I give up swearing every November.

It's a practice I started in 2016, and that was a really hard fucking month to give up swearing.

I've done it yearly since.

It turned out to be really good not just as a practice of mental and emotional discipline, but for creative writing, too.

If you've only just started following me in the last few years, you might not realize just how much of a potty mouth I used to have.

I swore so much, it shocked people.

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed it.

I like swearing.

It feels good.

Which is one of the reasons it makes for a good ascetic practice.

Ascetic not Aesthetic.

Means self-denial. Giving up pleasurable things. Perhaps even pursuing pain.

All in the name of personal growth.

It works, but you need balance because it can spiral into self-abuse, which stunts growth rather than encouraging it.

Which is why having a set timeframe - like a whole month of refraining from pleasurable activity - is useful.

I have no particular taboo against swearing.

I like it very much, there are actually psychological benefits to swearing, and it's a great deal of fun.

It wasn't really some big plan that kicked it off. Just had a thought enter my head and persist to try it. See what happened.

I hadn't even taken my monastic vows, yet.

Hadn't written my book yet.

Was really still figuring out what I was doing in the whole realm of content creation and micro-niche influencers. I was offering Psychic Bitchslaps at the time, which made going without swearing for the month even more challenging.

But I did it.

My writing improved dramatically because when you can't toss out a random fuck or shit to quickly express yourself, you have to think of other ways to do it. Stretching the brain in that way was practice for stretching it in other ways.

Over time, I began to develop more and more practices of discipline.

Not in a painful and punishing sense.

Well... there can be some pain... but it's not punishment. It's pain I consent to - though I might bitch about it the whole time... knowing that pain can, if used carefully, accelerate growth.

Discipline is really about creating the conditions where you can learn and grow. If there's no structure, no commitment, no consistency - if there's no discipline - you flounder.

I know that from firsthand experience, which is why I'm constantly doing things to improve my discipline.

Like having it as a focus word every November.

Because I'm still not great at it, but I get better every year.

So now, I give you my last fuck.

Or at least the last one that will come out of my fingers or mouth until December 1st.