For the benefit of all, I am posting this posts here, in reponse to a question on the balabatim's forum:
I find it very interesting that you can have such a control of your eyes and still be an SA?
I only learnt of shmiras einayim, through an interesting bit of hashgacha pratis, when I first hit ROCK BOTTOM 4 years ago. I had been surfing through the most vile shmutz online, trying to find anything that might still exite me. I tried various form of revolting contect, all sickening, but still capable of giving me a mild pleasure. Untill I snapped. I was discusted with myself and could not bear to see what had become of me. And in a life-changing turn of events, I found frumteens.com with their thread of GF, shomer negiah, and a reffrence to 'The Magic Touch'. Although I wasn't yet involved with girls, the book (or website) mentioned a teshuva in the igos moshe, about GF. I went to the beis medrash and looked it up..... uh oh! B"H, although I was about to while my hand was doing what it shouldn't, I made a kabalah to try being shomer einayim, even if I couldn't do it online. I looked for sefarim, and came-up empty handed. my yeshiva didn't have any sefarim to help, except for a little breslav one dumped on a shelf in the otzar. (Being the gabai sefarim, I knew the whereabouts and story behinfd every single one). I triedlearning it, and it gave me a good jump start. I looked for the halachot, but found nothing in the Shulchan Aruch, more than "any geder you set for yourself, has the paower of an issur dirabanan". So I set gedarim.
1. I could not longer walk down a certain street, I could no longer look at a certain house. No more looking around shul for a 'certain someone', and no more trying to flirt with her.
2. Do not look at women, any women.
It was very. very hard....gehenom. It physicaly hurt me to close my eyes, and I suffered umbearable agony to look away! But with the passing of time (months) I started to get the hang of it. I would firts move my eyes away, or focus them on the weave and pattern on the jacket of the person in front of me. I stopped eating-out, and locked myself into my yeshiva's building. I finnaly had my shmiras einayim under controll. I could eat-out (occasionaly) and not look at the hostess. Although in truth, it wasn't untiill half a year ago, that doing so didn't bother me.
But my battle was not to look at physical women. It has an issur of it's own...and you will shudder when I show you what it is (send me a PM to hear it). I never started bettling my hz"l and hirhurim...untill I found this site.
SO the best answer I have for you, is that in this area, I have toiled and pained myself SO MUCH, that I have no Y"H. And the story in gan hachayot still brings a smile to my face...... you should have seen HER face :D I wonder what she was thinking )what she was sayiong came-out in a disbeleiving stutter! ;D no exadurations)