So we have some absolutely fabulous JuNO journals being kept now – if you haven’t checked them out then have a look here:
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/junojournal
and also on a browser the search option gives you an easier format to read:
https://www.tumblr.com/search/junojournal/recent (just remember to set it to ‘most recent’ not the default ‘most popular’ to see the latest ones.
For all those journaling their experience already, thank you. You’re all amazing and by sharing your experiences you’re making this the encouraging, enlightening month of denial I hoped it would be.
There’s BIG news for you at the end of this post, but before we get there, let me talk about the point of journaling for a minute
As rubbish as school often is, it’s society’s best effort at getting us ready for life – reading, writing, social skills, maths, stuff about how the world works, even some art and exercise.
But there are three things almost every educational establishment and society in general have decided we shouldn’t be properly educated about, but instead, learn ourselves:
Sex, money, and parenting
I include those latter two because it just shows how random and stupid it is. We spend endless hours doing maths, but how to make a budget? Fuck off and get in debt already..
And parenting? God no, the single biggest responsibility you’ll have in your life – just wing it!
Madness. But this is a sex blog, so let’s focus on that.
Sex, one of the most intimate, amazing, powerful experiences we can have as human beings. The very reason we all are here today. And yet talking about it, or teaching people how to do it well and enjoy it, is still, in many cases, taboo.
Ridiculous. And thankfully, through the power of social change and mostly free porn online, things are changing. But access to nudie pics and gang bang videos isn’t really education, in fact as we’ve seen, it’s got lots of downsides.
The reason I love edging and denial, and bother to put all the time into this blog, is because I believe it’s one of the most positive powerful tools for discovering, and educating yourself about your own sexuality, and your sexual responses.
I’ve seen it transform my own sexual relationships, and I’ve seen it have the same impact in many others. But it doesn’t have to be with someone else, in fact starting out using it to discover things just for yourself is a great way to begin.
‘Mindful masturbation’
But in the blur and excitement of getting horny and aroused and suddenly feeling the scope and impact of your fantasies explode, it can be very easy to get a bit lost in the experience. And when that happens, you lose some of the impact the journey you’re going on could have.
Have a look again at some of those journals. We’ve reached a point where some have started to become much more thoughtful. Past the ‘oh my god I can’t believe what an impact this has’ to exploring how it’s making them feel, what is a good pattern to explore, and also some of the negative impact it might have.
I don’t just want you edging this month, my lovely JuNOs, I want you ‘mindfully’ masturbating. And one of the best ways to do that, is to take the time out to write down what you’re experiencing, how you’re feeling, what you’re learning.
You DO NOT have to share that. That part is entirely optional. But even if it’s just a private, password protected secondary blog (how to make one) let me encourage you to at least give it a go. See it as part of your tasks in the day… three edges, and a journal!
And so the big news…
The ever wonderful @in-heart-and-soul has offered to help me give some extra support to those who are making the effort to join in JuNO and make a journal about it.
While there have been some encouraging notes added to the journals there’s a lot of entries and we know it can feel a bit like speaking to the air if your notes aren’t getting likes or reblogs. And honesty Tumblr isn’t a brilliant structure for that kind of support.
Sooo…we’re going to make a temporary JuNO Discord group for those really going for this and keeping a journal about it. We are strictly going to limit it to those journaling, for a couple of reasons. There are by my estimate a couple of thousand participating in some way and we just can’t handle a group that big. Much less of you are journaling about it. And also we want it to act as an encouragement to keep a journal and share what you’re doing if you aren’t!
For those who don’t know, Discord is the completely free and secure chat app that’s taken the gaming world by storm the last couple of years. It runs either as an app, or simply in a browser window. You can find out about it here:
https://discordapp.com/ – it’s totally secure and anonymous, perfect for this.
It’s going to be a place where those participating can share their experiences, frustrations, questions and advice, and to get more direct encouragement through the month. It’s very much an experiment, we’ll see how it goes but I think this smaller group is a great starting point.
There are some other Discord groups we’ll promote too for those who aren’t journaling, but I hope you appreciate our desire to keep it manageable at least this time around as do a bit of a test with it.
The exciting part is that if this goes well, I’d seriously think about creating a ‘Denial Academy’ Discord at some point in the future. Mhmm, just think on that… or read these as you imagine actually enrolling. That got your attention.
How to join
It’s going to take us a day or two to finish setting it up (if any JuNO participants are discord mod experts then do contact me, all help is appreciated). But very simply, keep on journaling using the #JuNOJournal tag on tumblr and we’ll be contacting you as soon as it’s ready to go!
If you’re keeping a private journal then you can submit a few entries to me just as proof you’re doing it – it’ll all be in confidence.
As with everything JuNO/Tumblr related, it’s 18+. If you haven’t heard from us about it do give us a poke by Friday, it might just be Tumblr didn’t show your posts when I’m sending out invites.
So, keep on edging, get journaling if you haven’t, and let’s keep sharing, you’re all doing brilliantly.
Love,
James