Hi there fellow SteemIt Warriors! 

How are you all doing near the beginning of the New Year? I hope you are having a lovely time with friends and family together enjoying delicious food and drinks. And if that is not the case, know there will be better times ahead with perseverance, discipline and hard work in the (glorious?) year of 2019. There will be high times (sometimes in the literal sense, with all these marijuana legalization going around in the world - any grass fans around here? ;p) and the low times will be present too, because you can't have the one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin. Although, it is entirely possible to prepare yourself in such a way that your future self will experience the magnificent times more frequently! I can tell from my own experience,  that the lesser moments in life can be avoided by righteous living.



The correct life style will significantly aid in your  own happiness, but (yes, but) like everything in life it'll take an effort. I am here to tell you today that Nofap helped me in a big way. I even wish I knew about it a lot earlier in life, so it could have made an even bigger impact in my life! Hopefully you'll think the same in a year after giving it a shot and say: "Goddammit, Nofap is the shit! Everybody should know about this!" Or not, I'll leave that to you. You be the judge. ;)

What is Nofap?

Nofap is the act of not touching oneself in the lower regions. (masturbation, yeah, this can be awkward, but just let us be adults and get it over with) This usually goes accompanied by a total porn black out, because they both go hand in hand. Like an owner and his dog, but following this analogy I think you should question who is the dog and who is the owner in this case. Who has power over who? That's the question. Are you addicted? Can you live a day without PMO (Porn-Masturbation-Orgasm)? Is PMO silently eating away your soul, without you even knowing it? This is how I personally define Nofap. Both girls and boys can join the Nofap train, but you'll find out the majority on the forum are men. I dunno why, but that's just the way it turned out to be. People can chose to go hardmode or softmode. Hardmode is the act of No PMO AND no sex. Yeah, that could probably be hard for most men, no sexual outing at all. Hence, the name. ;) Soft mode is No PMO, but sex is allowed. In my opinion everyone should chose the way that fits them best, and no mode is better than the other. Although, I personally like hardmode better, because it gives me a heightened sense of focus. (imo!)



At this moment there are over 390.000 people subscribe to /r/nofap on the reddit site. It's the largest gathering of fapstronauts - people acknowledging for themselves they have a problem with porn and masturbation and trying to get rid of their awful addiction. ( I bet you didn't think this could be an addiction! Guess what anything can be mentally addictive. It's just people mostly think of the stereotype addicts! ) Everyday you'll find a lot of wonderful success, motivational and helpful stories here. Naturally you'll also read the sad, heartbreaking stories, but that's just life.  I've been part of this amazing community, since a couple years and it has helped me tremendously. I now have a successful multiple year streak under the beld and I've experienced my transformation including benefits first hand. I want to share the benefits of Nofap in my eyes with the rest of the world!

The Amazing Benefits Nofap Gave Me (In My Opinion!)

1. Confidence in life.
   Nofap gave me the self esteem to grab life by the balls and JUST DO IT. It started small, but after a while  I started to notice I started doing things, which previously made me doubt myself and I would just leave the situation as it was. I perceived things as too difficult, time consuming, or whatever made up excuse I could come up with. Whereas now I JUST DO THINGS.  It was a game changer for me. This confidence has forged me into a new personality, because I (literally) finally did the things I set my mind too.
   
   
   
   For me it gave me the empowerment to really put me through hard physical training, and really believe I could achieve the strenght I wanted. And I did! It took me a long time, because I wasn't really a strong kid to begin with, but I managed to bench six plates after years of training. Not bad for a previously skinny dude, huh? ;)
   
   It also made me more pro active in searching for a job and really putting in the effort to find and keep one, whereas before I didn't do anything, but playing games. Sitting on my ass all day and being a nobody was my pré Nofap state. I didn't believe in myself.
   
   The newfound confidence impacted my personality in such a way that I became more of a social person. I became more fearless in conversations with all kind of people and I started to play with words when talking to people. It made me very expressive. I've been told I am one of the social, popular guys in some situations. Though, I don't think of myself as a popular dude. My circle of friends is not that big. I do believe it made my personality more magnetic to people. People are easier attracted to me in a positive way. They trust me more easily and feel at ease with me. I think this is a really good thing!
   
   Also, my pré Nofap me was a virgin. After Nofap I wasn't. That's very telling, no? ;p
   
2. Discipline In All Domains.
   
   It made me a disciplined person. I don't know why and how it works, but I suspect it has something to do with the increased dopamine in my brain or maybe it's just the newfound free time and energy. I don't know, but that's one of the things I observed in my own life. It made me disciplined to the point I made a list of things I read to myself every morning I should be reminded of, because I knew they were important to me. I still follow this laid out path religiously everyday of my life. I think discipline is the driving force towards my transformation, because all the small things I do in every day life add up over time and will have a big compound effect in the future. I have already seen changes in my life, and believe things will continue to change as long I keep my discipline and life style right.
   
   
   
   At some points in time, I fell off the wagon with some of my routines, but to this day I always managed to find the drive to restart and continue. For example, at this moment I'm not meditating everyday as I used to do. And I know meditating has a lot of benefits to my mind and body, but I've been just too tired from work and training to put in the effort. But, I WILL restart my meditation routine at some point in the near future, and I'll find a way to do it, because it's important! ( I'll write about mediation in the future!)
   
3. Nofap Made Me Physically Stronger.
   
   I do believe Nofap increased my overall body strength significantly. I don't think I'd be capable of benching, deadlifting, or squatting as much if i'd still be fapping on the daily. There is no way of proving this, because there is no twin me fapper as a control group, but let us say I have strong suspicions about this one. It might have something to do with increased testosterone levels or androgen receptors, at least these things come up regularly on the forum. But yeah, there is no hard proof, only a bunch of hard bro science! I must also say that I've much more lifting stamina than most people at the gym...
   
   
   
   On a side note: my beard started developing much more around the same time I started Nofap. Before that it was just some silly hairs, what most would describe as a moustache. I definitely made beard gains during my Nofap life. ;p
   
4. My Sex Life Came Into Existence.
   
   Of this I am pretty sure. After laying off the porn and masturbation my sex life finally came into existence. As I mentioned before, I was a virgin before Nofap. I am deeply convinced PMO robbed me of several years of sexual maturation. Because when I came on pixels on a screen I was not really motivated anymore to get those experiences in real life. I did not have the drive and motivation anymore to pursue women in REAL life. In my mind it makes sense that when you get your pleasure fulfilled by means of porn, you'll not be as motivated to get your pleasure in real life. It's one or the other in my eyes, but you can't have both. It's a zero sum game in this situation. For me at least, I had to make a conscious choice between the two. And boy was it worth it! Women can be wonderful beings, and life really wouldn't be the same without them. Women make my life complete and really get me going!
   
   
   
5. Deepened Relationships And Initimacy .
   
   I feel like I connect better with other human beings, may it be family, friends or total strangers. Every contact with other people feels special and that makes it easy to develop deep bonds with others. I really like to get to know other people in an intimate and profound way. The connection between me and other people can feel really intense. In my opinion Nofap has made ALL my relationships stronger! My family and friends are the most important to me know. I couldn't live without them. My life would not be the same without them, and I would probably be depressed beyond what I could imagine.
   
   
   
   Pré Nofap my connection with other people felt bland and lifeless. I had friends, but not in the way as I do now, It was more like concepts to me and it didn't feel that way. Whereas now I have strong emotions towards other people I feel love towards.
   
   As for women, Nofap made me feel these stomach butterflies again! I can be hopelessly in love with someone, only thinking about this particular person. It is totally irrational, but that's the way I feel at some moments in my life. And I like it. It makes life worth living, Love makes life colourful and vibrant. In short, it made me feel like a teenager in love again. That's really the best way I can describe it.

And here we are at the end of my short list, because I could go on and make it even longer. Though, I think it would get kind of boring if I did that, no? Plus, you could always visit /r/nofap for more stories like mine to get a better view on the matter! And I really do not mind if you have questions for me, ask away. I'd love to help you! I would also love to hear your opinions on Nofap and maybe you could share your own experience! We can all learn from each other in different ways, and the only way is to communicate with each other. How did Nofap impact your life? Did you experience any negatives? Was it worth it? What was your longest streak? What was your method to achieve a nofap streak? ;) 

I wish you all a wonderful new year! May 2019 be the best (Nofap) year you've ever experienced! :D