If you’re watching porn regularly, you may remember how it all started. First, it was pure interest. Maybe a spark of curiosity. But then, porn has become your guilty pleasure whenever you felt too stressed. Or maybe you came to it whenever you felt bored. Or maybe both.
Whatever your reasons, now you’re searching for the way out of it.
You’re at the right place now. If you want to break the habit and improve mental health, here are 4 steps to help you find alternatives to porn and get rid of this unhealthy behavior. Step by step, once and forever.
Step 1: Make it Clear Why You Need Alternatives to Porn
Porn is unhealthy, and when you realize that it ruins your sexual life and mental health, your shift has already started. You naturally question the benefits of quitting porn and start paying attention to more healthy activities as porn alternatives.
Most likely, you’re at this stage now. And to turn this sparkle into a long-term motivational flame, let’s find something that will inspire you enough to repeat this activity again and again.
The key to how to stop watching porn is to find something to enjoy the process and not expect quick results.
Some healthy porn alternative examples you can start thinking about:
- Creative hobbies
- Sports and physical activities
- Social networks
- Personal growth incentives
What you need to do is to choose the direction and commit to it as your alternative to porn.
Because once you engage in these activities long enough, you’ll notice it turns into a sustainable porn replacement over time. And one lucky day, you wake up wondering why you ever needed porn in your life.
Understand Your Triggers to Start the Real Change
To find the best alternative to porn, think of the core reason why you keep watching porn it again and again. Is it stress? Lack of control? Fear of being seen in real intimacy? Ask yourself an honest question, and give yourself an honest answer on how to stop watching porn.
Because once you see the cue clearly, you can do 2 things:
- Choose the porn alternatives based on what need you want to cover
- Remove the cue in your environment to disrupt the unhealthy pattern
Removing the cue is the first law of behavioral change, according to James Clear, the author of the bestseller Atomic Habits. Here are some tricks for how you can do it:
- Physically remove the phone, tablet, laptop, and TV at times when you usually watch porn
- Go out, change the room, or schedule another activity to get disrupted
- Hide and block porn content
James Clear specifically recommends using website blockers to make it harder for you to encounter triggers that restart your unhealthy habit. That’s an easy and effective start to remove the cue. Just click the button below to get Canopy AI porn blocker and block everything that triggers you immediately!
Step 2: Find What to Watch Instead of Porn
Once you’ve eliminated your triggers, it’s time to make the first real step to change your life. Since porn requires only visual engagement to stimulate a bunch of hormones (including dopamine, norepinephrine, oxytocin, vasopressin, and serotonin), the easiest way to start replacing it is finding new content to watch.
To see more on the unhealthy effects of porn, check out our guide on what does porn do to the brain.
Possible alternatives to watching porn:
- Educational videos: Good if you’ve found a new skill to learn. Engaging with non-sexual content helps to break the circle of “when bored, turn on porn.”
- Documentaries or nature series: Observing real-life experiences helps you feel less emotionally dumb, get mental clarity, and be more engaged in everyday activities.
- Creative content: Consider joining the network for fostering social connections and emotional resilience
- Podcasts: Good to distract your mind and support learning and professional growth
Choose what to watch instead of porn based on your triggers, motivation, and interests. If you don’t want to dedicate any effort beyond watching, choose podcasts and nature series.
Step 3: Find What to Do Instead of Watching Porn
Not to turn your porn addiction into a binge-watching addiction, we need you to make one more step forward. This time, you’ll need to find what to do instead of porn to physically replace watching it with some new activity.
That’s why the new habit should be attractive (that’s the second law of creating a good habit): it’s better to genuinely want to do something as an alternative to porn because you’ll need to dedicate a lot of effort at this step.
Creative alternatives to porn:
- Journaling (Hal Elrod, the Miracle Morning author, made the whole morning ritual starting from everyday journaling!)
- Sketching, drawing, or painting
- Creative course: language, music instrument, cooking
- Home projects
- Crafting
- Photography and video creations
Releasing your creative potential will help you deal with boredom and feel more value in real life.
Physical exercises as alternatives to porn:
- Walking
- Gym
- Yoga (also good for mindfulness)
- Dancing (also good for social networking)
- Playing team sports
Sports release endorphins and reduce stress, which makes them a perfect substitute for porn.
How social networking is better than porn
Among all, meeting real people and building meaningful connections with them helps stop dreaming about imaginary ones.
Here are some ideas on how to make the first step in this direction and start sharing your inner truth:
- Call a friend
- Join a club
- Find a way to volunteer for your community
- Spend some extra time with family
- Practice gratitude (also good for mindfulness)
How to build mindfulness as porn alternative
Self-awareness and concentration should be present at all steps. If you lack it, here are some things you can try:
- Meditation (you can join a meditation app community, download a guided one, or just practice it in silence)
- Deep breathing
- Prayer
- Mindful living (paying attention to the present moment whenever you eat, walk, work, etc.)
- Listen to calming music and nature sounds (joining a sound healing class is a good idea to combine mindfulness with social networking and physical exercise)
Step 4: Build New Routine Around Porn Alternatives
Sustainable routine is the final step in our guide on how to replace porn. And it’s the most important one. Because this is where short-term avoidance tactics transform into a lasting, meaningful change for your life.
How to turn healthy alternatives to porn into your life:
- Make them visible: Use reminders and apps or place an attribute of your new habit in your room to clearly see how to start.
- Stack new habits into old ones: James Clear recommends clearly setting the sequence of events as an algorithm, “if…then.” For example, “When I finish breakfast, I wear my sportswear (instead of turning on my TV).”
- Find social support: Ask a trusted friend or find a new community to hold you accountable, do the new thing together, and track progress.
- Reward yourself: Start small, find a small treat (not porn, of course!), and acknowledge your achievements step by step.
Be patient! Replacing an unhealthy habit with a new one is a long process. But once you dedicate your effort to building routines, they will make your positive behavior automatic over time.
Don’t hesitate to start small—that’s the right way to compound a big change!
What to Replace Porn With: Trusted Resources
In this section, you can find sources through apps, guides, and porn alternative ideas to explore more and start your journey!
Porn Blocker App to Support You
A porn blocker is not technically a porn substitute, but it’s a great way to build a supportive environment in your struggle with porn addiction.
Canopy porn blocker uses AI to scan real photos and videos and quickly filter offensive content. While the page loads, it selectively eliminates the offensive content rather than blocking the entire webpage. And the best part is Canopy blocks porn on all web platforms and all devices.
Productive Alternatives That Are Better Than Porn
- Learn a new skill
- Master a new sport
- Start a creative project
- Set an ambitious career goal
- Start planning your week
- Get control over your finances
- Build something with your hands
Emotional Porn Alternatives
- Share something vulnerable with your trusted friend
- Gather together with your family
- Find a community that shares your interests
- Make gratitude a daily habit
- Spend quality time with animals
- Travel to a new country
- Express your feelings through art
Sexual Energy Alternative to Porn
- Channel your energy into physical activities
- Practice the body-mind connection
- Find your creative passion and reach a flow in it
- Start enjoying non-sexual touches (hugging, massage, holding hands)
- Massage yourself
- Establish a self-care routine
FAQs
What to replace porn with?
The best activities to replace porn with are creative projects, physical exercises, and social activities.
Is there a sexual alternative to porn?
Making something sensual for your body (like massaging, self-care routines, or enjoying hugging your significant other) can be a sexual porn alternative.
What are the best porn alternatives?
Channeling your sexual energy, creative potential, and productivity goals are the best healthy alternatives to porn.
Try learning a new skill, going to the gym, sharing something vulnerable with a friend, or meditating to increase present-moment awareness. The key is to find something you’ll genuinely enjoy in the long run
