 What do I think about NOFAP? In other words, is not looking at porn or masturbating going to really help you take your life to the next level because I guess the end of the day what we're always talking about here is what can you do to take your life to the next level. And NOFAP is one of those really odd, interesting internet trends I wasn't even really aware about. But apparently NOFAP comes from supposedly this 2003 Chinese study that found that men who refrain from masturbation for a week experience a roughly 150% increase in testosterone on the seventh day. So this dude Alexander Rhodes posted this research study on Reddit and after that supposedly this whole movement came to be. So in this video I want to share what I think is actually the true history of NOFAP which comes from Taoist mystical practices as well as why I am pro-fap with a little asterisk and caveat there. So I want to share what I think is the middle ground between NOFAP and living a full and enjoyable life while also a life where you perform well and are building out the coolest version of yourself. What's up guys? Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day. Now you're interested in this whole NOFAP thing, you're probably into improving your life and figuring out the rituals, the habits, the things successful people do to get that in your own life. Well one of the best ways to start by planning your best year and have included the first link below is a worksheet to help you plan out basically having your best year ever. So you can check it out. The first link in the description is a free download on how to plan that best year, figure out the best things to work on in order to make that happen. So what was interesting to me is that I wanted to actually take time to reflect on this on where NOFAP actually comes from besides that study. Well I'm actually a doctoral student in traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist sexual practices that are literally thousands of years old actually incorporate seminal retention. Now one of the reasons is that semen is actually considered Jing, like this kind of condensed life essence. I mean literally ancient and modern people can see that a man and a woman come together and they can produce a child that's pretty miraculous. But two humans meet, there's no third human and then literally a creature comes out of another human after these two kinds of essence meet. That was always kind of considered a pretty amazing thing to ancient people and to me it still is. But that essence that comes out of a man and goes into a woman and they combined create a new life force essentially this human that was viewed almost as this kind of energy that is expelled from a man. So if he conserved that energy called Jing in Chinese medicine, if he conserved that the three was that he'd be able to live longer. Now we know biometically that over having sex and under ejaculating really both have health consequences. There's damage if you overdo sex or don't ejaculate at all. But one of the reasons why a Taoist initiate would conserve his Jing was because of the fact that the belief that if you conserve your Jing or you perform what's called retrograde ejaculation where it goes up into the bladder, it can actually go up an energy circuit. There's the Ren Mai in the front and the Du Mai in the back, which forms something called the microcosmic orbit that it can shoot up up into the head. And that would be like some kind of opening or activating force in the body. So there was a fourth century physician and kind of Taoist mystic named Go Hong and Go Hong said that those seeking immortality must perfect the absolute essentials. These consist of treasuring the Jing, circulating Qi and consuming the great medicine. Now Go Hong also said that it's folly to believe that performing sexual arts alone can achieve immortality. And some of the ancient myths on sexual arts had been misinterpreted and exaggerated. The sexual arts had to be practiced alongside alchemy to attain longevity. And they also warned that obviously if practiced incorrectly it could be dangerous. So my personal opinion on all this stuff is just that to understand where this comes from and the point that it's trying to play in a person's life. Like I 100% agree that not watching porn excessively is good for a person's mental health. For sure. Like you look at the rates of the increase in erectile dysfunction in men and it's extremely high compared to what it was historically and I think a part of that is because men are more overweight for sure. Humans I feel like are the most unfit they've ever been. That's strongly correlated with erectile dysfunction. But also the amount of just like psycho emotional dysfunction. Like we spend our days living in virtual reality which humans have never throughout human history maybe besides dreaming and just thinking. But this kind of virtual reality that's being put towards us rather than us generating it. But also for most normal men and women you know if you're not a Taoist sage who knows how to somehow circulate his Jing or her Jing and then become like an enlightened mystical being that's probably all of us. For most of us there is a natural rhythm to ejaculation or having sex or masturbation that's actually healthy. And that complete seminal retention for most people is actually unhealthy. This is research on what it does to your prostate, what it does to hormonal levels. So my whole thing with nofap or with anything you see circulating around the internet is try to understand what it does and to try to understand the behavior in your own life. So am I jerking off five times a day because I'm just an Italian dude and that's what Italian dudes do? Like that's a pretty unconscious response to life. For starters how do you even find that much time if you have a job. But nonetheless am I doing that because I'm just bored. I'm just home all day, I don't know what to do, like I'm just on the internet and I go to a porn site because whatever, there's a lot of stuff going on and I don't have anything to do after work or after school so I just do it. Am I doing it because I'm anxious? Like maybe it's the thing that calms me down or helps me sleep. In which case I need to figure out why do I have anxiety and maybe going to the gym is going to be a healthier outlet for that rather than having to masturbate and drink two gin and tonics to actually go to bed. So try to understand what's behind all of this. Rather than me being like this is bad, this is good, to me the whole point of this channel is to have a more conscious approach to looking at yourself and looking at your goals. You know so for me no fap can just become another kind of either a punishment like a puritanical like you shall not masturbate ever or else you go blind and burn in hell. There's that which is more than a little bit extreme or it can just be something that's like it's something you feel like guilty about or weird about and to me none of those are the point just try to understand yourself. All right guys that's my two cents and honestly when I was 29 I did a challenge with a friend. Neither of us would have any kind of ejaculation for 30 days. I was dating a girl so that meant no sex for 30 days and ironically funny enough after three weeks I had a wet dream as if I was like a 14 year old boy which was both really weird but it was to me clearly proof and evidence to my body that there's a natural hormonal cycle and this stuff needs to come out in frequency for there not to be a problem there. So I don't know you can take that antidote for whatever it is if it's not just a weird embarrassing thing but just treat it for what it is don't get addicted to it don't turn into like this puritanical self-punisher that's it find the middle place. All right guys so best way to stay in touch if you want to use nofap as one of the major goals you're working on in terms of habits to live a better life check out the free goal setting worksheet it's the first link in the description that will help you figure out exactly some of the rituals you need to work on daily to have this year the best year of your life so check it out the first link in the description and then come on over check my last related videos out there and there.