Did you abstain from all sexual stimulation or just sexual stimulation with a partner?
I would change your sentence from stimulation to activity. I recieved some visual and aural stimulation during the period (hard to avoid while living a life), I did not act on it though.
Abstained from
ALL sexual activity.
No playing with my pecker, anyone else playing with it or any sexual activity at all.
Did you not notice any benefits from the time you practiced it?
Some benefits and some losses.
For about the first one/two months my energy levels went through the floor. I was really low energy during that time. Also during this time some spontaneous erections, these died down with time.
My energy levels then picked up, it happened again later on as well though, cyclic. I did have periods of reasonable energy levels however i sort of levelled out, less up and down than before. I was a lot calmer in myself, it was a different energy.
My QiGong practice also undertook quantum levels of advancement during this time, especially moving around the orbit and my skin sensitivity improved a lot all over my body.
My meditation practice took leaps forward in this time, not sure if connected, it seemed to be.
Women could tell. They really could. It was like they could sniff it out.
They could see I was not gay, I was a sexual man however I was not trying to sleep with them and would actively turn them down when they 'subtly' suggested situations which would result in it happening.
I would flat out tell them 'I am celibate', while at the same time appreciating them for what they were and noticing what sexual beings they were. This confused them a lot.
They also saw it as a real challenge to try and get me to break my aggreement with myself.
(They would be the 'one' to make me give up celibacy, when others had failed)
About the six/seven month period my sexual desire died. REALLY DIED! it was like a light had been snuffed out.
I could appreciate beauty in women and attractive women, not on a sexual level, on a pure beauty level. Also at this time a lot of the 'good looking' (according to friends) women really REPULSED ME! - I could see past that, inside of them and what I saw was not pretty at all.
It also magnified my thoughts about all women being little girls inside.. Constantly playing and testing. Made me look at them more deeply, below the surface.
I also saw men a lot more clearly and the interactions between the two sexes.
I had a few women who were trying to tempt me into breaking my agreement, the more I stuck to my guns, not in a stick feet in sand but a calm 'i have decided to do this' - the more they respected me, whilst at the same time getting fustrated, which they absolutely loved.
Right up to coming round to my place and parading naked in front of me, I could appreciate their form and beauty but found myself strangely disconnected from wanting to have sex with them, they were playing and tempting and teasing and enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching this, possibly more than jumping their bones.
One day I woke up and thought 'I have had enough of this,I have learned what I wanted to, it has been long enough' - it was another few months later before I found someone who I wanted to take to bed. It was not a case of rushing back into it.
It did leave me knowing that I can live without sex and women. It will not harm me at all to never be with another woman as long as I live. This also means I can calmly walk away from any woman that chooses to play games with me. They are losing far more than I am, they are still attached to it, I am not.
And what was your reason for practicing celibacy?
I wanted to try it, for the experience. Having been a sexual man, the contrast intrigued me.
I had been reading far eastern philosophy about it and had tired of 'mechanical sex' and had tasted good sex, none was around at that time, so decided then was the time.
I also had very few free evenings because of other things I was doing and decided that relaxing and enjoying myself was far more important that getting tied up with some woman who would make demands on my time that I was not willing to keep.
This was one way to keep that from happening, while at the same time allowing me to enjoy women on a non sexual level. I spent time around women, I did not indulge in sex, nor did I run away from them and avoid them.
There was no resistance or fighting with myself, or denying myself. It was a choice I freely made.