I’m trying to loosen the emotional hold physical things have on me. Rather than accumulating toys or practicing extreme asceticism, I want to change myself to the point that I don’t care about whether I have or don’t have anything; that I can appreciate things for their usefulness or beauty, but not feel pressured to gain or keep anything I don’t need. In Buddho-Christian terms, I suppose my aim is to overcome desire and achieve peace and oneness.
This process is painful, which I think correlates to its importance. Here are some situations in which I’d like to make changes to my attitude and/or behaviour:

• I was recently given a car, and I feel slightly guilty that I didn’t have to do any work to get it.
• I’d like to just appreciate being able to use the car.
• Being given a car confronts me with the temptation to drive more than I need to.
• I’d like to be more of a greenie
• I’m slightly disappointed that I’ll sell my crappy old car for significantly less money than I bought it for.
• I’d like to not care about getting money
• I don’t want to work any more, or any harder than I do at the moment, but I have a large student loan which I’m barely paying off.
• I’m not sure what I want to do - continue enjoying my current level of work, or make more money and remove the loan hanging over my head.
• I often feel compelled to buy things I don’t need for DIY projects I never complete.
• This one’s not so hard; I just need to exercise more restraint and avoid trademe and hardware stores.