These are the things you tell yourself and that you fully believe, things like, “I am hopeless,” “I’m not good enough,” “I’m not worthy of love,” or “I’m never going to be able to fully recover from my porn addiction.”

A belief is a small idea that either enables you to do something or holds you back from doing something. They are the inner model you use to interact with the world around you. Your beliefs are the framework within which you operate.

Your beliefs determine where you go, the direction you move, and the pace at which you progress. They affect who you are, who you become, and how you bridge the gap between these spaces. If you want to progress in the world you need to continuously recognize, assess, and adjust these beliefs you carry.

What Limiting Beliefs Look Like

Three of the most common limiting beliefs I see in the men I work with are hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness. These three beliefs are key reasons why men hold themselves back when they are trying to reboot. 

Hopelessness is the belief that you cannot achieve whatever goal it is you have in mind. You don’t believe in yourself enough to trust that what you want to do is possible for you. On the other hand, when you believe in your skills and resources and trust that you’re capable of achieving your goals, you feel hopeful.

Helplessness is the idea that while you know something may be possible for someone else, you don’t believe it’s possible for you. You don’t trust that you have the skills or knowledge to accomplish what it is you want to do. But when you trust yourself and your abilities, you feel empowered.

Worthlessness is based on the idea that you aren’t good enough for or don’t deserve the things you want in life. If you believe you are worthless then you will not take the action necessary to make drastic changes. However, when you recognize your inherent worth as a person, you’ll find yourself willing to do what it takes to change your life.

How Beliefs Work

Think of your belief system as a massive filter for your attention. The beliefs you hold are the filter for everything that happens in your life. Your brain needs an easy way to interpret all the things going on around you and your belief system makes it easier to process.  

Your mind always interprets any incoming information or feedback in a way that supports your existing beliefs. If you have limiting beliefs, your mind will pick up on things that further instill this negative view of yourself. But if you have empowering beliefs, your mind will find evidence that supports this more positive, useful frame of mind.

When you operate with limiting beliefs you’re going to overlook any evidence that suggests you’re a good person with positive traits. It’s easier to toss out feedback or information that doesn’t support your view of yourself as hopeless, helpless, worthless, or whatever other limiting beliefs you may have.

When you’re filled with empowering beliefs about yourself, you’re equipped with a much more effective filter. You not only accept the evidence that you’re a good person worthy of good things, but you’re also willing to recognize where you fall short and work on bettering yourself in those areas.

Limiting Beliefs in My Life

I have plenty of experience with limiting beliefs, especially before I learned to control my behavior with porn addiction problems and masturbation. For example, I would see someone doing well financially and it ran through my negative belief filtering system. I’d tell myself I couldn’t get where they were because I wasn’t as smart and couldn’t focus as well as they could.

This limiting belief held me back for years because I thought I didn’t have what it took to accomplish what these men had accomplished. I didn’t recognize my strengths because these negative beliefs kept me trapped. They left me incapable of taking the necessary steps to help myself and move forward.

It wasn’t until I began working with mentors who pointed out this negative filtration system I operated with. I remember one specific turning point when one of my mentors called me out and said:

“Hey, the reason you can’t accomplish what you want to do isn’t that you’re incapable, J.K., it’s because you have this inaccurate, harmful filter that everything passes through. When it comes to money, when it comes to willpower, when it comes to discipline, all these things pass through that filter that tells you you can’t do it. We need to get rid of it.”

It felt like someone finally handed me the keys to freedom that I spent years searching for. While I didn’t overcome all of my limiting beliefs at once, it set me on the right path that helped me work through them over time.

Why Beliefs Matter in Your Reboot

So why are beliefs important to men like you specifically? What makes it urgent and important to pay attention to your beliefs as you start the porn addiction recovery process?

Oftentimes men in the Porn Reboot system come in with limiting beliefs they’ve carried around for years. They never take time to question them, though. Instead, they push forward and drive themselves further into the ruts their negative belief system lands them in.

You’re going to have a hard time moving forward and making progress in your reboot if you never take time to recognize your limiting beliefs. You have heard the idea that beliefs can move mountains, right? The power of beliefs runs deep and you’ll be amazed at the things you can accomplish when you overcome your limiting beliefs.

When you come in with feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness, ending your out-of-control behavior will feel impossible. After trying and failing to control your behavior for years, these beliefs will be deeply ingrained in your mind. Until you challenge this negative filtration system, you’ll remain stuck in your prison of limiting beliefs.

Thankfully, the Porn Reboot program offers a solution to your limiting beliefs. We help you understand the precise thoughts holding you back and take action to overcome them. The Porn Reboot Facebook group is filled with men who were once held back by their limiting beliefs. These men now live beautiful, fulfilling, enriching lives free from the control of their porn addiction problems and compulsive sexual behavior.

Still not sure whether you’re capable of overcoming your problem with porn and masturbation? Reach out in the group today – I guarantee you’ll find yourself surrounded by understanding, support, and guidance to get you out of your way.

The post Understanding Beliefs: Empowerment and Growth appeared first on Elevated Recovery.

“J.K., how do I deal with family dynamics? Most of my family is not where they want to be, or as “successful” as they want to be. How do I deal with the thought that it’s just a matter of time for me now?”

Family & Friends

Family is a challenge for every person in the world. They bring up very strong emotions, both good and bad. Your family has a lot to do with your success or failure in various aspects of your life, including your porn addiction counseling. This can be difficult to hear because I know a lot of men are very attached to and intertwined with their families.

The beliefs that I picked up from my family held me back for years in so many areas. My personal life, career, financial well-being, physical fitness, social aptitude, and more all struggled under the weight of the beliefs my family instilled in me.

One of the things that held me back most was that I always wanted to remain relatable and likable to family members and some close friends. I worried that if I lost those two things, my family and friends would treat me like an outcast. I carried a lot of shame and guilt for my true feelings instead of rejecting these self-imposed constraints and barriers.

What You Wanted

I was afraid to verbalize what I wanted. I feared pursuing the type of body I wanted, the type of woman I wanted, the type of social life I wanted. I was scared to determine where I wanted to live, how I wanted to live, the amount of money I wanted to make, and more. I was afraid to step outside the boundaries my family created for themselves and demand more from my life.

If you’re surrounded by family members who have established the same way of thinking in you, you may want to take a step back. If those family members have not arrived where they want to be, you’re not obligated to follow that same mold. You have the power to determine the changes you want to make to get where you want to go.

There are so many thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and ideas that families pass down from generation to generation. More often than not people aren’t even aware of the things they transmit to their children. You may even be doing it with your own children. Once you develop that awareness, though, it’s your responsibility to take charge of your life and make the necessary changes.

Your family and friends may push back. People who are comfortable and set in their ways often feel threatened when someone close to them decides they’ve had enough. They don’t want to honestly assess and take responsibility for their lives. They’ll project their fear and insecurity onto you and try to drag you down instead.

You have to keep pushing forward, brother. Forget family dynamics. You can want more from your life and reject the family mold while still loving them for who they are. You are not obligated to fall into the same traps they chose to fall into. You are responsible for building the life you want to live. You are the only one who can save yourself.

And who knows; you may even inspire a family member or two to step up and make changes, too.

The post Overcoming Family Dynamics: Embrace Personal Growth appeared first on Elevated Recovery.

They believe you should spread your attention and energy evenly between different responsibilities and interests Then men who are trying to control their sexual behavior are then exposed to these ideas and views of the world, from things like counselors, therapists, and traditional 12-step recovery programs.

I listen to these things as a man who runs a system where other men achieve phenomenal results in a short period. They learn to control their out-of-control sexual behavior in 90 days and fully rewire their brains in a year and a half to two years. In my opinion, you cannot achieve drastic, incredible results like those in the Porn Reboot program while living a balanced life.

Further, I believe that people who are living balanced lives do so because they don’t know what their priorities are. Instead of determining what’s most important in life and going after it, they try to cover everything. Rather than doing a few things very well, they’re mediocre at a lot of different things.

That approach doesn’t work for me. I wanted to live a life of priorities, not a life of balance. I believe you need to get clear on your priorities and dive headfirst into pursuing them. I’m not a fan of the idea that you should spread your energy evenly; I think you should find what ignites your fire and pursue that with everything you have in you.

Life is constantly changing. Nothing remains the same. Your kids are growing up as you read this. Your relationships are not always guaranteed. You may move across the city, across the state, or across the country one day. You might start a new business. Your health is never guaranteed. And yet you’re going to strive for balance across your social life, family life, emotional life, and spiritual life?

That doesn’t make sense to me. I see guys who are 23, 24, or 25 years old trying to maintain a long-term relationship, start a business, finish school, build their ideal physique, and meditate for an hour every day. They also want to travel the world and participate in the Porn Reboot program simultaneously.

All this does is lead to burnout and leaves you questioning your capabilities. I think balance is a myth. It’s a false ideal that is impossible to achieve in the real world. I believe we go through life in seasons because of the constant state of change. Trying to juggle all these things at one time is only going to hurt you in the long run.

I’ve done it before too, brother. I had a ton going on in my early 20s, too. I was in school, running the sales team for my company, trying to build my physique, and end my behavior with porn and masturbation. All I ended up doing was spinning in circles and not finding success in any one area.

I decided to focus on two areas instead of all four. I chose to focus on building up my body and ending my out-of-control behavior, then I lived and breathed these two things until I was successful in both. Once I achieved what I was looking for, I shifted that energy to my next priority of managing my anxiety. Then I shifted it to building the Porn Addiction Counseling – Reboot system. And I continue doing the same thing to this day.

I tried for balance and found it didn’t work for someone like me. I need to do things full-force or not at all. I think giving only part of yourself to something leads to mediocre results. You can’t grow when you don’t give your all to something. I think you should prioritize growth over balance every time. And the men who take this approach with their reboot are the ones who find the most success.

The post Prioritizing Growth Over Balance: Approach to Achieving Success appeared first on Elevated Recovery.

A couple of weeks ago I made a meme that I thought was pretty funny. It was a picture of Mr. Clean, that bald white mascot for a cleaning company, wringing water out a sponge. The caption on the image said, “Your wife’s panties after hearing you decided to quit pornography and join Porn Reboot.”

It was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself, and lots of guys in the group thought it was great, too. We spent so many years more interested in porn than sex with our wives or partners. Lots of us struggled with porn-induced erectile dysfunction, too. No wonder our spouse is excited when we’re finally ready to quit porn. And any man with the same experience can relate. 

But some brothers had some choice words in response.

“Bad. Just bad.”

“What little interest I had in joining your program is gone now.”

“Completely unprofessional.”

“Do you wanna be taken seriously?”

“You charge folks for porn reboot coaching and you post this crap?”

“Apologize to the group and take it down right now.”

I was astounded at how many people were offended by a simple joke. I didn’t think it would cause that much of a problem. But it also got me thinking about what being offended by things means at a deeper level.

It reminds me of when I was a confused Catholic guy in my 20s. During my freshman year of college, I remember watching drunk girls come home with a guy and judging them. Night after night I sat with my friends calling these women all sorts of names, but then went back to my dorm room and angrily jerked off at the same girls I judged.

I judged women I couldn’t be with. I judged comedians who made vulgar jokes on late-night television about different actresses and celebrities. And then I would masturbate while thinking of whatever woman made me angry earlier.

Over time I realized that I wasn’t actually angry at these women or those jokes.

I was really just angry at myself.

I was upset at my lack of sexual control and how quickly I betrayed my perceived values. Those things that I thought made me angry really just aroused shame, guilt, and jealousy. It wasn’t the world that had the problem, it was me. I was the one with a messed-up view of the world, looking at everything through the lens of my porn-addled brain.

Lots of the men in the Porn Reboot program grew up in households held together by Catholicism or Christianity. We weren’t taught that sexual jokes are okay. And then our closet porn addiction stunted our ability to relate with women, but we believed our lack of sexual experience was their problem.

I spent so much time placing blame on others that I never bothered to consider the common denominator every time I was offended: me. I was the one finding fault in everything when really I was the one at fault.

I imagine the brothers who lashed out at the simple, silly meme I posted are dealing with something similar. Many of us share similar experiences and they’re probably dealing with underlying self-loathing, shame, and guilt. They haven’t yet employed the tools we use in the Porn Reboot program to determine the source of these feelings.

Instead, they lash out at perceived offenses or injustices. They allow external circumstances to dictate their internal condition. And I know from experience because I did the same thing. Thankfully, I learned to respond to situations and circumstances, not react. It isn’t an overnight process but it’s possible.

If you’re struggling with finding offense in everything around you, then your reboot will help. Porn Reboot is about so much more than pornography. Sure, porn addiction is what gets you in the door but you’ll find more than that waiting for you once you commit to the process. Freeing yourself from the need to feel offended is one of the most important things you can do. Join us today and find out for yourself just how incredible that freedom can be.

The post Humor, Healing & Growth: Porn Addiction Recovery Insights with Porn Reboot Program appeared first on Elevated Recovery.