An n influencer who’s been celibate for three years has shared how avoiding sex has changed his life for the better.
Jamie Zhu, who’s amassed more than 10million social media followers, recently shared a video marking his celibacy milestone.
The 30-year-old said he decided to break his ‘lifestyle of sleeping around’ after feeling emotionally worn out by a steady stream of partners.
‘I’ve been in the social media game for 11 years now as a career and that exposed me to a lot of partying, drinking, sleeping around, all these things,’ Mr Zhu said.
As for how he’s remained celibate for so long, Mr Zhu said he ‘tricked’ his mind by focusing on short-term goals and distracting himself by going to the gym.
‘I had to literally trick my own brain into being celibate long-term. Now how did I do that? I set myself a 100-day challenge,’ he said.
‘I said, Jamie, you’re gonna be celibate for just 100 days and after the 100 days is over, you can go back to your old ways.
‘But I knew very well in those 100 days that I would be able to break the habit and then move into celibacy.’
Mr Zhu said ‘sexual energy is very powerful’ and will wait until marriage to break his celibacy.
‘I can honestly say that, you know, being celibate for the last three years has been one of the best things I’ve ever done in my entire life.
‘The mental clarity, the focus, the drive, the motivation for life that I feel each and every single day is something that I cannot compare with anything else.’
Mr Zhu first started his celibacy with 120 days of ‘sperm retention’, during which he avoided ejaculating for mental, physical and spiritual health benefits.
While there’s been little scientific study on the practice, Mr Zhu told Daily Mail it gave him increased focus and energy, while also reducing anxiety and depression.
‘After the first one to two months or so, I noticed that my energy was absolutely through the roof,’ he said.
‘I stopped having those afternoon crashes and my capacity to work was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I used to burn out easily if I was working too much, but the notion of burn-out doesn’t exist anymore.
‘Not only did I physically feel more energetic, but I was hyper-focused on my career and distractions and temptations were easy to control.’
Those extra energy levels motivated Mr Zhu to focus on health and fitness, meaning he was able to go harder at the gym and transform his body.
Mr Zhu said that for most of his life he had been ‘sleeping around with many different women’, and noticed his male friends would applaud him on his sexual conquests.
‘I then started to question if this was truly good for me. I also started to question why my mates would encourage this behaviour,’ he said.
‘I then realised that an element of this is because of the way society and the media have sexualised our culture into making men like myself think that success is based upon money, status and how many women you can sleep with.
‘Rappers boast about how many women they can sleep with – like it is a numbers game, how many cars they have, how much money they have and they subconsciously influence young impressionable males like myself into thinking this is what life is all about.’
When he began practicing the new method, Mr Zhu made sure he kept all other parts of his life the same so he could see if there really were any benefits.
‘I had full control of my emotions. I was always able to control them when before I would throw tantrums and feel emotionally overwhelmed a lot of the time,’ he said.
‘I’d say after 100 days, I noticed that my whole life didn’t revolve around sex anymore, and I could focus on things that actually mattered long term.’
When Mr Zhu told his friends of his new lifestyle, they weren’t exactly envious and said any benefits were likely just be placebo.
He also pointed out the fact that many of his mates had developed unhealthy addictions to porn.
‘They thought I was crazy when I started but now my mate is doing it too. A lot of friends I know are heavily addicted to porn and can’t go more than one day without it. This is what I call an addiction,’ he said.
One mate did jump on the bandwagon, with Mr Zhu saying he’s experiencing more benefits than he is.
More women are also interested in him, Mr Zhu added, although admitting that wasn’t the case for himself.
‘I had a friend who decided to jump on the bandwagon too and he swears by it and is experiencing even more benefits than I have.
‘He said he has somehow experienced so many more females being interested in him. I didn’t really experience an increase in that area, but hey maybe it is because I’m already a handsome guy.’
Semen retention refers to the practice of avoiding ejaculation. Some people suggest that it has physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits. However, scientific evidence is limited.
Anecdotally, some people claim that semen retention can help them with:
Mental health:
Physical health:
Spiritual health:
However, all of the above are anecdotal claims and are not guaranteed to occur.
Source: Medical News Today