Context

I absolutely LOVE this exercise.

It’s a great way to promote conscious action, and it’s especially helpful at demonstrating the power of process as a driving force for change.

Over-thinking is a problem most porn addicts struggle with on a daily basis, and it’s a problem which can grow worse over time the longer people struggle with their recovery.

Ultimately what rationalisational does is that it paralyses people into indecision, fear and doubt. Not only in regards to who they fundamentally think they are as people, but also in regards to what they think they’re capable of.

After all, when you’re perpetuating struggle and failure on a daily basis, then inherently you’re going to mindlessly repeat these same behaviours over and over again, simply as a matter of habit.

Behaviours which feed upon our hopelessness and which lead to all sorts of brittle logic in order to justify our own self-perpetuating dysfunction.

“Is it okay if I masurbate without porn?”

“Surely it won’t be that bad if I just peek a little bit?”

Rationalisations which cause us to eventually give in to our addiction, and which take us further away from the true aim of our recovery which is to help us develop control over our minds.

Well, this is precisely why I’ve created this exercise so we can learn to break the cycle and learn to take back control over our minds.

As well as learn to reverse years of rationalisation which may have left us despondent and unresponsive to change.

Instructions

Essentially what we want to do with this exercise is to carry out a bunch of tasks without actively thinking about them.

Here’s the deal with thought: It’s a very useful a tool to have, but it’s still only a tool at the end of the day.

When you’re over-thinking you’re essentially using this tool when it’s simply not necessary, which is to say that you’re over-using it in a variety of situations, well-beyond it’s use-case.

For example, you don’t need to think or come up with a laborious list of arguments in order to get down and start doing push-ups.

You just start doing push-ups.

And ultimately that’s what this exercise aims to teach us, that we can actively do something without having to battle our thoughts every step of the way.

So what we want to do with this exercise is to have an intent, and then to carry out that intent without question.

Stand up and go open a door. Walk down to the end of the street and then back again. Do 10 jumping jacks. Repeatedly write the same word over and over again until you fill out a page.

In order for this to be effective it’s important that you don’t think, question or argue with yourself while carrying out your intent. It’s all about demonstrating that you do have this ability to simply act, and not fight yourself.

Certainly, at first you might find this exercise difficult, or perhaps even pointless. Well, those reactions are exactly what we aim to address.

Remain calm. Move swiftly. Don’t question. Don’t argue. Fully commit.

This is how you become effective.