work this afternoon. I'll have to make sure I make it to the gym since I haven't been in a few days, and I know that regular exercise is crucial to a successful reboot, and physical and mental health in general. This is your sign to work out today, guys!!

 

[Chris]

Day 60 of no MO; 11 days of no P. Yesterday felt like a very average day, no spikes in T levels or thoughts or anything like that. Before bed I looked at some some that, while not P, was pushing it. No desire to M, though. Went to sleep probably an hour later than I had planned, around 12:40am. Woke up around 5:40am. I don't remember details but I had had a short dream where I think I ejac in it, don't remember feeling anything pleasureable, and I was aware enough when I partially woke up to check to see if anything was wet down there, but nothing. Quickly fell back to sleep. Then came the vivid dream--it was significant because it was my subconcious teaching me a lesson: I remember scrolling through an app on my phone, one with a feed, and every few posts or so had some type of porn on them, and I remember tapping on them. It happened fast, like my mind was showing me a reel. This part is super gross, but at some point I saw something that somehow involved people were eating poop, and then I had some of my own in my hand and it's like I compulsively had to try some, even though I didn't want to and was disgusted by it. So I did real quick, and as soon as I did, of course it was gross I wanted some water to completely wash it out of my mouth. It was so disgusting. Then immediately my conscience spoke to me, basically chastising me for clicking on every single porn post while I was scrolling, then said eating the poop is basically what I do when I watch porn! (I mean, was he wrong?!) In reality, it's that gross and disgusting to us, and basically we need to realize that. Then I woke up. I don't think I've ever had a dream like that, where my own mind or spirit or God was showing me in a dream just how bad porn really is for us, and putting me in check with my lack of self-control with that. I was thankful for it, as gross as it was in the moment.
I still had a strong MW so I decided to do some kegels, and the other amazing thing is that usually if I have an erection and do them, it will go down after doing a few. This one didn't, for like what felt like 10 minutes. The other good thing is I had absolutely no desire to JO. I just went right back to sleep, then woke up again with another MW, just as hard, around 8:40am. Then I got up a while after that. That made me so happy, because it all means I am getting healthier, body, mind, and spirit. I'm loving it, and I thank God for the grace to do this NoFap reboot. 2/3 the way though my main Reboot goal!