Category: Nutrition

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Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 2

Meditation

Meditation is a great way to see firsthand your mind’s addiction to empty stimulation. You sit down, close your eyes, and attempt to keep your mind focused on just one thing, such as the breath. Sounds boring right? It certainly was for me at first and it is for most newcomers, who find that their mind will do anything in its power to find something more interesting. 

Daydreams and distractions abound! 

Stick with it though, and slowly but surely the mind will begin to settle, and peace, even bliss can begin to arise. Further, it strengthens your mind’s ability to focus and stay on task, “sharpening the saw” so to speak, so that you can accomplish your goals that much more easily.

In short, meditation is the exact opposite of our attention-scattered, distracted, empty stimulation-seeking habits, and is a big part of the antidote. Our minds drive us from distraction to distraction; meditation says “no” to all of these distractions and teaches the mind to settle on just one thing.

The things we’re giving up this month are a prime example of how the mind craves distraction and stimulation. We aren’t content to just be, but instead run from distraction to distraction, from empty dopamine hit to dopamine hit, hoping to achieve some lasting satisfaction. 

But these things never bring lasting satisfaction, do they? If they did, we wouldn’t get bored so fast and look for something else to fill that hole within us. If they did, that Christmas gift we wanted so badly when we were 10 would still be bringing us great satisfaction, but the satisfaction faded pretty quickly. Come to think of it, the satisfaction we get from anything fades pretty quickly, doesn’t it?

Meditation is the antithesis to our mind constantly running around seeking stimulation – you bring it back, again and again and again, to the object of meditation. And as the mind settles and lets go of its craving, peace and bliss may start to arise. 

What might cause these good feelings? The joy you experience when you get something that you really wanted isn’t actually coming from that object – it’s coming from the craving for that object going away. Think about it, there is nothing inherently joy-producing from a nice juicy steak – if there was, you’d be fine eating it for every meal of the day for the rest of eternity, but anyone would get sick of that pretty quick.

The joy you experience when you get something you were really craving comes from the craving going away – and the amount of joy is proportional to the amount of craving that has ceased.

When the mind lets go of craving, it experiences peace and bliss. This is what meditation can provide, a temporary reprieve from craving, on demand. Meditation teaches you to find contentment and peace in the present moment, so that you aren’t reliant upon outer sources of happiness.

But it takes practice and commitment.

If you aren’t meditating yet, try it out this month. 5 minutes in the evening the first week, 10 the next week, 15 on week three, and 20 mins each night on week four.

Basic Meditation on the Breath

  1. Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet room, and take 3-5 deep belly breaths to settle down. Set a timer for 5-20 mins.
  2. Focus on the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nostrils – this will be your object of meditation. Don’t alter your breath in any way, just passively notice the sensations.
  3. Begin to count your breaths, with one in-breath and one out-breath being one breath. So breathe in, feeling the sensations at the tip of the nose, breathe out feeling those same sensations, and mentally note “one”. Count up to five or ten, then repeat.
  4. Conversely, you can note “in” on the in-breath, and “out” on the out-breath.
  5. When your mind wanders, and it will, gently bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nose. Do this for the entire length of the session, and each time the mind wanders and you bring it back, think of it as “reps” for your mind muscles.
  6. If after a while, when mind wandering has been significantly reduced, drop the mental noting and try to stay with just the sensations of the breath. Try to be aware of every moment of sensation on the in-breath, be aware of the lack of sensation in between breaths, and then be aware of every sensation of the out-breath. This is more subtle and thus more difficult.
  7. When the timer goes off, congratulate yourself. Generate positive feelings, because you just did something Kingly – you took control and overcame the urge to distract yourself. 
  8. Your mind needs to be balanced between the gentle effort of concentrating on the breath with a relaxed “letting go” of other thoughts and sensations. Just as a guitar string that is too tight or too loose won’t sound right, so too must your mind be balanced between gentle effort and relaxation.

Supplements to Enhance Dopamine

There are supplements/drugs that release dopamine on their own, called agonists, that you mainly want to avoid right now. They cause your brain to release large amounts of dopamine all at once, which feels great, but basically ruins your inherent dopamine sensitivity and production over time, leading to depression, the blahs, anhedonia, lethargy, etc etc. So for the purpose of this month-long experiment, avoid dopamine agonists like nicotine, beer, Mary Jane and drugs like (do I even need to say this?) cocaine, adderall and other ADHD meds, MDMA, opiates, kratom, etc. If you are prescribed any of these, it’s best to stick with your prescription and discuss it with your doctor if you want to get off of them.

Coffee, tea and caffeine get a pass as they actually help keep dopamine receptors sensitive, but keep the intake on the lower side – aim for reducing down to 50 to 200 mg per day tops, over a week or two.

Then there are supplements that enhance your body’s own production of dopamine, called precursors. These supply your brain with the raw material to synthesize dopamine, but almost all of them have a “rate-limiting factor”, which means the brain won’t get overloaded with dopamine and you won’t deal with decreases in natural production and loss of sensitivity. 

Certain compounds are great at protecting dopaminergic neurons from toxicity from too much dopamine, aka our usual quick fixes, be it lighter things like gaming/social media or harder things like occasional drug use. These are great options to have on hand or take daily.

Finally, there are supplements that can help resensitize your neurons to dopamine – meaning however much dopamine your brain naturally releases will be better utilized. In other words, you go further with less. 

All of these options are fantastic for us because once we give up our crutches, our quick fixes, our brains will be without their usual sources of quick dopamine hits, meaning we will likely be feeling pretty “blah”. Dopamine precursors will give us an immediate boost in energy and motivation, and dopamine re-sensitization agents will help us over the long term to go further with the dopamine our brains are naturally releasing from everyday life.

Dopamine precursors – must be taken on an empty stomach for full effectiveness. Pick one or two to try out, and use 1-2 times daily or keep them for when you’re really dragging ass. Don’t use a bunch at the same time! We’re just looking for a little dopaminergic boost if we need it.

  • L-Tyrosine – converts to L-DOPA which converts to dopamine. This and NALT are probably the strongest in terms of acute effects.
  • N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT) – This is more potent than plain L-Tyrosine, but I actually prefer plain Tyrosine. Many prefer NALT, so take your pick. Lots of discussion on comparisons of the two on r/nootropics.
  • L-Phenylalanine – converts to L-Tyrosine, then L-DOPA, then dopamine. It’s a bit less effective than L-Tyrosine
  • DL-Phenylalanine (DLPA) – L-Phenyl converts to L-Tyrosine like before, but the D-Phenyl blocks the enzyme in the body that breaks down endorphins, giving you a nice pain-killing, warm fuzzy feeling – you won’t get high, but it really softens the edges of going without your dopaminergic crutches. This is what I’ve been using, as it provides a very nice but subtle glow while my brain readjusts to giving up its dopamine depletors. A bit “softer” than L-Ty or NALT, but has the endorphin glow.
  • Cordyceps – another great pick that works in a different manner. This is an amazing jing- and qi-boosting mushroom from the orient that increases tyrosine-hydroxylase, the enzyme that converts L-Tyrosine to L-DOPA. From the linked study, “These results suggest that CME (a cordyceps extract) can upregulate the dopaminergic (DArgic) system, and may contribute to neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases.” I have been using Nootropic Depot’s 10:1 Cordyceps extract, and I love it.

Dopamine neuroprotectants – these won’t do much for our little month long experiment, and you likely won’t notice any “boost” when you take them, but they’re great to get in the habit of using daily to protect your dopamine neurons, or especially to use before you’re going to do anything that hammers the dopamine system – drinking, taking prescription ADHD meds, etc.

  • PQQ – Similar to CoQ10, PQQ is neuroprotective to dopaminergic neurons, is a powerful antioxidant and not only energizes existing mitochondria (the engines of your cells), but even creates new mitochondria, giving you more day to day energy- in other words, it boosts qi/prana. No need to cycle but it can be on the pricier side, and oftentimes you’ll find it paired with CoQ10. I’d do a 2-3 month cycles of it to get the mitochondrial benefits, or simply keep it on hand if you know you’re going to be indulging in anything that overloads the dopamine system. Here it is with CoQ10, here it is by itself.
  • Gynostemma – a classic adaptogen hailing from Traditional Chinese Medicine, this qi-boosting herb is also neuroprotective and “neuro-restorative” to dopaminergic neurons. Also delays fatigue, improves insulin sensitivity and a whole lot more. It’s pretty affordable – I have 1-2 cups per day of this tea, which also has extracts of schisandra, goji berry, astragalus and siberian ginseng. This combo is also available in tincture form, or you can try loose gynostemma by itself. Here is an organic source but it will cost a bit more. Also I have not tried these specific loose teas so feel free to source your own.

Dopamine resensitizing agents – these are the real gold here, as they help our neurons to actually recuperate and repair, making them more sensitive to the dopamine our brains naturally produce. While some do gently increase the amount of dopamine in the brain, the big benefit is that they make what dopamine is released more effective – but you need to take them consistently over a longer period of time to get these effects. Try one out for a few months at least, or better yet, use one for 2-3 months, then use a different one, etc, keeping those dopamine receptors fresh.

  • Sulbutiamine – a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 that modulates dopaminergic systems in the brain. It actually decreases dopamine in D2 receptors, which, over the long haul, increases their expression and sensitivity. For most, it provides a pretty palpable energy boost the first 5-10 times using it, then seems to not do much for energy, but it still is working in the background on those D2 receptors. My top pick if you regularly consume alcohol, as alcohol massively depletes vitamin B1. 
  • Uridine – a dopamine neuromodulator, uridine can increase dopamines effectiveness. Use uridine monophosphate or its more bioavailable form, triacetyluridine. It has even more potent restorative effects when combined with the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, which you can buy in an already combined form here – highly recommended.
  • Forskolin – robustly upregulates dopamine D2 receptors and “receptor supersensitivity” via increasing cAMP, which has other benefits, possibly increasing testosterone as well. 
  • Acetyl-l-carnitine – also known as ALCAR, this acetylated amino acid increases expression of dopamine D1 receptors – all the others affect D2. It’s also neuroprotective, boosts energy and helps shuttle fat into mitochondria to be burned as fuel. You’ll probably feel it’s energy boosting effects, and can get powder here (it’s sour but manageable), or pills here.

Just Be

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

I write about this practice in the book I’ve been working on (just need to format it at this point), that of practicing just being. It isn’t a cutting-edge tool or technique, but rather a test of sorts to see how far we’ve come in terms of giving up our pointless dopamine depletors. 

Just sit down on a park bench, your front porch, the end of your bed or on your couch. Put your phone on airplane mode and set a timer for 10 minutes. Don’t drink coffee, tea or a beer, don’t smoke a cigarette or a joint. 

Just sit there and be. 

Don’t meditate, don’t try to problem solve, don’t pray, don’t repeat a mantra, don’t do anything at all. Thoughts will come up, but try to remain a passive observer of them.

How antsy are you? How badly do you want to check your phone? How excruciating is it to just sit there calmly? 

Isn’t it ironic we call ourselves human beings when 99% of us find it painful to just sit and be?

What you’re experiencing first hand is craving and aversion in the mind. Craving to do something else, something more stimulating. Aversion to just being, aversion to plain old reality as it is.

Do this once or twice a week this month. You should find that by the end of the month, it’s not so bad to just sit there. Hell, it may even be pleasant. It’s a great litmus test to see how far you’ve come in terms of seeking empty stimulation.

“When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions, we do not allow the wound to heal. But when we instead experience the raw quality of the itch or pain of the wound and do not scratch it, we actually allow the wound to heal.” – Pema Chodron

Putting it all Together

So how do we put this all together? The first part is cutting out dopamine depletors, or at least greatly reducing them. I recommend taking an inventory and seeing what activities you regularly engage in that are sources of empty pleasure, and then systematically give them up.

You should cut out drugs and alcohol entirely this month. If you’re addicted to anything beyond caffeine, that goes beyond the scope of this little experiment, so get help with that first. I’m not getting into the debate on whether caffeine should be used or not while practicing semen retention – it works fine for some and causes relapses for others. I will say that if you’re a heavy caffeine user, try tapering down by 50 mg or so each week. 

Embrace boredom – you may find it leads to creativity. Don’t whip your phone out while you’re waiting in line at the store or while going to the bathroom. Don’t start texting your boys when the book you’re reading bores you. Try driving, lifting and running sometimes without music.

I want you to be raw-dogging reality! Yes, it will be boring at first. Be a man, suck it up, and persevere. It will get better as time goes on.

At the same time as you cut out your dopamine wasters, actively embrace discomfort, both the small things like chores, homework, reading, journaling, meditating, and the big things, like exercise, fasting, sauna use and/or cold showers. Create nightly lists, accomplish what’s on them first thing in the morning.

Remember, exercise, fasting, sauna use and cold showers not only toughen up the mind, but give you a big boost in terms of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin and endorphins. These hormetic stressors will provide an immediate and sustainable release of dopamine, as well as speed up the recovery process. They will make your life much less “blah” and much more rewarding.

Recall that meditation is the antithesis to the constant stimulation-seeking, craving aspect of the mind. It would do you well to make it a daily habit, even if it’s just 5 to 10 minutes each day.

Get yourself a supplement that naturally increases dopamine in a natural, controlled manner, as your brain will be in a dopamine deficit after cutting out those timewasters. Bonus points if you get a supplement that helps resensitize your dopamine receptors.

As your brain resensitizes and your hedonic setpoint gets raised, the small things will gradually become more and more interesting and pleasurable. 

What you do after this experiment is, of course, your choice. If you choose to keep going, realize you’ll need to constantly be putting effort into this. Remember, we’re drowning in a world of hyperstimulating things – to push away or limit phone time, screen time, game time, drugs, junk food, and especially porn requires constant effort and vigilance. 

Entropy is always working against us, boys.

You will be greatly rewarded, however, as you will no longer be a slave to your mind’s craving for constant stimulation. You will be in control. You will be a King amongst the peasants. You will tell your mind what to focus on, and it will listen. And after a few days to weeks to months, you will find accomplishing tasks and goals rewarding. You will look down sympathetically at everyone else, watching as they run towards the next empty dopamine hit, leaving behind their real dreams and goals.

You’ll need to figure out to what degree you let these vices back into your life. Some things you may want to cut out entirely, such as endless scrolling on social media, drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes or weed.

Or you may decide that if you had a good, productive week, a couple beers with the boys on the weekend is no big deal, or enjoying a well-rolled spliff as you game for a few hours Sunday night is no big deal. 

Whatever you decide, be sure to keep constant vigilance and to push on the pain side of the balance. Make sure that you are the one in control, not the constant craving for empty stimulation. 

“It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.” Invictus, William Ernest Henley

Further Resources 

Dr. Anna Lembke’s book Dopamine Nation, and the Huberman Lab Podcast episode with Lembke titled Understanding and Treating Addiction, for understanding dopamine more and leveraging the “pleasure/pain balance”

James Clear’s Atomic Habits to learn best practices for creating new habits that stick and breaking old counter-productive habits

A Mind Without Craving – An excellent book by Delson Armstrong

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits – By Judson Brewer

David Goggins on the Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1080 and episode 1906, for toughening up and general bad-assery

Jocko Willink on the JRE – “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short. Don’t count on motivation; count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink 

Conquering Flatlines/PAWS, a previous post – similar info but not necessary reading

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Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 1

One of the biggest benefits we get from semen retention is the huge increase in dopamine that occurs when we refrain from orgasm. Dopamine is the molecule that not only gives us the energy, confidence and motivation to get things done, but it’s also the molecule of reward, making us feel good when we accomplish our tasks and goals. 

Of course, it’s also responsible for the good feelings we get from food, drugs, sex, gaming, social media – pretty much anything pleasurable.

Unfortunately, the modern world is filled to the brim with cheap thrills, quick fixes and shiny distractions that constantly drain us of our motivation/reward molecule, and I don’t mean just porn – social media, gaming, binge watching Netflix, even text and email alerts all take us out of the present moment, sapping attention and depleting dopamine.

This leaves us crippled, crabby, maybe even downright useless without our normal crutches. 

In other words – we have become so hooked on chemical highs and technological distractions that bare reality has become unbearable. If we take a month or two to get rid of these chemicals and technological distractions (or at least greatly reduce them), then we will, with no further effort, become happier and more interested in the world around us.

Perhaps more importantly, we will find ourselves with both the energy and the motivation to go out there and chase after the things we really want – our dreams, our goals, our mission.

This post is about combating the modern world and all its cheap pitfalls in order to further enhance the benefits we get from abstaining from PMO, first by cutting out those addictive dopamine depletors; by learning to leverage “the suck” to further enhance the dopaminergic pathways and reward centers in the brain; and using targeted supplements to improve the functioning of dopamine within the brain. It’s similar to a “dopamine detox”, but geared towards retainers with some specific exercises and additional goodies.

Further, unlike most of my posts, there’s very little to do with transmuting sexual energy, yoga, and the esoteric. Just plain, hard science on enhancing dopamine – although this concept is essentially the same as tapas, or spiritual austerity.

This article is written with New Year in mind, and framed within a one month context. Try out what is suggested for the month of January, or any month for that matter, but realize that these are practices you should learn to adopt in your daily life, not just one month out of the year.

And let me be very transparent – I am writing this and engaging in this experiment as a kick in my own pants. I’ve gotten a little soft around the edges the last couple of months in some ways – time to get back to the grindstone.

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

Article at a glance :

  1. Dopamine is the neurochemical currency of drive, motivation and reward. One of the biggest benefits of semen retention is how it quickly and robustly increases dopamine levels – this article is all about further optimizing our lifestyle to maximize dopaminergic function. 
  2. We are addicted to chasing empty stimulation (porn, junk food, social media, gaming, binge watching shows, texts/emails, drugs), and this addiction to distraction and empty stimulation prevents us from doing and enjoying those things we know we need to be doing.
  3. If we give up these meaningless distractions, we allow our brains, specifically our dopamine receptors, time to recuperate and resensitize, making our normal, daily life more enjoyable. We will also reclaim the motivation to accomplish all of our goals, big and small, that we have allowed these devilish distractions to take from us.
  4. Taking this one step further, if we actively “embrace the suck”, we can speed up this process of healing and boost levels of feel good neurotransmitters (Part 1 ends here)
  5. Meditation is the polar opposite of constant stimulation seeking – engaging in focused meditation practice retrains the mind to focus attention and calm down, instead of scattering attention in an agitated manner.
  6. We can use targeted supplementation to increase dopamine levels, protect dopamine neurons, and even to regain neuronal sensitivity to dopamine.
  7. We can assess our progress not only by seeing how much more enjoyment we get out of the real world, but by practicing “just being”.

Dopamine Zombies

The way we achieve things in this life is largely due to dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in both motivation (the pursuit of our goals and interests), and the feelings of reward after we get or accomplish what we were after. One of the reasons semen retention is so powerful is because of how it’s able to increase dopamine levels so robustly – recall that orgasm leads to a rise in prolactin, which subsequently plummets dopamine levels for up to two weeks afterwards. No orgasm means little prolactin, which means more dopamine, leading to you having the energy, drive and confidence to chase after your goals and accomplish them.

The problem with today’s world is that everything, not just porn, has been designed to hijack the reward pathways in our brains – from food, to video games, to social media, to tv and movies, even to our phones, and nevermind drugs themselves.

Think back to when we were a tribal species. We evolved to get rewarded by “dopamine hits” from finding food, hunting prey, sleeping with actual mates, socializing with real friends and family in person, hearing stories and myths told by elders of the tribe (or by telling them), building and maintaining a living space, dancing and communing around the fire… In other words, we had to work for these rewards, and these rewards were useful and beneficial, ensuring we would do the things we needed to survive and form social bonds. And when we were hunter gatherers, there were essentially zero drugs.

Nowadays? We flip open our phone and have instant access to porn, distracting games, and endless scrolling on social media – which is designed to be addictive. Even texting “creates a dopamine loop” in the brain. We have access to drugs and booze that cause an immediate release of pleasure far beyond anything else in the natural world. We eat food and drink beverages that companies have spent millions of dollars designing to be as rewarding and addicting as possible. 

Just take a look at this chart which shows the massive release of dopamine from some drugs – 

“In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or having to wait for the things we want? The neuroscientist Samuel McClure and his colleagues examined what parts of the brain are involved in choosing immediate versus delayed rewards. They found that when participants chose immediate rewards, emotion- and reward-processing parts of the brain lit up. When participants delayed their reward, the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain involved in planning and abstract thinking—became active.

The implication here is that we are all now vulnerable to prefrontal cortical atrophy as our reward pathway has become the dominant driver of our lives.”  Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation

And that’s real bad news, because it means we are no longer in control of our behavior. We’re no longer using our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain so highly developed in humans that allows us to think and plan, but are slaves to our hijacked reward pathways, switching from one source of empty stimulation to the next, not getting anything worthwhile done, not chasing after our dreams or accomplishing our goals.

We’ve become dopamine zombies, slaves to our technology and chemical crutches.

How do we overcome this issue? By getting rid of our addictive substances and timewasters, and actively engaging in the beneficial but less stimulating things we know we should be doing.

“Remember and remind yourself of a phrase favored by Epictetus: ‘persist and resist.’ Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.” – Ryan Holiday

Get rid of Distraction, Lean into Discomfort and Do the Hard Thing (Weaning and Leaning)

The way we get from lazy and comfortable to action-oriented and badass? We need to wean ourselves off of our comfortable, dopaminergic distractions, and lean into those things that are tough that we know we need to be doing. It’s a simple concept, but it can be difficult to really put into place effectively.

I don’t need to tell you what your time wasters are, I’m sure you know them well. Time to start weaning yourself off of them. The most effective method is to just cut them out entirely – no scrolling on any social media apps, no Youtube, no Netflix or gaming. No distracting yourself at all – I want you to be raw-dogging reality. It’s a shock to the system, but it’s effective and there’s no wiggle room to cheat.

If you can’t imagine giving everything up, at least cut out the biggest ones, and save the smaller ones for an hour in the evening the first week, 45 minutes the second week, 30 minutes the 3rd week, cut out completely the last week.

As for drugs? Many in this community don’t use any at all, including caffeine. For those that do, try to cut them out entirely for this month – no booze, no nicotine, no adderall, no pills, no kratom, none of that. I’ll make an exception for caffeine as it’s pretty mild and actually helps to increase dopamine receptor expression, but don’t be pounding energy drinks every two hours.

If your only chemical vice is a bit of coffee each day, cut back on the amount the first couple weeks and then abstain completely the second half of the month, or the last week.

If this is too painful for you, well… Toughen the hell up, buttercup. You want to become a semen retention badass but can’t wait till the evening to engage in your time wasters? Dig deep, get in touch with your manly side, and make it happen!

After you’ve cut your dopamine depletors out or reduced them and moved them to the evening, you’ll have some free time on your hands. Now comes the leaning into part of the practice. What is it you know you should be doing, but that brings up some internal resistance to doing it? Whatever that is, do that thing right now! 

That feeling of resistance should be your cue that whatever is causing said feeling is your new mission. “The Obstacle is the Way”, as Ryan Holiday titled his book on stoicism. That feeling of resistance is your call to arms, the rallying cry to go make things happen. Anyone who does cold showers knows this feeling well. Anyone who has tried to talk to that cute gal over there knows this feeling well. Shit, anyone who has tried to clean their room is familiar with this feeling.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it? The second you feel that feeling, go do that thing without even thinking about it. You don’t have your time wasters to distract you, so what else is there to do?

Just take a second and imagine how different your life would be if, starting today, you didn’t shirk from the essential-but-uncomfortable, but instead attacked head on. Think of how much you could get done today… Think about how much you could get done in a month… Now, imagine if you have been doing things this way for years! 

Yeah, it’s safe to say your life would be very different and undoubtedly much better. You’d scoff at the notion of constantly suckling on the teet of whatever your vices currently are.

Make a list each night before bed of the top 3-5 things you need to get done the next day. Don’t wait until the morning to make the list, have that bad boy ready to go. Then, each time you accomplish a task, cross it off the list. Making the physical list and crossing it off is key to this process. Each time you complete a goal and cross it off the list, guess what? Instant dopamine release – you feel a sense of accomplishment at completing the task (plus some relief thrown in for good measure), and that dopamine release gives you energy and motivation to accomplish the next task. 

It’s a vicious cycle of productive badassery.

Now, you can approach your productive mornings in two different ways. One way is “worst first” – you start your day doing the thing that is gonna be the biggest pain in your ass. With that out of the way, the rest of your manly duties seem much easier. If you’re one of those “fire in the belly” guys, this method may be for you.

I am many things, but a hard-charging, Type A personality I am not. I prefer to start with the smaller things and move up the ladder. The disadvantage here is things become progressively more difficult as I cross off my to-dos, but the upside is I get some small, easy wins which help me build momentum to tackle The Big Baddies. However, both energy and will-power are finite resources, so you have to be strategic about this method. Don’t drain yourself accomplishing 6 smaller tasks and then have no energy to do that 1 big thing you really needed to get done that day – I’ve done that more than I care to admit.

No matter which method you choose, and neither is better than the other, you are now setting yourself up for success in life by training your brain to get dopamine from accomplishing goals, instead of from mindless time wasters or using substances.

Now, it must be noted that in the beginning, the dopamine released from accomplishing small tasks or goals won’t be nearly as big as that released from things like gaming, social media, nicotine, booze, marijuana, etc, etc. If it were, pretty much everyone would easily accomplish their goals off the bat. Hang in there, it will get better.

And it should be noted that the more you allow yourself to spend time on these other highly addictive time wasters, well… The less enjoyment you’ll get out of doing the things you know you need to be doing.

At the risk of repeating myself too often, moving your time wasters to the end of the day and limiting the amount spent on them is a great beginning strategy, but if you really want to get the most out of this month, you should cut them out completely. If you don’t think you can give them up completely from the get-go, start by saving the time wasters for an hour in the evening the first week, a half hour in the second, and then give them up entirely the last two weeks.

This will give your brain time to literally rewire itself – in the wake of blasting your dopamine receptors 24/7 from highly stimulating bullshit, they will re-sensitize enough so that you actually come to enjoy not just adulting, but all the other badass stuff you really want and need to be doing.

And once you reach that point, this won’t be a struggle, it’ll be your new way of life.

“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” WB Yeats

Pressing on the Pain Side

What if I told you I regularly engaged in a grueling practice that was difficult, increased bodily inflammation, caused oxidative stress, left me sore for days, increased blood pressure and heart rate during the activity, increased metabolic waste products, was toxic to muscle cells and even caused tears in my muscles themselves? 

Other times I deprive my body of nutrients and fuel for extended periods. Sometimes I force myself to endure bouts of extreme heat, while other times I suffer through periods of immersing myself in intensely cold water.

What if I told you that all of the above practices, while harmful in the short term, actually not only improve my health over time, but also raise my hedonic set point, meaning I’m happier at baseline?

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, I was talking about exercise, fasting, deliberate hyperthermia and cold exposure. These are practices that cause acute stress that leads to an increase in overall robustness, which is great for physical health. Something that is often overlooked is that these things are also powerful means to improve your mood, motivation, and energy levels. 

Your hedonic setpoint is essentially your base level of happiness. Some people just seem to be constantly happy, and the rest of us can’t stand those people. Other people are perpetual curmudgeons, the pessimistic Scrooges of the world. The happier you are, the higher your hedonic setpoint, meaning you walk around feeling pretty good the majority of the time. The grumpier you are, the lower your setpoint – you gotta get lots of things going right for you to start feeling good about your life.

Your hedonic setpoint is somewhat malleable – take addiction for example. You take your Average Joe with a normal life who derives pleasure from a multitude of different things – socializing, his dog, his hobbies, and if he’s lucky, maybe even his job. Then you get him hooked on drugs, let’s say cocaine. Cocaine releases so much dopamine that Average Joe gets high as a kite, and so he buys more the next weekend, and more the next weekend.

From The Oatmeal

After a while the only thing bringing him any pleasure is cocaine, and a bit further down the road, even cocaine won’t bring Average Joe any pleasure but will only delay the withdrawals. Compared to the massive surge of dopamine released from cocaine, everything else seems boring in comparison.

Ol Joey has succeeded in making his hedonic setpoint so very low that it doesn’t matter what he does – he can’t experience pleasure. The good news is that after enough sobriety, he can raise his setpoint back up to something close to what it was before his addiction.

We may not be cocaine addicts, but we are addicted to all these other little dopamine wasters – social media, gaming, binging on Netflix, eating takeout chinese food, etc. And the cumulative effect of all these smaller things is very similar to if we’d become addicted to a drug – we become less happy at baseline and are constantly bouncing from one source of empty stimulation to the next, never feeling happy on our own, never satisfied, and rarely doing anything worthwhile.

Now, and this is key, the reverse of this is also true. Put yourself through deliberate exposure to discomfort, and you’ll begin to raise your hedonic setpoint, meaning you get more and more pleasure out of your day to day life.

Imagine you found yourself bedridden in a hospital for a month, and for the sake of argument, let’s just pretend the food was bland and you had no access to friends, family, phones, tvs, games, even books. Just you, your mind, those fluorescent lights and that eggshell-white wall over there. 

Sounds awful, right? 

Now imagine how great it would be once you made it out of that hospital, back into your normal life. The same old food you used to eat would taste amazing, you’d be stoked to interact with your friends again, and of course, it’d be great getting back to your hobbies and toys.

The good news is that we don’t have to be bedridden in a dystopian hospital in order to make our normal life more enjoyable – we just have to cut out the sources of empty stimulation and, simultaneously, actively and systematically embrace what is uncomfortable.

In other words, we have to embrace the suck.

I know, I just told you to give up on your comforting-but-draining timewasters, and now I’m telling you to make things worse by actively seeking out the uncomfortable… But just stick with me here.

Exercise increases all of our feel-good neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, as well as endocannabinoids and endorphins; cold immersion causes a huge and long-lasting rise in dopamine and norepinephrine, giving us energy and motivation; sauna use releases dynorphin, a chemical that makes us feel acute discomfort but actually resensitizes the brain to its own endorphins; and fasting increases dopamine, as well as serotonin and norepinephrine.

By pressing hard on the side of pain and discomfort, we are rewarded with an immediate rebound of pleasure. When we give up our addictions and plow headfirst into accomplishing our everyday tasks, we don’t get quite the same immediate reward, but the two combined over time allows us to raise our hedonic setpoint. 

That means you will be happier each and every day, whether things are going your way or not.

So if you give up your junk timewasters, it might hurt today. It might be boring tomorrow. It may feel like a sludge through the doldrums for the next week or two. But by golly, stick with it, because in 2 weeks, you’ll start enjoying the little things in life again, and in 4-8 weeks, you’ll find yourself feeling happy for no damn reason most days. And this process will be sped up if you’re able to actively push on the pain side with these more concentrated practices, specifically exercise, fasting, and cold/heat exposure.

Giving up on our cheap, empty addictions is the road to recovery; actively embracing the uncomfortable makes that road a whole lot easier and shorter.

Check out Part 2 here

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Part 4 – This is Your Brain on Semen Retention

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

For all you SR homies that aren’t as much into the esoteric and more into the down-to-earth, this post is for you.

Motivation

Think back to Post 1. I argued that retaining is a just a means to an end, that end being enhancing a type of energy called Jing. Jing is our vitality, which can be physically described as the sum total of our hormones, neurotransmitters, immune system and DNA integrity.

An interesting thing happens to a man during orgasm. Prolactin explodes onto the scene, and dopamine plummets.

Dopamine is that feel-good, tons of confidence, get shit done neurotransmitter. It’s key to confidence and motivation. We want dopamine, and we want it in abundance.

Prolactin is a necessary hormone even for men, just like estrogen is.. But it’s also the hormone responsible for breast growth and lactation in women. As guys, we want the bare minimum of prolactin floating around.

That sudden depletion of dopamine and surge in prolactin is why guys feel like they “lose their power” after “relapsing”. It’s a sudden diminishing of Jing.

Now the good news is, if you retain for 6 months and then have sex, you don’t go all the way back to square one. It sets you back, but not all the way to the beginning. Even better news, certain techniques can be used as “harm reduction” to prevent the loss of Jing and to quickly replenish it if this does happen. That is beyond the scope of this post, but I’ll get into this as we go deeper down the rabbit hole.

Back to hormones and neurotransmitters –

Low dopamine levels are associated with depression, low energy, lack of ambition, social anxiety, among others (Dailly et al., 2004).

Why does dopamine drop? Well, to make sure we attend to other aspects of our life, our brains come hardwired with a neurochemical mechanism of satiety. Prolactin, another hormone, surges right after orgasm, and is considered a reliable marker of such (Kruger et al., 2003). Prolactin works as a dopamine inhibitor, curtailing our sex drives once we consummate orgasm and providing us with feelings of satiation and sexual gratification. So the happy feelings impulsed by orgasm are carried along by prolactin. These secretions are relatively long-lasting after orgasm (Kruger et al., 2012).

Now prolactin doesn’t just curtail our sex drives, it curtails our drive in general. And studies have shown this dip in dopamine takes about two weeks to recover. That’s a looooong time to have reduced drive, energy and confidence..

When we practice semen retention, we’re trying to “stay hungry” and accomplish goals, but prolactin is a “neruochemical mechanism of satiety”. No bueno.Sweet, Sweet Dopamine

The problem is, jacking off and prolactin isn’t the only thing fucking with our dopamine system. Remember, high dopamine = lots of motivation, drive, desire, and confidence. This is why people love drugs like Adderall and cocaine, and why, if they have nothing better to focus on, they clean the shit out of their apartments. They’re on a dopamine high and gotta do something, anything.

But we live in a world that is beyond oversaturated with things that stimulate dopamine release. They’re massive time-wasters, and they fuck up our dopaminergic systems.

They hack into our brain’s reward system and prevents us actually getting things done.

Neurochemistry 101

I’ll keep this short guys. In the brain you have these chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. They fit into receptors, much like a lock and key. It’s important to remember that the brain and body are always trying to maintain homeostasis.

If the brain detects too much of a certain neurotransmitter, it reacts to maintain this homeostasis. If there is too much dopamine in certain parts of the brain, the brain first ceases to release more dopamine. If that doesn’t fix it, it de-sensitizes dopamine receptors. If that still doesn’t fix it, it starts removing dopamine receptors completely!

This is how addiction comes about. Look at the image below – see how amphetamine looks almost identical to dopamine? It fits right into that receptor, and over time your body down-regulatesdopamine receptors, meaning you need more and more of the drug to get high, and feel worse and worse when you don’t have it.

This is how porn in particular, and modern society in general, have been able to ensnare us in their clutches – they make our brain less and less sensitive to its own neurotransmitters. You need more and more stimulus (more exciting video games, kinkier and kinkier porn) to get the same dopamine release, and things that you once found interesting (books, sports, conversations with friends, whatever), are no longer stimulating enough.

  • Food is literally engineered by scientists to hack into our reward system. Why eat anything healthy and nutritious when there are Cheetos in the cupboard and Mountain Dew in the fridge? Why eat a nice, big salmon salad when I can just pop in a pizza that floods my brain with dopamine and endorphins and leaves me comatose on the couch afterwards?
  • Social media, with its fast pace, endless novelty in the never-ending scrolling, and system of intermittent reinforcement is addictive as hell. Why go through the work of actually hanging out with friends and family? God, you gotta sit there, actually listen to what they say, and then formulate a response? Not enough dopamine for me, I’d rather do the scroll of death or post a photo and revel in the brief, short squirts of dopamine I get with each like.
  • TV shows, immersive video/PC games, constant music playing.. Again, engineered to be addictive and hack into our reward system. Who has the time to learn actual skill sets? To learn how to play a musical instrument? To read a book? How many more pages do I gotta read till I get some damn dopamine?
  • And of course, our personal favorite.. We can have “virtual sex” at any time with an ever increasing variety of women with bodies that are just rarely found in real life. Why go out and try to meet actual women (and face possible “rejection”), when we can stay at home and get off to our weirdest, kinkiest desires? You know how long it’s gonna take to get my hit of dopamine by actually trying to learn to talk to girls?

I could go on and on here, but the point is that we’re constantly bombarded by things that trap us in this negative hedonic feedback loop. How are you going to accomplish anything when you can’t make it past your fuckin’ cell phone?

Now here’s a caveat – the less you partake in dopamine-depleting acts, the more dopamine your brain has for daily life, and the less you’ll crave these time wasters. This is why after a certain amount of time, you longer no miss porn. It doesn’t even sound appealing.

As time goes on, and your receptors become re-sensitized, they become that much more sensitive to dopamine. Things that are “less exciting”, but probably more beneficial, become more enjoyable. That’s a big win. That said, addictive behavior becomes that much more pleasurable. So you gotta be careful, because it could quickly spiral way out of control.

Our goal then is to re-sensitize our brains to our own natural production of dopamine, and use to it ravage our women and crush our enemies. I mean, uh, to accomplish goals and shit.

The True Meaning of Brahmacharya

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

I would argue that preserving dopamine is as important as preserving semen. Really.

Semen retention is the doorway to realizing this. Semen retention is step one.

People think Brahmacharya is just celibacy. The word literally means “to live in higher awareness”. What does this mean in relation to semen retention? Yes, retain. But you must also not squander your dopamine, just like you wouldn’t squander your seed.

You are in the market, but not to buy anything.

This is a very important concept, and is the true meaning of Brahmacharya. It means you are immune to the seductions of the world, and those seductions come in the form of enslavement to dopamine.

You have controlled your lust for sensual pleasure, sensual pleasure meaning pleasure derived from any of the senses! One who has command over his mind and its lust for constant stimulation – that is a true Brahmachari.

It goes far beyond celibacy.

If you can’t get through a few pages of a book without going crazy with the itch for dopamine, you need to work on this.

If you can’t go even 20 minutes, never mind an hour, without checking your phone, your Snapchat, your texts.. You need a lot of work here.

Can’t go a couple days without gaming? Need to work on this.

If you can’t eat a home cooked meal without enjoying the flavor, and coming away satisfied, you need to work on this.

Perhaps most terrifying of all.. can you just sit and be still with your thoughts for five minutes? Ten? No phone, just you and yourself? Go to the local park, leave your phone at home, and just watch the world go by for 15 minutes. It will be torturous. Now ask yourself why the hell simply being is such a painful thing? I dare you to try out a float tank some time.

Addicted to Comfort

We’re addicted to the good feelings dopamine provides us, but we’re also addicted to our modern comforts. We’re weak, weak little babies, and the slightest discomfort makes us cry for mommy.

This is where Stoicism and guys like David Goggins and Jocko Willink come in. According to Stoic philosophy, “the path to eudaimonia (happiness, or blessedness) is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one’s mind to understand the world”. Stoicism doesn’t mean running from pleasure, but it does mean not mindlessly chasing it or shirking from a little discomfort.

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of laziness, fear and discomfort, and it would do you well to remember this. Conquer those three, and you’ve conquered yourself.

If y’all aren’t familiar with David Goggins yet.. Y’all are missing out. The guy went from a self-proclaimed pussy to probably the toughest guy out there, being the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training (including two Hell Weeks), the U.S. Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Enlisted Honor Man) and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. Then he went on to break a fuckton of records, including the Guinness World Record for pull-ups, completing 4,030 in 17 hours.

Peep the dude’s athletic accomplishments here.

Funny thing is, he started off as a self-proclaimed pussy, clocking in at 300 lbs.

Regaining dopaminergic tone only takes you so far – you’ll only be motivated to do things in order to get that dopamine hit, and that’s powerful, that gets the ball rolling, but it only takes you halfway. You gotta push past discomfort to be truly outstanding, or to be “Uncommon amongst uncommon men“, as Goggins put it. Motivation is what gets you started – discipline is what keeps you going.

Figure out ways to practice and embrace discomfort, and, key to this practice, reframe it as something positive. You gotta heat iron to 2750 degrees and then beat the living shit out of it forge a sword, so use the heat of discomfort to make the mind malleable and then beat the shit out of it with difficult endeavors to forge a mind that isn’t weak, that doesn’t constantly chase after the tiniest empty pleasures and mortal comforts.

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.. Discipline equals Freedom” – Jocko Willink

“I had to build this callused mind, and I built it through suffering… I wanted to be a man who detested mediocrity.. This motherfucker is gonna keep coming after whatever the fuck is in front of him.” David Goggins on JRE #1080

Tapas – Toughness Training

Each time you say no to a useless urge that pops into your head, you level up. You build up personal power. It’s that simple. Any time you practice something that is good for you, but that is difficult and that you don’t want to do, boom, you level up again. This is callusing the mind. Do this enough times, and one day a Warrior is born.

In yoga there is a concept known as Tapas, or spiritual austerity. Just as heating ice turns it into water, and heating water turns it into vapor, Tapas is the inner heat that sublimates the energy we conserve by retaining into pure, fiery drive. The word tapas literally means “to burn”.

Any time you say no to an urge, or welcome and embrace discomfort in search of growth, you level up. It’s that simple. That is what tapas is all about.

Stop chasing empty stimulation.

Embrace discomfort.

Practices

So what is one to do?

  1. Cut out empty, short-lived dopamine highs.
  2. Train your brain to have to work for its dopamine hits.
  3. Practice beneficial discomfort and adversity.

Dopamine “Fasting”

Set a time limit on your phone for your biggest time wasting apps. You have to use some discretion here. I first had mine set for 15 minutes, and I’d only allow scrolling for 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 in the evening, and that was for Instagram, Facebook and Reddit combined. Nowadays I just pop on each app in the morning to check notifications, then log off. I also don’t allow notifications from any apps except for Reddit, and that’s only so I can keep up with you fellas. That way I’m not constantly getting updates on my phone, draining my precious attention and dopamine. Check out the app Forest.

Cut out junk food and eat as much home-prepped, whole foods as possible. A lot of people only find snacks, fast food and restaurant food palatable. Their tastebuds have desensitized and they basically get no dopamine released from actual food. Time to change that.

Practice intermittent fasting – You gotta break the chains to food in general! I have a 8:16 feeding window – all my calories are consumed within 8 hours. This means I don’t eat until 10 am, and wrap up eating at 6 pm. Considering I’m asleep most of the fasting time, this is simple. Tons of other benefits, look it up.

Try occasional 24 hour fasts – Once you’re comfortable with IF, try out the occasional 24 hour fast. Eat a big breakfast, and then a big lunch. Stuff your face up until noon, and then no calories until noon the following day. Your first couple times you can drink some bone broth if you’re really hurting.

Fast for everything else – I highly suggest social media / gaming / Netflix fasts. Do one whole day with no screen time whatsoever. Then do a week. Every year take a whole month off. I can feel y’all cringing – if it makes you cringe thinking about it, then you know you need it. Do the same thing with whatever other addictions you have. You will be amazed at all the stuff you can accomplish when you cut back on social media, gaming and other time-wasters.

Start reducing consumption of booze, nicotine, caffeine, and other drugs. Again, this just floods your brain with dopamine. You’re burning through your Jing each time you drink booze, smoke a cig, pop an Adderall or drink a Redbull. You don’t have to quit, but reduce consumption of these things in general. Keep track and just slowly reduce.

Use nicotine/caffeine/booze for a purpose. Tie your addictions up to useful actions. I’ve whittled my caffeine use down to only before a workout or when writing. It’s become a tool, instead of an addiction. Smoke cigarettes? Start changing your habits so that you mostly smoke while you’re accomplishing some goal, or only as a reward. Love craft beer like me? You gotta earn that shit, son.

Practice “sitting still, doing nothing” – This is one of the ways Taoists refer to meditation. I’m a big fan of meditation, but even most forms of meditation involve doing something, focusing on something, visualizing, etc. Sitting still, doing nothing, and just being should be your litmus test for how well you’re beginning to progress on the dopamine recovery path – if you can just sit and be comfortable for 10 or 15 minutes, you’re well on your way.

Earn Your Dopamine

In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall – My Unbelievably True Life Story, he spoke about how as a child in Austria, his father used to make him do pushups each time he entered the kitchen, earning his meals. This always stuck with me.

A lot of people think that as guys, we have to earn our keep. This needs reframing.

As guys, we GET to earn our keep, and how glorious it is.

Set goals each day – start with 3, make ’em small, and stick the fuck to ’em. You want to achieve that “Winners Effect“, where success begets more success. We want to rewire our brain to meet challenges head on, to live off the highs of accomplishments, not mashing buttons while staring at a screen, endless scrolling of social media black holes, or beating our meat.

Put a price on things – 15 pushups each time you open the fridge. 20 air squats any time you leave the house. 20 burpees before any screen time that isn’t productive.

Easy Peasy or Worst First? A matter of personal preference here – some like accomplishing their biggest/least fun goal first and getting it out of the way. Other’s prefer to ride the high of smaller accomplishments and let that lead into bigger daily goals. Find which one works best for you.

Leverage your addictions – Set it up so that you can only take part in your biggest time wasters afteryou accomplish one of your goals for that day. That said, don’t accomplish one goal and spend the rest of the day lounging on Netflix.

Practice Adversity

Start waking up earlier – “The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.” – Jocko Willink

Cold showers – Lots of you guys are already doing this, and it has tons of benefits beyond toughness training. Cold exposure increases norepinephrine 200-300%, meaning an instant energy and motivation boost. It’s even been studied for its effects on depression. Start hot and end cold, do contrast showers, cold the whole time, or ice bath style.. However you wanna slice it, this is a great way to get used to being uncomfortable.

Exercise – if you already do it, great. You lift but hate running? Start running. You run only? Start lifting. Don’t exercise at all? Get the fuck on it.

Meditate – If you don’t meditate.. I just don’t have words. Your mind is the medium through which you interact with the world, and therefore shapes your entire existence. The mind is how you

  1. Perceive the environment around you
  2. Perceive your internal environment (emotions)
  3. Get shit done

Meditation is the science of mastering your mind. If you’ve mastered your mind completely, you can get whatever you want done whenever you want it done, and will feel good doing it. There are a million ways to practice meditation. Find one you like and do it every single damn day. Period.

Embrace the Suck – doesn’t matter what that suck is. Hate your math class? Nut up and just do your homework. Hate running? Time to start. When you start to get the feeling of straight UGH just thinking about it, recognize that as positive thing. That becomes the trigger for success! Befriend that feeling. Just remember, it will help you build that “calloused mind”, and you’ll get some dopamine upon completion, which is exactly what we want.

Feel the fear and do it anyway – This one might not be applicable for every single day, but if something scares you, that’s your cue to go ahead and do it. Don’t think, just act. Reframe it as excitement – in fact, fear and excitement are nearly identical internal states. We don’t run from discomfort, we welcome it. We don’t run from fear, we meet it head on.

In a nutshell, force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy doing, but that is beneficial. And when your mind tells you to quit, keep going until you reach your predetermined goal.

Recommended Reading ~

The Oatmeal – 5 Stages of Caffeine Intake

The Oatmeal – The Terrible and Wonderful Reason I Run Long Distances – comic but very relevant

The Winner Effect – how winning begets more winning

Discipline Equals Freedom – Jocko Willink

Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins

Total Recall : My Unbelievably True Life Story

Recommended Viewing / Listening

Bill Hicks – It’s Just a Ride – not relevant to this topic, but one of my favorite clips and relevant to life in general

Goggins on JRE #1080

Jocko Willink on JRE

How to be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – 43 Weird and Wonderful Ways to Build a Strong, Resilient Mind

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Semen Retention and Testosterone

In my last post, we talked about increasing the amount of yang energy within, specifically through certain herbs. These herbs increase sperm production and libido, are anti-aging and many are also cognitive enhancing.

If we want more yang energy, we need to address the most fundamental yin and yang hormones within – estrogen and testosterone.

Prevalence of Xenoestrogens

Xenoestrogens are chemicals found in food and our environment that have estrogenic effects on our bodies, and unfortunately they’re freaking everywhere. They are part of a bigger problem, those of endocrine disruptors – chemicals and compounds that negatively affect our endocrine system and thus our hormone levels – and the practice of semen retention is largely the practice of fine tuning the endocrine system.

Xenoestrogens are ubiquitous – they’re found in plants, foods, pesticides, cosmetics, fragrances, medications, plastics and the liquids and foods contained therein, and even in the drinking water in some places.

Many xenoestrogens come from plants – these are known as phytoestrogens. In a perfect world, these are actually beneficial compounds, but considering all the synthetic chemical xenoestrogens, these are just one more source of estrogen in our environment. The biggest sources of phytoestrogens for most people are from soy products, the hops in beer, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, lavender, licorice, and hummus, if made with tahini. Hops contain one of the most potent phytoestrogens known to man – sorry my beer loving brethren.

As long as you aren’t chugging a ton of soy milk and double dry-hopped IPAs, phytoestrogens would be a moot point, but again, because of the overload of all of the other toxic xenoestrogens in our environment, I would keep these to a bare minimum unless you’ve done a great job of eliminating the other culprits.

The best way to detox excess xenoestrogens is to eliminate their intake, focus on burning up excess body fat, and regular use of a sauna.

Because xenoestrogens are fat-soluble, they get stored in your body fat, and thus burning up any excess fat will help to release them. Be sure to consume plenty of fiber, as the liver binds excess toxins to fiber to aid in their elimination. I’d recommend a monthly 24-48 hour green juice fast, except add a fiber supplement to the juices. I prefer just throwing in some chia seeds, although you could use Metamucil as well. Schisandra, my favorite herb for semen retention, is an amazing liver detoxifier as well, so I’d be sure to throw it in for those fasts.

Sauna use directly releases toxins through the skin, but it can be difficult and pricy finding one near you. If you can, I highly recommend it, as it has a host of other benefits as well. Check your local gyms – you are going to the gym, right?

Check out Dr. Anthony Jay’s page of products he uses, as well as his book Estrogeneration if you’d like to dive deeper into this topic.

Increasing Testosterone

Decreasing the estrogenic load on the body alone will work wonders on correcting hormone levels and boosting testosterone, but we also want to look into how to directly increase T levels.

  1. Lift heavy weights
  2. Get plenty of quality sleep
  3. Eat properly
  4. Destress and lower inflammation
  5. Certain supplements and nutrients

Lift Heavy Weights – this is hands down the easiest and quickest way to raise T levels, both acutely and over the long term. When you begin lifting weights, you send a message to your body that you need to start getting stronger and increase muscle mass, and testosterone is how the body accomplishes these goals.

Not only will lifting weights increase the release of testosterone, but it also increases the sensitivity and expression of androgen receptors throughout the body. See, testosterone is meaningless if it has nothing to bind to in order to exert its effects, and androgen receptors are the binding site. If your receptors aren’t sensitive to androgens, aka testosterone, it doesn’t matter how much testosterone you have floating around – it won’t activate the receptors.

Lifting weights is the one-two punch for increasing androgen levels and sensitizing androgen receptors. The best lifts to increase T levels are heavy, compound lifts, such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses and rows. Check out StrongLifts 5×5 for a guide on how to get started. Make sure to start off with light weight and proper form, or else you’ll get injured and have to take time off. The StrongLifts site has videos to learn proper form.

Hill sprints are another excellent way to increase androgens and androgen sensitivity. Simply find a 30-ish foot hill and sprint full speed up it, 4-7 times. That’s it. Make sure to warm up before hand with a light 5 minute jog and some high knees before hand, and give yourself a few minutes to recover between sprints. You can sprint on flat ground too, but it’s a bit less effective and harder on the joints.

David Goggins

Get Plenty of Sleep – this is just as crucial as lifting weights. Multiple studies show the correlation between a better nights sleep and between higher levels of testosterone. A study of 531 men found that those who only slept 4 hours a night had 60% less testosterone than those who slept a full 8 hours a night.

To improve your sleep, the most important thing is keeping a regular sleep and wake up time. Set a bedtime that is 8-9 hours before you want to be waking up, and stick to it. Keep your room as dark and cool as possible. Avoid caffeine after 3 pm, and limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks max.

Make sure to avoid blue and bright light before bed, and get a hefty dose of bright light first thing upon waking up, either from a bright lite or from just a quick stroll outdoors. Avoiding blue light at night and getting bright light in the morning are key to entraining your circadian rhythm. Blue light blocking glasses can be very helpful for those of us who enjoy watching tv/gaming/have computer work to do before bed. Install f.lux or use the built-in red shift feature on newer phones.

Supplements such as magnesium glycinate (T booster!), glycine, 5-HTP, ashwagandha (T booster and cortisol reducer!), and melatonin can all be helpful in getting a good night’s rest.

Eat properly – quick quiz – what is testosterone made out of? If you answered cholesterol, you were spot on. Cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone, which is the precursor to all steroidal hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. Moreover, cholesterol is a key component of every cell within the body, with the brain taking a whopping 25% of all of the body’s cholesterol.

Cholesterol is not the villain it was once made out to be, either. I’m not saying you should be pounding hamburgers for every meal, but you should absolutely not be avoiding foods like grass-fed beef or eggs from pastured chickens.

Not only are sex hormones made out of cholesterol, but they have a fatty acid backbone. As such, it stands to figure that a low-fat diet would be deleterious to testosterone production, and indeed this is what the research shows. The graph below shows what happens when researchers lowered the fat intake of subjects from 40% of total calories consumed to 25%, and then back up to 40% – we see a clear drop in T levels.

different types of fatty acids and serum testosterone levels

It’s important to note that not all fats are created equally though – saturated and monounsaturated fats are best for testosterone production, while polyunsaturated fats have a negative impact on T levels. This is because extracted polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and therefor likely to be oxidized and rancid upon consumption.

This means fats such as vegetable oils, most seed and nut oils, fried foods and processed foods using these oils are a hard no-no on a T boosting diet. Corn, peanut, soy, canola and other extracted oils are off limits, and should be from just a regular health standpoint as well. Grass-fed butter, olive oil, coconut oil, red palm oil, macadamia nut and avocado oil are your best bets, but make sure they aren’t coming from plastic bottles! Conventional factory-farmed meats, dairy and eggs are higher in polyunsaturated fats as well, because they’re fed cheap soy and corn feed – another reason to try to get as much free-range, organic animal products as possible.

fatty acids and testosterone

Increasing saturated fat and monounsaturated fats increase T, poly lowers T

As for carbs and protein, as long as you’re getting adequate amounts of both, your testosterone levels shouldn’t be impacted much. Again, the types of foods consumed still have an impact. Gluten may increase prolactin levels, something we on the semen retention train are trying to keep to a minimum. Grains and products coming from grains are doused in estrogenic pesticides, so make sure the grain products you’re buying are organic and low in gluten.

Make sure that the majority of the foods you eat are organic, and try to have the meats and eggs you consume come from free-range animals. We just went over how deleterious pesticides are to your endocrine system. Meat, milk and eggs that come from non-organic, factory farmed animals are laden with these same pesticides, as it’s used on the corn and soy feed that they are forced to consume, never mind the antibiotics that have to be used, growth hormones and even injected estrogens to increase animal growth.

The best diet in my eyes is one that is pretty close to paleo, meaning lots of organic, non-starchy green veggies, grass-fed/free range meats/poultry, eggs, wild caught fish, fresh seasonal fruit, some nuts/seeds/tubers, and plenty of herbs and spices. I can’t recommend a whole foods, nutrient-rich diet enough.

Finally, it’s important to have a balanced caloric intake. Being overweight kills T levels, considering excess body fat is actually estrogenic. On the flip side, consuming too few calories results in lowered testosterone as well. It should be made very clear that this does not apply to those who are restricting calories in order to drop down to a healthy bodyweight, but more in the sense of someone who is constantly under-eating or who is constantly burning the candles at both ends, working out too much and not eating enough.

Speaking of burning the candle at both ends…

Destress and lower inflammation – this is a huuuuge killer of testosterone in today’s world. Basically, testosterone and cortisol, our main stress hormone, have an inverse relationship. More cortisol means less testosterone, simple as that.

The best ways to destress? Get plenty of high quality sleep, make sure you get lots of low intensity movement throughout the day, plenty of fresh air and sunlight, eat anti-inflammatory, nutrient dense foods, and make sure to have a practice designed to lower stress specifically. Yoga, breathing exercises and meditation are obvious choices, especially since they help sublimate sexual energy.

Certain herbs are excellent at lowering stress as well, known as adaptogens– ashwagandha, tulsi, reishi mushroom, and phosphatidylserine are excellent options, but remember, these are secondary to the real heavy hitters listed above.

Stress and inflammation go hand in hand, and the more inflamed you are, the lower your T levels are gonna be. Along with the things suggested in the previous paragraphs, avoid excess Omega 6 fatty acids (which are primarily found in vegetable oils, which you already should be avoiding), and consume plenty of Omega 3s, especially those found in cold water, fatty fish and fish oil. Herbs and spices are great anti-inflammatories, so include plenty of turmeric, ginger, cayenne, rosemary, sage and whatever other herbs you enjoy. Organic dark berries, dark chocolate and organic teas are excellent additions to help lower inflammation.

Supplements such as a strong turmeric/curcumin complex, boswellia, and fish oil or krill oil will work wonders.

Target nutrients and supplements – Pivotal here is the fact these should only be bothered with if you’ve got your other T-boosting ducks in a row – nothing is gonna make up for a shitty diet, a stressful life and being overweight and not exercising. That said, there are a couple important supplements to consider when trying to boost T levels.

Aswhagandha – lowers cortisol and increases testosterone; potent adaptogen, increases sperm production.

Zinc, boron and magnesium – this trifecta of minerals are crucially important for T levels – a deficiency in any one of them will lower testosterone and increase estrogen. More does not equal more testosterone, we’re just making sure we aren’t deficient.

Vitamin D – did you know that, like sex hormones, the body makes vitamin D from cholesterol? It is also technically a hormone itself, but is also crucial for optimum testosterone levels – 3332 IUs of the vitamin for a year resulted in a 25% uptick in T levels as compared to a control group. It’s dirt cheap – I recommend 5000 IUs if you aren’t getting enough sunlight, which is pretty much all of us.

Vitamin K2 – a crucial vitamin to be taking if you’re taking Vitamin D, as it helps to make sure that the calcium absorbed gets deposited in the bones and not in arteries. It’s also crucial in the conversion of cholesterol into testosterone, and mice fed the vitamin saw a whopping 70% increase in testosterone levels! Small amounts can be found in some fermented foods like natto, in wheat germ and hard cheeses, and in grass-fed dairy products, but it’s best to supplement.

Iodine – another mineral that, if deficient, lowers T levels. Critical for thyroid health as well, which affects testosterone. I personally don’t take it as an isolated supplement, but make sure to consume plenty of seaweeds, particularly nori wraps and kelp flakes, although you can supplement if you so choose. Shoot for around .5 – 1mg. If you’re on thyroid meds, talk to your doc, or just eat seaweed a couple times a week.

A good multi – this one linked is the best I’ve found for an affordable price. You get more than enough zinc and selenium, a fair amount of D3, a decent chunk of iodine, and all the rest of the vitamins in their bioactive forms. I would definitely get the additional K2/D3, iodine and boron though.

Key Takeaways

As men, we definitely drew the short stick in terms of being born in such a toxic time – xenoestrogens and other toxins abound, porn and sexualized ads and tv shows are everywhere. It’s up to us to make sure we counteract this craziness.

Avoid plastics and synthetic, chemical-laden cosmetics; try to eat as organically as possible, and get your meat from free-range, pastured animals; do monthly 24-48 hour fasts with some fiber thrown in there; destress and consume anti-inflammatory foods; get plenty of deep sleep, and consider some targeted supplementation, and you can see, and FEEL, your testosterone levels start rising in a matter of weeks.

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Diet for Semen Retention

A lot of people wonder what the best diet is for semen retention. One that increases testosterone? One that lowers the libido? Vegetarian? Vegan? Paleo? Carnivore?

Read on, my brothers.

Traditional Recommendations

Yoga and Ayurveda are two traditions that speak about using Brahmacharya, or sexual abstinence/semen retention, as a means for spiritual growth. They recommend a vegetarian diet, especially in the beginning of spiritual practice. The bulk of the diet should come from grains, fresh vegetables and fruit, sometimes eggs, and plenty of dairy products.

It’s important to remember the cultural backdrop of ancient India – most were Hindu or Buddhist, and as such they practiced ahimsa, non-violence towards all creatures, and thus many were vegetarians. They also considered cows to be sacred animals, so they certainly weren’t eating much beef, but they definitely found dairy products to be beneficial. Dairy provided some animal protein as well as healthy fats and Omega 3s, considering the cows were allowed to roam freely and ate their natural diet of grasses, not soy and corn feed. Dairy was considered sattvic, meaning it produced peace and tranquility.

It’s important to note that the dairy they consumed came from healthy, stress-free cows, allowed to roam and eat as they pleased, and the milk products were non-homogenized and un-pasteurized, meaning the fats and proteins within weren’t denatured. Long story short, this was much higher quality dairy than you’d find in the plastic-leaching gallon jugs in the super market, coming from stressed out, sick cows fed an unnatural diet that is high in pro-inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids, filled with denatured proteins and fats.

A lighter diet, one that is lower in meat intake is actually very beneficial in the starting stages of semen retention, and is exactly what I would recommend when starting out. In the beginning it helps to decrease sexual urges, and lower meat intake will do exactly this. I remember once, despite not being Catholic, I gave up meat for Lent – my girlfriend wasn’t too pleased with the resulting drop in libido.

Less meat means less zinc, and a ton of zinc goes into sperm production. You also aren’t getting all of the stress hormones found in the meat – factory farmed meat comes from animals that are treated horribly, and are killed extremely inhumanely, many hung upside down with their throats slit and left to bleed out. Where do you think all the adrenaline released when the animal gets slaughtered winds up? In the muscle meat. This is also one reason why hunters try to kill an animal swiftly, with one shot, so that there’s no time for adrenaline to be released, tainting the taste.

You also will be avoiding all of the excess inflammatory Omega 6s in the factory-farmed animal fat, as the feed they eat is comprised mostly of corn and soy. Further, one of the ways the body deals with environmental toxin overload is to store it away into fat. That delicious, marbled rib-eye is loaded with chemicals your body then has to deal with – no bueno.

A further consideration to eating less meat in the beginning is that meat is high in the amino acid L-tyrosine, a precursor to dopamine and adrenaline. One of the main side effects of dopaminergic drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine and even dopaminergic anti-parkinsons drugs include a huge increase in libido, as well as risky behavior. We’re trying to make the body relaxed and calm, not revved up and prone to giving in to its every impulse.

Conversely, foods lower in protein and higher in carbs are considered more sattvic than their rajasic meat and spice alternatives. I suspect a large reason for this is the effect carbs have on increasing serotonin, a calming, contentedness inducing neurotransmitter within the brain.

Ayurveda also recommends a blander diet, one without much black pepper, garlic, onions and other members of the allium family. I haven’t found a ton of information backing these claims up, other than garlic containing allicin, which may increase blood flow to the genitals, and spicy foods “irritating the urogenital tract”. If anyone would like to cut these foods out from their diet and report back, leave a comment below.

So while starting off with semen retention, you should try to make the diet clean, light and calming. Don’t overeat, cut back on meat in general, go organic with all food if possible, and cut back on rajasic or stimulating foods.

The Modern Take

That’s all well and good for the beginner, but what about when we’ve gained some semblance of control over our monstrous libido? This is when we want to start optimizing male hormone levels.

Go organic – Ever heard of xenoestrogens? These are chemicals in our environment and food that act like estrogen within the body, and they are fuckin’ everywhere. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in food, ingredients in medications, birth control in the water supply, natural and synthetic perfumes, chemicals found in tons of plants like soy, lavender, even our precious hops in beer – these all have estrogen-mimicking properties within the body.

That’s why I have a big issue with people who say the phytoestrogens in soy products pose no harm to modern man. Maybe if that were the only xenoestrogen in our lives, this would be true, but the estrogens within soy products are on top of all of the other xenoestrogens in our environment! There’s a reason testosterone levels and sperm counts have been dropping steadily for decades, and I suspect this is the main reason.

Xenoestrogens are an example of endocrine disruptors, chemicals that fuck with our body’s production of, and receptivity to, hormones – the very things we are trying to optimize. Remember, we’re cultivating our sexual energy, our Jing, and hormones fall under the category of Jing. Common endocrine disruptors include chlorine, fluoride, bromide in baked goods, PCBs, BPA and other plastic chemicals, phthalates, flame-retardants, even electromagnetic fields and blue-light can disrupt our hormone levels! That new car smell we all love so much – you’re basically bathing in toxic endocrine disruptors.

So, if you can afford to, eat organic. Know about the dirty dozen and clean fifteen, and start buying more natural cosmetics, soaps, deodorants and toothpastes. Hitting the sauna is the best way to detox these chemicals out of your body, along with fasting, both intermittent and multi-day fasts.

Reintroduce clean meats – If you’re naturally inclined towards eating meat, start reintroducing it. I can’t recommend enough buying wild-caught fish, pasture-raised farm products or even hunting animals yourself. Animals that live healthy, long, natural lives, eating their natural diets are always higher in nutrition and lower in artificial chemicals and endocrine disruptors. Ever seen the difference in the color of a caged vs pasture-raised egg yolk? The caged one is a pale, runny yellow, while the yolk from the pasture-raised chicken is deep orange with a membrane that is tough to break.

Pasture-raised meats and wild-caught seafood are a good source of amino acids, zinc, taurine, creatine, carnitine, cholesterol and healthy fats, all of which are important for male health. Saturated fat and cholesterol are not the demons you were raised to believe they are, and in fact are crucial elements for the body to create androgens. No cholesterol, no testosterone.

Eat Jing building foods – Foods that enhance Jing and Ojas are always super nutrient dense, foods like egg yolks, liver, heart, oysters, clams, sardines, anchovies, and fish eggs (caviar/roe). These foods are jam packed with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, which are crucial Jing-building substances. Fattier cuts of free-range/pastured/wild-caught animal products fit in here as well.

We retain sperm to increase Jing, this sexual energy, right? Well, females have Jing too, and much of it is found in their eggs. So anytime you consume eggs, which have all the nutrients needed to create a baby bird, you’re consuming Jing-building nutrients. Even better is roe, as it contains a plethora of Omega 3s, especially DHA in phospholipid form.

Consume plenty of greens – Greens are not only very nutrient dense, they are crucial to the body’s detoxification pathways. If you just can’t manage to get in the habit of eating greens, add spinach or wheatgrass powder to your fruit smoothies, or take a concentrated greens supplement such as VitaMineral Green or Green Vibrance. Better yet, micro-algae such as spirulina and chlorella are both cleansing and help build Jing.

Keep it anti-inflammatory – Most scientists agree that we should be consuming Omega 6 and Omega 3 fats in a 4:1, or less, ratio. The Standard American Diet unfortunately has most of us at a 10:1 or even 50:1 ratio. Though they are both necessary, the problem here is that Omega 6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, while Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory. The source of all the extra omega 6 fatty acids? Extracted vegetable oils, which are already rancid. The best source of Omega 3 fats? Cold water fatty fish, such as tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, caviar, roe, etc. We should consume other anti-inflammatory foods as well – spices (especially turmeric), herbs, polyphenolic-rich berries, green tea, dark leafy greens, dark cacao, etc.

Extracted fats – If you are using extracted fats to cook with or to use as dressings, you have to be very selective. You want to make sure they are either saturated fats like butter, ghee or coconut oil, or monounsaturated fats like olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, etc. What we don’t want are extracted polyunsaturated fats. Because there are many links in the fatty acid where a carbon molecule isn’t saturated with hydrogen, there are multiple points in the chain where light, oxygen and heat can oxidize the fatty acid, turning it rancid. This means extracted vegetable oil that you buy in the store is already rancid. Don’t even get me started on deep fried foods.

Structural differences between saturated, monounsaturated and... | Download Scientific Diagram

Bottom Line

In the beginning, it’s good to lighten up on the diet, cutting back on meat or eliminating it completely, making sure to not overeat, and cutting back on stimulating herbs and spices.

After you’ve reigned in your passions and urges, reintroduce clean meats. At all times, strive to consume organic, nutrient dense foods, with lots of greens, phyto-nutrient rich foods, and staying away from endocrine disruptors as much as possible.

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Start Here – Semen Retention 101

New to the art of Semen Retention? First step is.. Drum roll please…….

Stop watching porn and masturbating! If you’re currently booed up, you should talk to your lady and explain that by not coming, you can focus more exclusively on her wants and needs. It will be very difficult for the novice to have penetrative sex without orgasm at first, but keep at it.

After that, you’ll want to stabilize your mind so as to prevent overwhelming urges and “relapses”. Many guys aren’t prepared for how powerful these urges can become – our boy Josh Hartnett knows.

Then, you’ll want to start sublimating this sexual energy so it isn’t locked in your cock and you’re able to use it for kicking ass in life. This is JUST as important as not succumbing to coming – no sense building up this sexual energy if it just stays in your balls.

Finally, you’ll want to start further building and enhancing this energy to use it for higher purposes, but that will be a topic for later posts.

Calming the Mind to Prevent Relapse

  1. Get off of tempting platforms – If you’re going to keep social media platforms, make sure you aren’t following users who post a lot of tantalizing photos.
  2. Exhaust yourself each day – I can think of no better way to get your mind off of getting off than to just be exhausted. Long ass runs, heavy sessions in the gym, tons of work/school work; no matter how you slice it, if you’re too beat to beat it, it’s a win.
  3. Modify your diet – Make it light and a little bland. Cut back on meats, especially red meat and shellfish. They’re high in zinc and carni-nutrients, loads of which go into your loads. Cut back on the allium family (garlic, onions, leaks, etc) and spicy foods, as these are traditionally said to increase libido and “irritate the uro-genital tract”. This only needs to be done in the beginning, when you’re beginning to find your strength. Despite not being Catholic, I gave up meat once for Lent. This meant I unknowingly also gave up my sex drive.
  4. Practice fasting – This goes hand in hand with point three. Look into intermittent fasting, where you only eat your food in a 16 hour window. Try out the occasional 24 hour juice or bone broth fast. Fasting can really help to reel in the libido in the beginning.
  5. Take calming herbs and supplements, and avoid stimulating ones – Herbs such as reishi mushroom, polygala and lion’s mane really help to calm the mind and curb desires. Avoid libido boosters and stimulants, such as ginseng, maca, coffee and adderall. Alcohol should be strictly off limits for the first couple months.
  6. Start meditating – While desires do have a physical (hormonal) component, you interact with them via the mind. The stronger and more pure your mind is, the less lust rears its ugly head. Start with 10 minutes of calm-abiding or metta meditation each day.
  7. Cultivate the Yin within – To put things in to Taoist parlance, masculine energy is yang, female energy yin. We’ve all seen the Yin Yang symbol. By practicing semen retention, we start cultivating yang energy – we increase our drive, and women take note of this masculine energy. Because we become much more yang, we need to balance it out by cultivating yin within ourselves. We can do this with yin herbs, things like goji berries, dendrobium or peony. We can also spend time in nature, preferably the forest or ocean, or working with our emotions, either through music, metta and compassion meditations, and by practicing generosity.

Great, so now you’ve calmed your mind a bit. What about starting to transmute that energy? Sublimation is just the act of turning one substance into a higher, more valuable substance. So we sublimate this sexual energy into drive, motivation, accomplishment – in short, we channel this sexual energy towards achieving our goals.

Transmutation Basics

  1. Do kegels – Do em while driving. Do em while at work. Do em while making intense eye contact with your boss so he knows who’s really in charge. This will help prevent wet dreams, it helps prevent that sexual energy from leaking out, and kegels build a base should you ever want to have sex without emission.
  2. Start a mental discipline – I personally think meditation should be a part of every mans semen retention protocol. Journaling, reading, thought exercises, and even playing chess are good additions as well – basically anything that is “heady”. The point is to keep the mind engaged and not thinking about the female form, and then building up mental power and discipline.
  3. Read elevating texts – David Goggin’s Can’t Hurt Me, Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Seneca’s Letters From a Stoic are all great choices. If you wanna throw a little spirit in there, check out Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, The Bhagavad Gita, The Bible, Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, or Ram Dass’ Be Here Now.
  4. Work out – You’re going to start having a surplus of energy from retaining – put it to good use by building up your physical body. Working out is as much a mental discipline as a physical one, so you’re really killing two birds with one stone here. Doesn’t matter what you do, but it must be sufficiently challenging, which means as you get better at x, y, or z, you’re going to have to keep upping the intensity or switching to other types of working out.
  5. Cold showers – A lot of guys are fans of the cold showers/baths in the semen retention community, and I’m one of them. Most people don’t realize the immense benefits of cold immersion, how it increases epinephrine by up to 300% (fat loss, energy, drive and motivation), decreases inflammation in the body and brain, releases cold shock proteins which actually help to repair the brain/blood brain barrier, boosts immunity and more. Cold immersion also helps to lock in jing, as the body shunts blood and jing towards the organs and brain and away from the extremities.
  6. Journal – Keep track of how you feel and the progress you make. As the old adage goes, “What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get managed.”
  7. Yoga – What do you think of when you think of yoga? Soccer moms and new-age women practicing their sun salutations, or maybe some honey bunnies in skin-tight yoga pants? I can’t blame you at all, for that’s how far yoga has been bastardized in the West. As for me, I think of ash-covered sadhakas who have been up all night in the cemetery, meditating on death. I think of sages and seers who’ve reached the pinnacle of human evolution. I think of people who have mastered the art of semen retention and with it, perfected self-evolution…

The physical side of yoga, all the asanas, or postures, help to massage and tone the endocrine glands, those glands in your body that secrete hormones like testosterone and that produce sperm and semen. Breathing practices helps to further calm the nervous system and are probably the single best way to transmute sexual energy for higher purposes, and meditation brings it all home – when you have a powerful mind under your control, there’s just no stopping you.

Now certainly, you don’t need to become an ash-covered yogi. I’m just trying to point out that abstaining from masturbation, cold showers and lifting weights will only take you so far. If you want to stop there, by all means, please do.

If you’re interested in taking Semen Retention and, by extension your whole life, to the next level, to beyond anything you thought was possible.. You’ve come to the right place.

Just make sure you’re ready, because beyond a certain point, there’s no turning back.