I want to share today a beautiful thread from our forum...
Chaza"l say that when one says Krias Shema he should gaze at his Tzitzis. Seeing his Tzitzis (which were blue from Techeiles in the time of Chazal) will make him think of the sky, which is blue, and thinking of the blue sky will lead to thoughts of Hashem who made the sky, which will lead to thoughts of serving Hashem, etc...
Somebody once told Rav Dessler Zt"l that he doesn't understand the above Chaza"l. Which person, he asked, when he sees his Tzitzis will have this whole domino effect in his mind to lead him to think of Hashem?! That is so far fetched!
Rav Dessler responded: Chaza"l say that one should not walk behind a woman, as walking behind her will lead him to think about her, and thus to think about other women and thus to think of sinning, and eventually lead him to sin. Asked Rav Dessler, "Can you identify with that thought process?" When the man responded in the affirmative, Rav Dessler explained: A persons thoughts go in the direction that the person is heading, in the direction that his heart leads him! If you are a person heading in the direction of sin, everything you see, hear or say can easily lead to thoughts of sin! If you are a person heading in the direction of Hashem, then everything you see, hear or say can easily lead to thoughts of Hashem!
I also had wondered about this Chaza"l concerning the Tzitzis and I had come to the conclusion that Chaza"l were just on a different level than us. I figured that in our generation, we are so far distanced from their state of holiness, that we just don't merit for the Tzitzis to have the same affect. But Mevakesh, now that you mention this, it makes sense to say that if we were to really work on making this connection with our Tzitzis, (a "holy" connection) i.e. just like we previously did with our sins, where we brought everything to a state of arousal, a state of excitement (and this is what caused our neurons to emit fire), and this is the type of excitement that will remain our memory banks forever to be easily retrieved from our memory if we ever, Chas Veshalom, revert back to this state. So now, everytime I feel a state of spiritual arousal, especially now in Elul, when I hear the shofar, or everytime I feel yearning for Hashem, I will grab and caress, and look at my tzitzis. By doing this, I will be building a connection to Kedushah (holiness), to think of Hashem, and thereby in fact, utilize that Tzitzis the same way that Chaza"l did. In other words, if I was successful to build such a system of triggers for Tumah (impurity) in the past, then for sure I can do it with Kedushah!