Work on the attachment, not on the thing: creation is good, and the fault lies in the grip. Begin by asking honestly what you could not do without — a comfort, an approval, a plan, a person's good opinion — and name it. Then practise small, deliberate renunciations of things that are entirely lawful: the second helping, the last word in an argument, the better seat, the interesting piece of news you could pass on. Give away something you cling to. Accept without complaint what is taken from you without your consent, which is the harder and more fruitful half. In prayer, do not seek the consolations of God in place of the God of consolations; when sweetness goes, stay. St John of the Cross's image is exact: a bird tied by a thin thread is as unable to fly as one tied by a cord, and the small attachment must be broken like the great one. Keep all of it hidden and cheerful, undertake nothing severe without a confessor or spiritual director, and measure progress by freedom to love rather than by austerity achieved.

The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book I, treats the night of sense and the disordered appetites; the doctrine is Carmelite but the practice is the common ascetical inheritance of the Church.

Mortification

Carmelite (Discalced)

Continual; in small daily acts

mortification