Day 19/50: Minimizing Triggers

לֹ֤א נִשְׁאַר֙ אַרְבֶּ֣ה אֶחָ֔ד בְּכֹ֖ל גְּב֥וּל מִצְרָֽיִם

Not one locust remained in all the borders of Egypt

Fortunately, Hashem gave us the strength to resist urges, and we do this all the time – whenever acting on an urge is not an option. This can include everything from craving a non-Kosher treat to having an inappropriate urge related to arayos. However, when we are bombarded with too many urges, it can get annoying and difficult to keep resisting them, as the Gemara (Brachos 32a) says under certain circumstances, “What can the son do and not sin?”. 

So how can we get ourselves to have less urges? The answer is that urges are often caused by something in our environment we call a “trigger”. So the #1 strategy to reduce urges is to “minimize our exposure to triggers”. For example, if you’re on a diet, you shouldn’t have a pantry in your kitchen stuffed with sweets.

That’s why it’s best not to have access to a smartphone, or to have private access to the internet. When this isn’t possible, the most logical thing to do is to install a good filter. After all, no one wants to have constant triggers where their brain keeps telling them to check out this or check out that. When we have too many urges, the nisayon can become overwhelming and we’re likely to slip up.

So to sum up:

1) Don’t be afraid of occasional urges. Our brains were designed to handle them.

2) Our brains were NOT designed to handle a constant bombardment of urges.

3) To avoid the abundance of urges and make it easier for ourselves, make sure to get rid of easy access to inappropriate material in your immediate environment.

Confused about filters? Click here to make it easy to get a filter installed!