The Library

Reb Avigdor Miller says that we should repeat over and over to ourselves that we are a holy people. At first, it sounds like a lie, but eventually, it makes its way into our consciousness.

I used to have a big problem with having bad thoughts as I was going to sleep, which let to slip-ups many times. Recently I found something that really helps a lot - it's a bit of Bresslov mantra mediation. Just close your eyes and keep on repeating to yoursel...

I believe in very few "rules" and directives. If whatever I'm already doing isn't working (and I had >15 years of that craziness), I try something else. If that works, I keep it in my pocket for the next time and share it with others. Here's one example o...

I would like to suggest the following idea, and I hope others will follow suit. I would like to, b'li neder, help out one member of the GYE Chevra (who has been unable to achieve 90 days within the past 12 months), and GYE in general, by pledging to donate $90 to ...

"Ezra" posted on the forum: I am in my 30's, have 5 kids have been married about ten years. I have had this "struggle" for about 13 years. I got involved in online porn when I was in college. I started with small things that eventually led to watching things I never imagi...

"Nura" writes: What I do when one something inappropriate pops into my mind uninvited is say "rachmana nigar bei b'soton - may the Merciful One battle the Yetzer Hara". This very powerful segula was given by the Yetzer Hara himself to one of the sages...

When I first came to GYE a few months back, I saw that I was dealing with an internet addiction in general. I had to break away not only from the nature of my internet use, but also the amount of time I'd spend on the internet. This for me was terribly hard in the beginni...

I was clean for over nine months through this website, through therapy, and by joining an SA group. Unfortunately, I had a fall a few days days ago and I decided to reconnect here on the forum with this holy community. You can imagine how depressed I was when I fell. But ...

Today is 100 days clean for me, and I would like to try and describe how I got to this point, and how I think I have changed over the past 3 months. I am a thirty something professional living in a large North American city. I attended several yeshivos over the years and ...

The "Three-Second Rule:" If you see something inappropriate, implement the "three-second rule." Doing so involves three steps: alert, avert, and affirm. The first step is to realize that you're seeing something inappropriate. That's the "alert" stage, and it may take a se...

One of the Rabbeim in my yeshiva way back when, in a mussar shmuz, mentioned two strategies against the Yetzer Hara: 1) He said when faced with a Yetzer Hara that looks overwhelming that you are afraid to even start the battle, it helps to "chop the Yetzer Hara into bite...

I am 20 years old and a good boy, overall. I discovered pornography and masturbation at about age 13 or so. I got very into both of those things and etched those neuron pathways in good and deep, turning it into an addiction. I've tried to stop countless times, but just c...

"Chizkiyahu" writes: For a while, I thought that the battle was simply yetzer tov vs. yetzer hara. I thought that if I simply strengthened my yetzer tov by learning more Torah, doing more mitzvos, etc. that the yetzer hara would simply fall away on its own. Instead, the y...

Like many people, I have tried and failed many times to be free of my addiction. Since I became aware that I had a problem about six years ago, my longest sobriety period has been a little over 50 days. That run was pure will-power. Recently, I managed to stay clean for o...

StayFocusd is a Google Chrome extension that helps Internet procrastinators focus on their work instead of browsing copious amounts of time-wasting material. This add-on is useful when you want to limit how much time you spend on a particular Web site, or even the entire ...

The iBoss Enterprise Web Filter has full integration and support of Youtube for schools. Youtube for schools can be enabled/disabled by group. Simply copy your unique Youtube ID into the group section and this will open access to Youtube for Edu. Note that you can still C...

In Israel, the bus companies have been incorporating speaker systems for all buses to announce every stop (this probably also exists in other parts of the world). Some would say this is for the blind but I choose to see the gift Hashem has given us. Previously I could a...

We just installed a new spam-filter at work. It works like this: whenever we get an email from anyone in the world, our filter refuses it and sends it back to the server saying: "I'm busy now, can you try again in 5 minutes?"... The real legit e-mail servers simply try ag...