When Joseph Campbell, today's most famous scholar of mythology (and author of the excellent "The Power of Myth") created the expression "follow your blessing," he was reflecting an idea that seems to be very appropriate right now. In "The Alchemist," this same idea is called "Personal Legend."

Alan Cohen, a therapist who lives in Hawaii, is also working on this theme. He says that in his lectures he asks those who are dissatisfied with their work and seventy-five percent of the audience raise their hands. Cohen has created a system of twelve steps to help people to rediscover their "blessing" (he is a follower of Campbell):

1] Tell yourself the truth: draw two columns on a sheet of paper and in the left column write down what you would love to do. Then write down on the other side everything you're doing without any enthusiasm. Write as if nobody were ever going to read what is there, don't censure or judge your answers.

2] Start
slowly, but start: call your travel agent, look for something that fits your budget; go and see the movie that you've been putting off; buy the book that you've been wanting to buy. Be generous to yourself and you'll see that even these small steps will make you feel more alive.

3] Stop slowly, but stop: some things use up all your energy. Do you really need to go that committee meeting? Do you need to help those who do not want to be helped? Does your boss have the right to demand that in addition to your work you have to go to all the same parties that he goes to? When you stop doing what you're not interested in doing, you'll realize that you were making more demands of yourself than others were really asking.

4] Discover your small talents: what do your friends tell you that you do well? What do you do with relish, even if it's not perfectly well done? These small talents are hidden messages of your large occult talents.

5] Begin to choose: if something gives you pleasure, don't hesitate. If you're in doubt, close your eyes, imagine that you've made decision A and see all that it will bring you. Now do the same with decision B. The decision that makes you feel more connected to life is the right one – even if it's not the easiest to make.

6] Don't base your decisions on financial gain: the gain will come if you really do it with enthusiasm. The same vase, made by a potter who loves what he does and by a man who hates his job, has a soul. It will be quickly sold (in the first case) or will stay on the shelves (in the second case).

7] Follow your intuition: the most interesting work is the one where you allow yourself to be creative. Einstein said: "I did not reach my understanding of the Universe using just mathematics." Descartes, the father of logic, developed his method based on a dream he had.

8] Don't be afraid to change your mind: if you put a decision aside and this bothers you, think again about what you chose. Don't struggle against what gives you pleasure.

9] Learn how to rest: one day a week without thinking about work lets the subconscious help you, and many problems (but not all) are solved without any help from reason.

10] Let things show you a happier path: if you are struggling too much for something, without any results appearing, be more flexible and follow the paths that life offers. This does not mean giving up the struggle, growing lazy or leaving things in the hands of others – it means understanding that work with love brings us strength, never despair.

11] Read the signs: this is an individual language joined to intuition that appears at the right moments. Even if the signs point in the opposite direction from what you planned, follow them. Sometimes you can go wrong, but this is the best way to learn this new language.

12] Finally, take risks! the men who have changed the world set out on their paths through an act of faith. Believe in the force of your dreams. God is fair, He wouldn't put in your heart a desire that couldn't come true.

A river needs two banks to flow. The difference between flood and a flowing river is water flows regulated in a direction in a river. During floods the water is muddled and has no direction. Similarly, the energy in our life needs some direction to flow. If you don't give direction, it is all confusion. Today most of the people are in confusion because there is no direction in life. When you are happy, there is so much of life energy in you; but when this life energy doesn't know where to go, how to go, it gets stuck. When it stagnates, it rots! Just like how the water has to keep flowing, in the same way, life has to keep moving.

For life energy to move in a direction, commitment is essential. Life runs with commitment. If you observe every small thing or big thing in life, it goes with certain commitment. A student takes admission in a school or college with a commitment. You go to a doctor with a commitment saying that you are going to take the medication or listen to whatever the doctor says, right? The banks work on commitment. Government works on commitment. Needless to say, a family runs on commitment: mother is committed to the child, child is committed to the parents, husband is committed to wife, and wife is committed to husband. Whether it is love or business or friendship or at work or any area of life you take, there is commitment, isn't it?

What would really irritate you is non-commitment. If you just observe, you expect some commitment from someone and when they don't do it, you get upset. Or when someone doesn't keep up his or her commitment, you get upset. Commitment is essential in life. You cannot stand someone who does not commit, but see how much commitment have you taken in your life? Of course our commitment is proportional to what we have, our power, our capacity or capability. If you are committed to taking care of your family, that much capacity or power you gain. If your commitment is for the community, you will get that much energy, joy, that much power.

In life, what you always want is more joy, more power, more energy, isn't it? You want more, anything you are given, you want more, more money, more fame, more beauty, more joy, more pleasure …this "wanting something more" bugs in your mind and that you do not look to your capabilities. More will be given to you only if you utilise properly what you already have! This is a law in nature. Why should the nature give you more when you are stuck with your little mind? This tendency of wanting more is there in you; you only have to give a twist to it. Instead of "what more I can have", just turn it around and start asking yourself "what more I can do?". Then you will see that there is joy. Nature of joy is to give because you are the source of joy! The more responsibility you take on, the more energy/power will come on to you.

Greater the commitment you take, greater the energy/power you gain to fulfil that commitment. Greater the commitment, easier things are. Smaller the commitment, suffocating it is for you. Smaller commitments suffocate you because you have more capacity, but you are stuck in a small hole! When you have ten things to do and even if one thing goes wrong, you can keep doing the ten things, that thing that has gone wrong will set right itself! But if you have only one thing to do and that goes wrong, then you are stuck with it.

Usually we think we should have resource and then we will commit. Greater the commitment you take, greater the resources will come to you automatically. You don't have to sit and worry how you will get resources. When you have the intention to do something, resources simply flow when it is needed and how much it is needed.

In doing what you can do, there is nothing much about it, there is no growth. Stretching a little beyond your capacity will increase your capacity. If you can take care of your town or your society, there is nothing great about doing that because it is within your capacity or capability. But if you stretch it and little more and take commitment to take care of the whole state, then you gain that much more power. As much as you take on the responsibility on your self, that much your capacity increases, your capability increases, your talents increase, your joy increases and that much you become one with the divine force. In whatever capacity you do something for the society, for the environment, for the creation, that much you progress further both materially and spiritually (value wise). The heart opens up with a feeling that you are part of everyone.

The technique to get depressed is to sit and think only about you! If you just sit and think, "what about me, what will happen to me?" you will thoroughly get depressed. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow. When you expand in Knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. Your inner most source is joy. The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery! The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking "what about me?" "What can I gain from this world?" Think "what can I do for the world?" When everyone comes from the point of contributing to society, you have a Divine society. We have to educate and culture our individual consciousness in order to expand in time with the Knowledge from "what about me?" to "what can I contribute?"

A commitment can only be felt when it oversteps convenience. That which is convenient, you do not call commitment. If you just go on your convenience, your commitment falls apart causing more inconvenience! If you keep dropping your commitment because it is inconvenient, can you be comfortable? Often, what is convenient does not bring comfort, but gives an illusion of comfort. Whatever you are committed to brings you strength. If you are committed to your family then your family supports you, if you are committed to your society, you enjoy the support of society. If you are committed to God, God gives you strength. If you are committed to Truth, Truth brings you strength. Often one is not aware of this idea and that is why one is hesitant to commit to a greater cause. Also there is a fear that commitment would weaken one or take away one's freedom. To the wise, their commitment is their comfort. Whenever their commitment is shaken, their comfort is also shaken. To the lazy, commitment is torture though it is the best remedy! Your commitment to a cause is bound to bring you comfort in the long run.

Are there any commitments that can be given up? Yes, commitments made with shortsightedness can be given up because when you are committed without a vision, you feel stifled when your vision expands. When your commitment brings misery to many in the long run, it can be given up. Just like you run out of fuel in the car and you have to refill it again and again, in the same way your dedication and commitment runs out in the course of time and it needs constant renewal! Commitment in life grows toward a higher cause. The higher the commitment, greater is the good for all

The mystic Ramakrishna began his dedication to the spiritual life when he was sixteen. At first, he used to weep bitterly because, despite his devotion to the work at the temple, he seemed to be getting nowhere.

Later, when he was famous, a friend asked him about that period of his life. Ramakrishna replied:

'If a thief were to spend the night in a room with only a thin wall separating him from another room full of gold, do you think he would be able to sleep? He would lie awake all night, scheming. When I was young, I desired God as ardently as a thief would desire that gold, and it took me a long time to learn that the greatest virtue in the spiritual search is patience.'

Having recently written a book about madness, I was forced to wonder how many things we do are imposed on us by necessity, or by the absurd. Why wear a tie? Why do clocks run "clockwise"? If we live in a decimal system, why does the day have 24 hours of 60 minutes?

The fact is, many of the rules we obey nowadays have no real foundation. Nevertheless, if we wish to act differently, we are considered "crazy" or "immature".

Meanwhile, society continues to create some systems which, in the fullness of time, lose their reason for existence, but continue to impose their rules. An interesting Japanese story illustrates what I mean by this:

A great Zen Buddhist master, who was in charge of the Mayu Kagi monastery, had a cat which was his true passion in life. So, during meditation classes, he kept the cat by his side – in order to make the most of his company.

One morning, the master – who was already quite old – passed away. His most adept disciple took his place.

- What shall we do with the cat? – asked the other monks.

As a tribute to the memory of their old instructor, the new master decided to allow the cat to continue attending the Zen-Buddhist classes.

Some disciples from the neighboring monasteries, traveling through those parts, discovered that, in one of the region's most renowned temples, a cat took part in the meditation sessions. The story began to spread.

Many years passed. The cat died, but the students at the monastery were so used to its presence, they soon found another cat. Meanwhile, the other temples began introducing cats in their meditation sessions: they believed the cat was truly responsible for the fame and excellence of Mayu Kagi's teaching, and in doing so forgot that the old master was a fine instructor.

A generation passed, and technical treatises began to appear about the importance of the cat in Zen meditation. A university professor developed a thesis – which was accepted by the academic community – that felines have the ability to increase human concentration, and eliminate negative energy.

And so, for a whole century, the cat was considered an essential part of Zen-Buddhist studies in that region.

Until a master appeared who was allergic to animal hair, and decided to remove the cat from his daily exercises with the students.

There was a fierce negative reaction – but the master insisted. Since he was an excellent instructor, the students continued to make the same scholarly progress, in spite of the absence of the cat.

Little by little, the monasteries – always in search of new ideas, and already tired of having to feed so many cats – began eliminating the animals from the classes. In twenty years time, new revolutionary theories began to appear – with very convincing titles such as "The Importance of Meditating Without a Cat", or "Balancing the Zen Universe by Will Power Alone, Without the Help of Animals".

Another century passed, and the cat withdrew completely from the meditation rituals in that region. But two hundred years were necessary for everything to return to normal – because during all this time, no one asked why the cat was there.