The Adventure: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening Paperback – 23 January 2024

I read Dr. Steven M. Taylor’s newest book “The Adventure - A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening” with, child-like open-hearted curiosity, some knowings, some new learnings, joy, and gratitude. This is the second of Dr. Taylor’s books I have read. The first being “Extraordinary Awakenings - When Trauma Leads to Transformation“ which I also enjoyed very much (see my review of that book on Amazon). I have delightfully discovered Dr. Taylor has an easy to understand, essence-connecting writing style that highly resonates with me.A little bit about my history related to the subject of the book. I share this with you with two goals in mind: i) that I might inspire you or someone you know who has survived trauma of any sort to get some professional assistance in dealing with that…it is indeed NEVER too late, ii) to give you a wee bit of insight into my background that, I believe, enables me to give you a fist- and second-hand experience review.I went through my spiritual awakening process while attending childhood sexual assault trauma counselling during 2018-2021 (beginning at age 57). I have also studied many, many seminal scientific papers and published books in the fields of Trauma Effects on the Brain, Mind, Body, and Essence, Psychopathology, Sexual Abuse, and Spiritual Awakening. I have taken some live training from one world-recognized spiritual leader. And I am a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Certified Trainer and Global Consultant of Neuro-linguistic Programming. And so, I, like Dr. Taylor writes about himself, have a broad and deep understanding of the subject at hand and its related subjects. Even so, I still struggle at times to maintain myself in an awakened state, as Dr. Taylor explains so clearly in the book. That is, indeed, part and parcel of being spiritually awakened whilst navigating the ravages of One’s daily life, and with concern over what is happening in the world geopolitically. Ah, ha…is that perhaps something interesting for you to now realize?The way in which Dr. Taylor has structured the book is very useful. In each of the chapters he skillfully paces and leads the reader first through some practical insights into the spiritual awakening process. Then he practically infuses life into the book using some original poetry, meditations, and workshop-proven exercises that are highly assistive in nature.As the book progress, Dr. Taylor knowledgeably and gracefully reveals his eight major qualities of the spiritual awakening process that is both informative and instructive.To this written review, I have attached photos of just a few pages from the book. These pages contain key insights that practically jumped off the pages right into my BEing. These are highlighted by me in yellow.“The Adventure - A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening” is truly a useful work of art and science in the field of spiritual awakening. I effusively recommend you purchase and read this book.

Taylor, Steve. The Adventure: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening. New World Library, 2024.Mastery of life is not a question of control, but of finding a balance between human and Being. Eckhart TolleEckhart Tolle begins his foreword to a prominent psychologist’s new book, The Adventure, with a stark cautionary: “The only viable path ahead for humanity is that of…‘wakefulness’ as Steve Taylor puts it.” Otherwise, he suggests, “you will not be in charge of your own journey, but rather like a passenger on a bus speeding along a narrow cliffside road, at the mercy of an intoxicated driver with one hand on the wheel and the other typing messages on his smartphone.”To be or not to be? Shakespeare’s quintessential question is at the core of psychologist’s Steve Taylor’s new book. If you’re keen on honoring the great adventure, the journey of life, then his “practical guide to spiritual awakening” is for you. If not, like most humans, he argues, you’ve willy nilly elected not to be.The essential, it’s been said, is “invisible to the eye.” Humans who have identified with something other than their own being nature, alas, only trust what they can see. “Human beings,” notes Taylor, “are probably the most inappropriately named species on our planet. Most of us spend very little time being. It would be more accurate to call us human doings, human thinkings, or perhaps human wantings — with being somewhere near the bottom of the list.”This great hidden secret cannot be sought, achieved, or added onto us, for it’s already who we essentially are, available only by removing the false identifications obscuring its reality.Uncovering this liberating awareness of the unified field of being has the momentum of evolution behind it, answering the riddle of why you’re even here. You are two, not just the short-lived person but the imperishable living essence underneath. That quintessential odyssey, life itself, is the subject of Steve Taylor’s remarkable Adventure, a virtual roadmap for wakeful living, with useful, workshop-tested steps and exercises to that end.Steve Taylor has devoted his life to exploring the only two things the Buddha claimed to teach — suffering and the end of suffering. In hundreds of case studies as well as through his own whacks of fate, the spiritual psychologist works not from concept or clinical template but from raw human experience to understand and convey the living depth of that phenomenon called “wakefulness.” This search for meaning involves a core reevaluation of mind, time, and the very ground of being.The Adventure is his new, know-thyself handbook for nurturing awareness in diurnal living. He calls this abiding state of continuous presence “wakefulness.”A poet, Taylor’s own lyrical reflections help us visualize the reason for our conditioned discontent, what he more accurately refers to as “divine dissatisfaction.” It’s the thorn-in- the-flesh counterpoint to the reality of joyful well-being and inner peace hiding in plain sight, that to which mystics have pointed throughout the ages. It is that conscious, vital essence, the being dimension within our intertwined nature as human beings.The author introduces eight core qualities essential for achieving wakefulness, giving each an individual chapter: disidentification, gratitude, presence, altruism, acceptance, integration, detachment, and embracing mortality. These attributes of being, he shows us, are like family members: “all naturally grow stronger as we practice them.” Blending together seamlessly and holistically into one’s life, their interdependent alchemy transforms daily experiences into spiritual opportunities. These are not theoretical discussions but constructive, seamlessly interconnected applications, complete with Taylor’s meditations, poetic reflections, and personal anecdotes, all designed to nurture these same qualities within the practitioner.Everyday trials make more fertile grounds for spiritual development than could a cloistered existence. This perspective reframes life’s challenges the way poet John Keats saw them, as signs not of a “vale of tears” but a “vale of soul-making.” The primary causes of unhappiness is never the situation but our thoughts about it and the way we react or respond to it. “Nothing,” the Bard warned, “is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Today, overwhelmed as we are with data yet devoid of insight, this observation was never more true.The answer, Taylor would tell us, lies in the degree to which we’re aligned with the universal intelligence within the being dimension of our authentic “human being” nature. This here-and-now recognition, for “individuals” and the collective species alike, joins humankind in the reality of oneness of all life, or what the Dalai Lama calls serene “loving kindness.” This is transcending the illusion of an isolate self for the truth of our unitive presence or fullness of being. In the author’s words, life no longer “a frenzied struggle, full of stress and fear, but a glorious adventure, full of grace and joy.”

The reason why I like to buy and read the books of Steve Taylor is because they always bring me back to awareness. In my restless life and head I need to remind myself that the real me only exists when I am aware. His stories, examples and exercises do bring me back into contact with my deep conscious self. Glowing and radiating in my body. These exercises got my attention and I am confident to grow and become more an more awake.

Very beautifully written and interspersed with touching and poignant poems.

Steve Taylor hat in seinem neuesten Buch wieder etwas Beeindruckendes vollbracht. Nachdem er sich in "The Leap" ausführlich mit dem plötzlichen Erwachen auseinandergesetzt hat, präsentiert er uns nun ein Set von 8 Tools, die uns auf unsere persönliche Abenteuerreise unterstützen können. Obwohl diese Werkzeuge nicht wirklich neu sind, gelingt es Taylor durch klare Beschreibungen, persönliche Erlebnisse, Gedichte, Meditationen, kontemplative Betrachtungen und praktische Übungen, sie uns in neuen Zusammenhängen zu vermitteln. Das Buch spricht den Leser nicht nur intellektuell an, sondern wirkt ganzheitlich auf allen Ebenen, auch dank seiner guten Struktur und Klarheit. Es hat mir viele neue Perspektiven eröffnet und mich immer wieder erstaunt. Es eignet sich sowohl für Anfänger, da es eine sehr stabile Basis liefert, als auch für Fortgeschrittene wie mich, um Motivation zu finden und frischen Wind in unser spirituelles Wachstum zu bringen. Vielen Dank für diese hochwertige praxiserprobte Toolbox, Steve!