Odin wrote:
This is a big problem of mine. Inappropriate sexual or violent thoughts can leave be very distressed. Supposedly Buddhist mindfulness meditation is supposed to help with ignoring such thoughts when they pop up, which is one reason I took up meditation.
The thing with mindfulness meditation is to acknowledge the thought or emotion without judgement. It is not really about ignoring thoughts but more about letting them pass through without hanging on to them or saying they are good or bad, they just come and go. This "allowing" deprives them of any energy or impact to disturb you or cause conflict.
The worst thing to do is grab a thought and say "this is bad, evil, immoral or disgusting" and judge yourself as being a bad person in some way. That is the way to neurosis and low self esteem.
Interesting you should mention mindfulness mediation anyway. I'm a former Buddhist monk believe it or not. Though it was a good number of years ago.