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GuardYourEyes Chizuk E-Mail (No. 1173)
Getting stronger every day!
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Announcement
Join Our Pilot Innate Health Program and Learn How to Recover Quicker
Starting Thursday October 30th
To read more about this approach click the link below
The Quiet Revolution
If you would like to gain an understanding about the psychological nature of human experience that can help your life and recovery, please join this innovative pilot program.
Program Instructor: Yechezkel Stelzer, Executive Director of Guard Your Eyes and Addiction Therapist.
Starting Thursday October 30th
10 Sessions - Thursdays
2:00-2:45 PM EDT (9:00-9:45 PM Israel time)
Medium: Phone Conference + Zoom Video-Conferencing
Cost: Donation to GYE of $100 ($10/session)
Separate program available for women.
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In Today's Issue
- Member Chizuk: Watch Your Eyes!
- Testimonial: Account of the 90-Day Journey
- Nachas Ruach Treatment Model: Excerpt 8
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Category: Member Chizuk
Watch Your Eyes!
By A.B.
רבותי, GYE Members!
I am calling to all and telling you this: WATCH YOUR EYES!
Hashem Has but only one request : מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך what is it that Hashem your G.od wants from you? כי אם ליראה He wants only your eyesight.
He wants your looks. That is all He is asking. And if you do that, then the rest of the posuk will be easy to accomplish - no big-deal: ללכת בכל דרכיו you will go in all His Ways;ולאהבה אותו the Love for Him will kindle in your heart; ולעבד את השם אלקיך you will serve only Him; בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך you will find out that you do have a heart and a soul, and you will love them because you will see that they are pure and wholesome!
You will keep all His Mitzvos, and you will see that all had been for your good, and all good is coming up for you.
Just one thing, Chevrah: Watch your eyes, all the goodness of the world will start pouring on you.
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Announcement
Great news! GYE's website is now MOBILE FRIENDLY and RESPONSIVE
(meaning that the web-pages shrink to fit smaller screens).
For the first time, users can use their smart phones to register on GYE, log in, browse the home-page, the articles, chat in the mobile chat-rooms, use the forums, and take advantage of the personal home-page -
all from your phone!
There are still some bugs that are being worked on, and a few pages and features that aren't fully mobile-friendly yet (like the phone conferences page). We are looking for feedback please. If you have a smartphone, please try and use the website and features from your phone and send us notes on the bugs you find. Thank you!
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Category: Testimonial
Account of the 90-Day Journey
Anonymous
הודו לה' כי טוב!
- I officially reached the 90 day mark! It is an amazing experience.
I looked back at some of the things that I wrote in the first few days that I was here. What can I say, I came a long way. I see that concepts that are now part of my thinking were once new to me (a short 90 days ago), like the concept of being addicted to lust and not sex, that I am not alone, the fact that marriage is not a cure, and many more.
While I hadn't always suffered from porn, I never got over masturbating - and I think that led me into the porn as well. And now I have been clean from both for 90 days. But not only that, I came to realize what was really behind my porn and masturbating and understand that they were both results of the same thing - things that have been going on way before I identified them as problems.
I have leaned to approach sex in marriage differently. (Indeed my actions are now more in sync with what I had learned when I first got married and slowly forgot about). My relationship with my wife has grown so much stronger (I couldn't even imagine that it was possible, but once I learned to be less selfish, new plateaus were discovered). In fact, after having a new baby recently, although this is far from my first child, the relationship after birth has far outdone any previous experiences. I have come to respect and love my wife more than ever, and the lack of physical relationship after the baby has not affected our relationship. Learning to be more concerned for her and her needs, has allowed her to recuperate from birth in a much more relaxed way than before.
I have finally been able to move forward in my avodas Hashem. The heavy weight that has been on my conscience all these years has started to lift. I can get past השיבנו ...והחזירינו בתשובה and מחל לנו כי פשענו and think about other areas of avodas Hashem that I need to work on. Now that I have seen that I can get this under some sort of control, I have started to think about doing the same for controlling my mouth and starting to work on shmiras halashon (getting there) and other areas. Learning self control is a feeling of finding freedom. (אני עבדך בן אמתך פיתחת למוסרי - דהיינו על ידי העבדות נפתח המוסירות)
And also of course shmiras eynayim has returned to its place on the radar and has jumped back up to previous levels long forgotten about. As long as I was succumbing to porn, I guess subconsciously I felt it was a joke to be makpid on shmiras eiynayim.
I also found that my fear of Youtube and other triggers has helped me deal with unfiltered internet on the rare occasion that it comes up. I am more vigilant so the threat is less.
I have gotten back into learning every day, and over the last week I have even started getting back to mishnayos baal peh, an old hobby of mine. In fact for the first time in ages, my mind wandered on its own to the mishnayos this morning. Perhaps this is the biggest sign of where I have come to in the last 90 days.
I would like to thank everybody here, the chatters, the posters and the e-mailers. Thank you for opening a window into your own personal lives so others can learn from you.
Thank you for your wonderful and often challenging advice
Thank you for asking for advice so I was able to think things through as I gave advice.
Thank you for being there to help me through the tough times.
Thank you for being there to share with me the good times.
Thank you for being there period (many times that was enough- just knowing you guys are there).
And thank you Ribono Shel Oilam for guiding me on the way out of the darkness. What now? I do not think I am cured. But I do think that I have the tools to continue on. I also think the tools will help me in many other areas in life.
My next short term goal is to make it to the first after birth mikva day clean.
My big goal is to make it to 120 clean- not days, years.
Join the 90-day chart now and witness your own miracle!
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One-liner
12-Step Members Encourage:
Keep It Simple!
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Category: Nachas Ruach> Excerpt 8
Nachas Ruach: Torah-Based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth and Healing
Torah Perspectives on the Twelve Steps
"We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
This step requires the recovering addict to try to honestly understand the pscho-social-spiritual sources of his addiction. This step clearly overlaps with the Torah's concept of "self-evaluation"or cheshbon hanefesh. This means that people need to try to understand themselves and their behavior on a deeper level and have accurate self-awareness of both their strengths and their limitations. This goal is stressed in the Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avos) in theMishnah.
In this area there is much Torah literature, including such classics as Ramchal's Mesillas Yesharim, which explains how increased self-awareness means working on underlying "character defects" and not only enhanced psychological self-knowledge.
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Please help support our work so we can continue to help acheinu b'nei Yisrael!
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To donate by phone, call (24 hours): 718-878-3075
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GYE Corp.
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