Best ways to avoid sexual thoughts?

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First and foremost, consult your spiritual counselor/minister/priest!

I suspect there is no feasible technique to avoid thoughts. Thoughts enter our mind frequently and ceaselessly.

The essential matter is how you engage with those thoughts. The Orthodox/Eastern Catholics teach about a primordial spiritual reality known as logismos (or ‘thoughts’). Very simply, they are thoughts which are introduced into your conscious by either God, an angel, or demons. Honestly, logismoi (plural of logismos) primarily seem to be thoughts emanating from the Devil, from the written material I’ve encountered.

The biblical foundation for this belief is often linked to Christ’s 40 days in the Wilderness when he was subjected to numerous temptations by Satan. Of course, all of the thoughts were rejected out of hand by our Lord.

A priest on Mount Athos described the “five stages” of a logismos in this manner. From the book, Mountain of Silence:
  1. The Assault. A thought enters our mind in the form of a suggestion urging us to do something.
  2. Interaction. We begin a dialogue with the logismos. When a logismos (evil thought) urges you to steal, for example, you begin to wonder “Should I or should I not?” At this stage, although the dialogue is risky and dangerous, there is no accountability on the part of the individual. No sin is committed as yet. But if the person is weak by faith and temperament, then defeat may be the most likely outcome of that exposure to the logismoi.
  3. Consent. You consent to commit what the logismos (evil thought or suggestion) urges you to do, in this particular case to steal money. You have made a decision. That is when guilt and accountability start to emerge. The logismos is still confined to thought. There has been no action and the spiritual war is still on the mental level. In such a case, if a person manages to invoke the Name of God and to confess, they can avoid the next stage. It is still possible, through God’s Providential intervention and love, to liberate oneself from the stage of consent.
  4. Captivity. The person becomes hostage to the logismoi. The moment the person succumbs, the next time around the logismos returns with greater force. It is much more difficult to resist then.
  5. Passion or Obsession. The logismos has become an entrenched reality within the consciousness of the person. The person becomes a captive of obsessive logismoi, leading to ongoing destructive acts to oneself and others.
 
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Hawkeye916 said:
Occasionally one thought will lead to another, and then all of a sudden I will find myself in the middle of a sexual thought! As I do NOT want to sin, I quickly rebuke the thought and try to move along.
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Each one of us have two wolves living inside us. A good wolf & a bad wolf. These wolves are constantly fighting each other. The wolf that will win this battle is the one you feed the most.

You feed the bad wolf when you allow yourself to be conformed to this world. You feed the good wolf when you allow your Heavenly Father to transform you.

Daily prayer, weekly mass, frequent confession. Feed the good wolf.

Or something like that.
 
Basically, a mere thought is not sinful; otherwise, we all have committed dozens to hundreds of sins each day. A thought is sinful once you have consented to its message or images.
 
I was thinking about this today. At daily Mass I prayed that God would feed the good wolf. But, what happens if you feed the bad wolf for a really long time? Like living the gay lifestyle for 2 years, and looking at porn like every day during that time. My bad wolf is probably really strong. And even though I’m becoming religious again, and returning to my Catholic faith… how long will it take before there’s any progress? I fell today and yesterday. I fell before I went to confession yesterday and after going to Mass today. So, I won’t be able to receive tomorrow. sigh

What if someone has a pornography addiction of over 10 years? How much “feeding the good wolf” is necessary? 10 years, 20?
 
By the time you get into your sixties, your will will be able to overpower random erotic thoughts without much problem. A brief prayer, maybe make it a binding prayer, the resolution to have custody of your eyes both of your actual eyesight and your mind’s eye and turning your thoughts to something else (holy thoughts, the rosary, etc.), those things ought to be enough to quell desire.

Be still, relax, pray, clear your mind - these things will result in self-control.

I acknowledge that doing this is much more difficult for a young male than somebody who is much older. At my age, at my current rate, I slip up only once or twice a year at most.

When I was young I had the same sort of porn problem that so many people seem to have, but now I have it pretty much under control.

I think that there may exist younger men who can get themselves under control, but if they have been exposed to porn they will have to struggle much harder to regain control over themselves than I do.

In your binding prayers, you will have to be conscious of demonic influences and always always always send demons to the foot of the Cross to receive their judgement from our Lord.

This is a binding prayer for ‘clearing the air’: “In the name of Jesus, I bind all spirits not of the Holy Spirit, and send them to the foot of the Cross to receive their judgement by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Do you want to bind demons of lust and then banish them? Then say this: “In the name of Jesus, I bind all spirits of lust who have come here to tempt me and drive me away from the Holy Spirit, and send them to the foot of the Cross to receive their judgement by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Demons are like the mosquitoes of Alaska; they are big, annoying and need constant swatting. They are scarcely more intelligent than mosquitoes too. They have a very hard time learning what is going to happen to them, and thus they get swatted and sent to the Cross time after time.

Binding prayers are really about you asking God to let you have the space and freedom you are entitled to. They are also sort of a test of memory, awareness, and determination to ask God for help.

How many demons have I asked for help to repel? I don’t know, but it is certainly a lot more than mere hundreds. It must be in the tens of thousands, and perhaps even more.

I try to maintain a maximally toxic prayer environment for demons, and it seems to be working.
 
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I have unwanted thoughts of other kinds, and find that praying reduces them. I notice my mind has wandered to a place I don’t want it to be, I pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and the prayer to St Michael the Archangel over and over til the thoughts are gone, each time I notice the thoughts.

The thoughts generally diminish a lot, but then a couple of weeks later, different bothersome thoughts come along. I have to recognize them for what they are and repeat the process above.
 
Fets said:
My bad wolf is probably really strong. And even though I’m becoming religious again, and returning to my Catholic faith… how long will it take before there’s any progress?
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I couldn’t tell you. That’s between you & God. My situation, which is similar to yours, I think I’ve made really good progress in a short amount of time. I believe my progress is due to going to Mass frequently like 4 or 5 times a week. A good examination of conscience every night, praying for forgiveness every night, consecration to our Blessed Mother & daily rosary.

Now, I have no proof that this is the reason, but I do believe it. I don’t know that it will “work” for you. But I will say this issue wasn’t my biggest issue. I focused on my biggest issue & a lot of others just didn’t manifest, if that makes sense.

My biggest issue was letting Jesus love me. It wasn’t that I thought my sins were bigger than His mercy. I just felt like I had to pay Him back, save myself. & it doesn’t work that way. He loves you as you are, in spite of your faults. Becoming a Saint won’t make Him love you any more. Damming yourself to hell wont make Him love you any less. He created you because He loves you. He humbled Himself, was born of a woman because He loves you. He suffered His Passion because He loves you. & that’s just the way it is.

Sounds simple. Next time you go to your quiet place to pray, after you’ve said your daily prayers, think about that. There was a time when there wasn’t a you. Then the good Lord said, “I’m going to make Fets. He’s going to be tall/short, stout/svelte, smart/clever, etc… He won’t be perfect, but one day he’s going to want to be. He’s going to come to me & ask me to wash away all his sins… & I will. He’ll be impatient & I’ll say, slow down my beautiful child. Walk with me. The journey is what makes life beautiful. I’ll walk with you until we get you home. I won’t leave you. Even when you walk away, I’ll be there. Your heart goes astray, mine does not. I’m in this 'til the end.”
 
Perhaps you could try to fast. I know that it works; when I fast, I don’t think about sex at all. The hunger pains are always on a person’s mind, to the point where it overpowers the sexual thoughts. If fasting all day is too extreme for you, then just drink water or juice.
 
AVOID THE OCCASSION OF SIN. Daydreaming. If you continue, keep the daydreaming in the topic of, :”WHAT IS GODS WILL FOR YOU.,”
I don’t watch Romantic movies. I listen to Christian music only. I’ve memorized scripture. I think on those. I talk to God a lot. This works for me. It is a trained discipline. It’s doable!
God bless
 
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