Many people who struggle with the desire to quit porn addiction often view relapse as a sudden event that just happens out of nowhere. But the reality is, a relapse is a process that becomes predictable as you grow in your emotional awareness.
Give thought to your ways.
Proverbs 14:8 tells us that “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways” (NIV). This pursuit of wisdom is key to breaking the cycle of porn addiction.
The wise person is the one who thinks about why they do what they do. They don’t just live life and hope for the best but they learn to understand why they do certain things. They ‘give thought to their ways’.
Understanding Emotional Triggers: A Crucial Step to Quit
Porn addiction isn’t mostly about sex as much as it’s about how a person has learned to cope and medicate the pains and discomforts of life. Knowing this enables a person to identify their emotional triggers, the emotions that begin to move them towards relapse. A relapse doesn’t just happen but it is a process that moves them from a place of restoration towards relapse.
This is why daily check-ins are a core part of our Freedom Fight program. A person must first start identifying their emotions and emotional triggers so they can take steps to reach out for help or make adjustments when they find themselves moving towards relapse. When someone grows in their emotional awareness and emotional intelligence they are able to see a relapse coming from over a week away. This is a game changer and why this is a skill for the wise.
Scripture Illustrates the Process of Moving Towards Relapse
Proverbs 7 offers us a compelling illustration as it relates to understanding the process of moving towards relapse. In the passage, Solomon describes the foolishness of a young man who walks down the road toward a prostitute’s house as day turns to night.
“At the window of my house I looked down through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house” (Proverbs 7:6-8 NIV)
The woman seduces the young man. Solomon closes the passage with a stark warning in verse 27:
“Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.”
This Proverb illustrates how giving thought to your ways can protect you from making poor choices. The old man in this Proverb, gazing out his window, watches a young man walk toward temptation. The old man knows what’s coming. The naive young man does not. The old man has learned the skill of giving thought to his ways while the naive man has not.
One practical way to give thought to your ways is to grow in self-awareness. It’s the practice of identifying your emotions and asking yourself, “how do my emotions impact my behavior?” Over time, this empowers you to discern and see things around the corner before they happen.
The outcome of the story in Proverbs 7 was no surprise to the old man. You don’t have to be surprised, either.
When you become emotionally intelligent you can see a relapse coming from a week away. The takeaway is this: to avoid being led down the path of seduction toward death, pursue wisdom. The wise person gives thought to their ways. The naive person is just living moment to moment.
Using the Freedom Fight App: A Practical Tool to Quit Porn
This discipline can seem difficult at first. Perhaps you don’t know where to start on the journey to quit using porn. First, I’d encourage you to start by downloading our app. In the app, you can begin to identify your emotions through the daily check-ins. This is a critical step to help you on your journey and begin giving thought to your ways. In addition, you can even add accountability partners to get your check-ins so you aren’t living in isolation.
The wisdom of the wise can enable you to see what your emotional triggers are so you can navigate them effectively instead of medicating them. For example, through repetition of checking in on our free app you can grow your self awareness. The wisdom of the wise can be learned through the regular practice of identifying and processing your emotions.
