Overcome Porn: The 40 Day ChallengeSample

What’s your favorite movie, TV show, or video game? What’s its main message?

Our entertainment choices may be conditioning us for porn and other unhealthy behaviors. If you want to quit porn, you may need to cut some entertainment options from your life for a time.

1. Identify your triggers. Start by identifying triggering entertainment. Do you often view porn after looking at Instagram? Or after reading a specific web comic? Keep track for a week or two. This might help you identify triggers you never would have considered.

2. Define your “good.” Sit down with your ally (and your spouse, if you’re married) and talk through your media collections. Together, decide on your definition of “good” or “safe” entertainment. 

As you create your definition of “good” media, focus on (a) the overall message and (b) what may be triggering to you personally. 

3. Seek beauty. Sorting through your media choices is not about putting yourself into movie jail or taking away everything you love about life. We should not just hate what is evil, but we should actually love what is good. We’re looking to replace the ugly with the beautiful. We pursue beauty by actively seeking it out—by looking for entertainment options that help us intentionally change how we see the world.

Reflection

Reflect on your entertainment options, and sort them into these four categories:

• This media is good for me. You may decide to skip a specific scene or two, but you’re generally free to enjoy this.
• This media is good, but not for me right now. Once you’ve been porn-free for a while, you may be okay to watch it, but for the time being, you should either put the copies in storage or hand them to your ally, to return them to you when you all agree you’re ready.
• This media is not good for me, but it may be fine for others. Many video games allow excessively customizable, sexualized female costumes. You may never be able to handle them in a healthy way, but others may be able to. 
• This media is not good for me or others. Sexual content may be gratuitous and unavoidable. If you have physical copies, these items should go straight into the trash.