Wanting Impulses: “a list of practices, teachers, and courses that I have found particularly helpful”.

“As stated in It’s Not About the Money, the key to not blindly following our desires to spend, save, or give too much of our money away is to be able to observe the thoughts our minds have from a distance rather than be drawn into acting on them unconsciously. There are many contemplative traditions which give us the tools to observe our minds without taking action, but the ones I’m most familiar with come from the traditions of mindfulness meditation. Here is a list, albeit incomplete, of some of the teachers, practices, and courses I’ve found particularly helpful:

Hooked: Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume edited by Stephanie Kaza.

Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor

Your Money or Your Life Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Sit a silent retreat with any of the teachers at Spirit Rock or Insight Meditation Society, or do an Adyashanti or Gangaji silent retreat.

Go to Plum Village, and eat, work, sit, and listen to dharma dialogues with Thich Nhat Hanh and the monks who live there. If you want to stay in the U.S., you could instead go to Deer Park Monastery.

Use only cash for a month for all your expenditures. It’s harder for many of us to follow every wanting impulse if we can’t pull out the plastic.

Do my guided meditation on letting go of your wanting impulses.

Buy It’s Not About the Money, which contains dozens of exercises, including many which will help you transcend your Wanting Mind.