S
ome rando online recently pointed out that the human mind doens't do "negatives" -- if you tell yourself not to think of a purple elephant, as the classic example goes, it's in fact all you can think about. That "not" doesn't really clear the bar for your mind's activity plans.
However, the mind does work with positives. If you don't want to think about something, command yourself to think, specifically, about something else. Just this little piece of advice, delivered in the comments section of a youtube video, has actually borne fruit in my life recently. There are some things I don't want to be thinking about, typically pornographic- or sexually-informed thoughts that I have no business toying with. And lately, I've realized that I can just make the beginnings of those thoughts into a trigger. When they come along, I immediately tell myself to start thinking about Blackletter, or Torchbearer, or Go, or one of my other game-based fixations. Within seconds, I'm on a perfectly good train of thought, the evil ones left behind in the dust.
Obviously not perfect, but a good tool to have. What would it take for me to be able to turn immediately and with great interest toward God and his saints, instead of my own pedestrian hobbies, I wonder? At the moment, at least, I'm just glad I have the kind of mind that can get interested in something enough to distract me from the darkness.