Steve Taylor, PhD
Your creativity isn’t missing — it’s waiting beneath the noise in the deepest moments of presence.
Discover how moments of stillness, gratitude, and spiritual awareness can naturally evoke your creative flow — and how writing a few honest lines of poetry can reconnect you with the deeper meaning of your life.
Have you ever felt like your creativity is in there, yet just out of reach?
Not gone — just buried beneath overthinking, distraction, or the pressure to “CREATE something.”
You may also notice that you feel most alive in moments of stillness: the sudden quiet in a room after everyone leaves… steam rising from your tea in the first light of morning… rich but fleeting moments of deep meaning.
What if you could return to that state — not by forcing anything, but through a simple, repeatable practice?
Across centuries, some of the clearest expressions of spiritual awakening have appeared this way — not as doctrine or philosophy, but as poetry. The ecstatic verses of Rumi and Hafiz. The luminous observations of Mary Oliver. Words that emerge when awareness grows quiet enough for life itself to speak through us.
Psychologist, poet, and spiritual teacher Steve Taylor, PhD, has spent decades exploring this living intersection between awakening and creativity — and how moments of deep presence naturally give rise to expression through a few honest words that captures the essence of what you felt.
In his 7-module self-paced video course, you'll be guided through a powerful, experiential journey in which meditation, awareness, and creative expression work together to deepen your spiritual insight and creative flow.
Steve is the author of numerous bestselling books on psychology and spirituality, along with four books of spiritual poetry, including his latest book .
A senior lecturer in psychology and former chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, he brings together psychological clarity, spiritual depth, and decades of experience guiding people through genuine inner transformation. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.”
What makes Steve’s approach so refreshing is its simplicity. Rather than something distant or mysterious, awakening becomes something you can recognize and cultivate in everyday life — a shift in perception where the world begins to feel more vivid, meaningful, and alive.
In each session, you’ll explore one essential quality of awakening — such as stillness, gratitude, acceptance, embodied presence, compassion, freedom from the mental noise of the ego, and a growing sense of oneness with life.
Steve shares some of his own poems that illuminate each quality. You'll be lead in meditations and contemplative practices designed to help you embody it directly — not just understand it conceptually.
His course guides you through simple but powerful creative practices to express what you feel in short poetic forms. Often this may take the shape of haiku, the ancient poetic form designed to capture flashes of suchness — life exactly as it is — distilled into just a few words. A single image. A moment suspended.
You don’t need to think of yourself as a poet or writer. You might not think you’re creative at all. But you’ll be invited to write as a way of embodying moments of presence that suddenly feel intimate, distinctly universal — and honest.
As the modules unfold, you may find that instead of searching for the answer to what life is really about, you’ll begin to recognize it in ordinary moments, quiet realizations, and a few simple lines that speak unflinchingly to the true essence of existence.
During this creative, spiritual journey, you’ll:
- Connect with your poetic muse and release creative blocks that may have kept expression dormant
- Understand why poetry has long been a natural language of spiritual awakening
- Practice guided meditations that cultivate presence, gratitude, acceptance, and inner stillness
- Learn how to disidentify from ego-driven thought patterns and reduce overthinking and mental suffering
- Use haiku and other simple poetic forms to express moments of presence
- Release resistance and psychological attachment so you can experience greater harmony with your world
- Discover deeper gratitude for ordinary moments and see more clearly the blessings woven through daily life
- Recognize your body as a sacred gateway to spirit, rather than something separate from an awakened life
- Deepen your sense of connection with other people, nature, and the wider web of existence
- Gain a simple meditation-to-poetry practice you can return to time and again for ongoing spiritual growth
- How to express the sacredness of your body in poetic form
- And much more…
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-module transformational course, Steve guides you through the wisdom and practices you’ll need to reawaken your creative voice by cultivating the inner stillness and awareness from which poetry — and spiritual insight — naturally arise.
The Beauty of On-Demand
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Steve. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to embody presence, gratitude, acceptance, and other awakening qualities that can awaken your poetic voice and reveal deeper meaning within ordinary moments. Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content, allowing you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Module 1 Presence - Connecting With Your Poetic Voice Through Stillness
You'll be guided to explore the connection between poetry and spiritual awakening, and why poetry is such a natural vehicle for expressing spiritual experience.
Steve starts off by reading one of his own poems, then guides a meditation on slowing down — illustrating how slowness is so closely related to presence.
As your attention settles, you may rediscover the fresh, vivid vision of childhood, and how presence opens creativity. You’ll also create your own haiku to capture a moment of presence.
In this opening module, you’ll discover:
- Why poetry naturally arises from spiritual experience and can express insights that ordinary language cannot
- A guided meditation to experience how slowness opens the door to presence
- Common obstacles that pull you out of presence and how to gently return your awareness
- How increasing moments of awareness deepens creativity and perception
- What haiku are and how they capture brief flashes of presence, helping you express moments of awakening in just a few words
Module 2 Beyond the Ego - Freeing Yourself From Mental Suffering
Steve explains why the first stage of spiritual awakening is to disidentify from the ego. He reads another one of his poems, and then guides a meditation to experience your thoughts as a process you don’t have to latch onto, but can simply allow to flow by.
You’ll also disidentify from the story of your life, and taste a greater freedom from the past. From this state of no-mind, poetic creativity can begin to arise naturally.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- How identification with the ego creates suffering and keeps you bound to mental noise
- A guided meditation to help you let your thoughts pass without getting caught in them
- How to disidentify from the story of your life and liberate yourself from the past
- How the state of no-mind opens the door to creativity
Module 3 Gratitude - Awakening to Life's Hidden Blessings
Steve shares how spiritual awakening frees you from the taking-for-granted syndrome, opening your awareness to the value of the most ordinary aspects of life, and the preciousness of life itself.
Following a reading of his poem “The Gift,” Steve guides a meditation on gratitude, and a visualization based on traveling to the moon. You’ll experience a deeper state of gratitude, and then write a poetic piece to express what you encounter.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- Why spiritual awakening naturally gives rise to gratitude and a deeper appreciation of life
- A guided meditation and visualization to help you experience life’s preciousness more vividly
- Why some astronauts who traveled to the moon had transformational experiences that changed how they saw life on Earth
- How to liberate yourself from the taking-for-granted syndrome and notice the blessings woven through ordinary life
- The different aspects of gratitude and how to express them in poetry
Module 4 Letting Go - Finding Harmony Through Acceptance
Steve reads his poem “The Alchemy of Acceptance.” You’ll identify areas of your life where you experience resistance, and then move through a process of releasing that resistance.
You’ll also explore your psychological attachments and experience the freedom of letting go.
Steve explains the harmony that arises through acceptance and detachment, inviting you to write a short poem inspired by acceptance and surrender.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- What the alchemy of acceptance is and how it can transform inner resistance
- A guided exercise to identify areas of resistance so you can begin to release them
- Why acceptance brings harmony and opens space for greater inner freedom
- Why it’s important to let go of psychological attachments that keep you stuck
Module 5 Oneness With the Body - Experiencing Its Sacred Presence
Some spiritual traditions have a negative attitude toward the body. Yet, Steve affirms, the body is a sacred expression of spirit and a gateway to presence.
Following a reading of his poem “Oneness With Your Body,” he guides a meditation on expanding your identity and awareness through every part of your body.
You’ll experience deeper gratitude for the extraordinary biological processes taking place inside you that keep you alive and conscious.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- Why some spiritual traditions have a hostile attitude toward the body and how this limits spiritual experience
- A guided meditation to help you experience your body as a sacred expression of spirit
- How your body can help you become more present and grounded in direct experience
- How gratitude for your body deepens spiritual awareness and changes how you relate to yourself
- How to express the sacredness of your body in poetic form
Module 6 Service and Altruism - Deepening Your Sense of Oneness
Spiritually awakened people feel empathy and compassion for all human and other sentient beings, and feel an impulse to contribute to the world.
You'll be guided to experience your fundamental oneness with all beings through meditation, and explore practical ways to express and deepen your connection to others.
You’ll also write a poetic piece to express your communion with and compassion for others.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- What motivates selfless service and why spiritual awakening naturally gives rise to compassion
- A guided meditation on your fundamental oneness with all beings so you can directly experience a deeper sense of connection
- How all living beings are fundamentally one beneath surface differences
- How to express your connection to others in poetic form
- How you can help make the world more connected through compassion, service, and awareness
Module 7 The Journey of Life - Honoring Your Place in the Larger Whole
You’ll explore how spiritual awakening can emerge through an awareness of the fragility of life.
You'll be gently encouraged to contemplate how life is a process, and reflect on examples of people who awakened through an encounter with death.
You’ll also reflect on the journey of awakening as something we undertake on behalf of the whole human race, and create a poem to express your own onward journey.
In this closing module, you’ll discover:
- Why your awareness of mortality can have a transformational effect and awaken a deeper appreciation of life
- A guided contemplation to reflect on your own attitude toward death
- How to accept the fragility and preciousness of life with greater openness and presence
- How awakening is part of a larger human journey that reaches beyond your individual self
- How to express your continuing journey of awakening in poetry
SPECIAL BONUS OFFER
In addition to Steve’s transformative 7-module course, you’ll receive this special bonus offering to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Using Words to Go Beyond Words: Poetry and Spiritual Experience
PDF Essay From Steve Taylor, PhD
In this essay, Steve explores the longstanding link between poetry and spirituality across all cultures and eras. He shows how poetry can become the “outbreath” of spiritual experience, giving language to what often feels beyond language. He describes how he came to write spiritual poetry, and how his poetry has evolved in parallel with his spiritual development. As you read, you may come away with a deeper appreciation for why poetry can open a direct path into insight, presence, and inner recognition.
Gratitude Meditation
Audio Meditation From Steve Taylor, PhD
Steve created this meditation to help you extend gratitude to different areas of your life. It’s designed to support you in noticing aspects of your life you may normally take for granted — such as your health, your freedom, and other quiet blessings. As you listen, you may find yourself feeling more grounded, more open-hearted, and more aware of the goodness that’s already here.
What People Are Saying About Steve Taylor, PhD…
World-renowned spiritual teacher and New York Times bestselling author
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven Pre-Recorded 90-Minute Modules
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from psychologist, poet, and spiritual teacher Steve Taylor, PhD — from the comfort of your own home. Each session includes a streaming video and will guide you to cultivate the qualities of awakening that quiet your mind, awaken creative expression, and help you experience life with greater clarity, meaning, and connection.
Seven Transcripts of Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive session transcriptions. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, The Poetry of Awakening
We feel honored that Steve Taylor, PhD has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online course. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with a psychologist, poet, and spiritual teacher whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about embodying moments of presence to open a portal to creative expression, deeper awareness, and a more vivid experience of your life., then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind program.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
If you don’t absolutely LOVE The Poetry of Awakening — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 14 days from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Steve Taylor, PhD
About Steve Taylor, PhD
Steve Taylor, PhD, the author of many psychology and spirituality books (published in 20 languages), is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK.
His books include The Clear Light, The Leap, and Extraordinary Awakenings. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American and for Psychology Today.
He is the current chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society.
Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the global shift in consciousness that is happening on our planet.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there scholarships available for this training?
Unfortunately, all scholarship awards for this course have been fully allocated, and we are no longer accepting scholarship applications.
What is your refund policy?
The refund deadline for this course was two weeks. Refund requests are not accepted after the deadline or for courses purchased with scholarship awards. We’d also love the opportunity to address and resolve your concerns directly. If we can assist with anything, please contact us at [email protected] — we’re here to help!
How can I reach Customer Support?
Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
This course was pre-recorded. Is the content still relevant?
While this is a pre-recorded course, the teachings remain as relevant and impactful today as when they were first offered. We’ve selected these programs because their wisdom, tools, and practices continue to resonate deeply with our global community.
How long will I have access to my Course Homepage and materials?
Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content — online via your Homepage — unless refunded or otherwise specified. We currently don’t have an expiration date for our online materials. This will allow you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.