Spiritual Grit

In today's episode, Leslieann shares about her recent experience in a writing community she’s part of where she offered a program for writers to help them avoid emotional hangover. Then the (white) gatekeepers came for her, demanding she show her credentials, which was really a guise for “who do you think you are?”. This incident is an example of how systemic racism puts high expectations on folks...

“We forget who we are. We are love made manifest.” - Leslieann Hobayan In today's episode, Leslieann talks about joy and trying to find it in the middle of an argument or struggle. At our core, we are all divine light but because of the conditioning we received as children, we’ve forgotten about that light. So many messages from our external world tell us that who we are is wrong. So many expectat...

“It's important for each person to find their own way of connecting beyond our current reality.” - Kazim Ali Welcome to another episode of Spiritual Grit Podcast! In today's episode, I have a very special guest, Kazim Ali! Kazim was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres and he i...

“Interpretation evolves. It changes with the people who are changing.” - Leslieann Hobayan Welcome to another episode of Spiritual Grit Podcast! In today's episode, I talk about my recent Catholic mass experience (thankfully I attended virtually for reasons you’ll soon find out). The new priest gave his homily, stating his beliefs plain and simple: marriage which is for only a man and woman only;...

“Yoga in itself through self-reflection, you’re also able to learn other people as well and to put yourself in their shoes.” - Noah Weisman Welcome to another episode of Spiritual Grit Podcast! For today’s episode, we have a special guest, Noah Weisman. A little bit about him: growing up biracial in the predominantly white communities of Vermont, he began his study of the body and mind through mix...

“There seems to be no purpose to your meditation if you don’t set the intention” - Leslieann Hobayan Welcome to Spiritual Grit Podcast! New name, new logo but same topics, with just a little more edge. Today's podcast is about intention. Intention is everything -- it is the thing that makes the difference where it allows us to evolve and grow out of our old versions. Ask yourself: Is setting the i...

“One way to fight the system of oppression is to not participate in it. Step away and rest your mind, body and soul.” - Leslieann Hobayan Today's podcast is about creating spaces for Women of Color. We live in an environment where we experience suffering and pain because of who we are. We feel like we do not belong. Creating safe spaces only for WOCs gives us the opportunity to freely share our ex...

“We are born perfect. We are living our own human design before conditioning starts” - Leslieann Hobayan Today's podcast is about practicing devotion and sacred action in your everyday life. In this episode, you will learn that everything is a learning experience. This is our journey: to continually learn lessons to become better human beings and more connected with each other.  How can you u...

Today’s episode is about self awareness and being a work in progress, being better about balancing the doing and the being. Are you doing enough? The whole personal development is a kind of work in itself, a lifelong journey but you have to remind yourself to be gentle. Ask yourself, what is it that you want in your life? Examine what is happening from within. How can we get back to our authentic...

In this Best of Vinyasa in Verse podcast episode, we will take a look at the experiences we went through that gave us some valuable lessons. Life is unpredictable and each day is not promised, something that most people are really being made aware of now in these pandemic times. // Lessons are all around. Sometimes we learn them right away, other times we don't. But all are made to help us grow. /...

In today’s episode, I am joined by Ruth Forman, an acclaimed poet, writing mentor to many, and author of children’s literature. Her most recent children’s books are Curls and Glow from Simon & Schuster. We talked about ways in which we can connect with ourselves, including saying a prayer in the morning when you wake up, and how the connection with nature is so essential to our nourishment. //...

In this week's Best of Vinyasa in Verse, I had a talk with one of my favorite people and oldest friends, Ross Gay, award-winner poet, professor at Indiana University, baller, gardener, and all-around big-hearted human. We were poetry babies together in college with Lee Upton, poet and professor extraordinaire, as our poetry mama (Ross mentions her here). We talk about the practice of poetry and pr...

“Where does my belief in divination tools come from?” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is about magic in relation to healing. How does magic play a role in healing? How do you connect with your inner self? By divination tools? Meditation? What can magic reveal about ourselves? Relatedly, how can our relationship with these tools inform us about limiting beliefs we hold that we may not have been...

“Listen to your heart, to your gut, your inner knowing and your instinct. Look for teachers, but always know that YOU ARE the teacher.” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is about how we personally interact with our educators. How do you connect with them? Is there any chemistry? It is important to be in integrity with who you are, who you want to be, who you need to be, and who you look up to. P...

“Enjoy life and if you feel guilty doing it, do it anyway. You deserve a rest.” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is about going after that “American Dream”, one of success and riches. As immigrants and people of color, we’re told that we need to hustle in order to get there. Are you hustling hard to make it and chase the American dream? Are you a woman of color living an exhausting life? This e...

“Trauma shows up in different ways. It shows up in more undercover ways-- more than we expect” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is about trauma. I take a look at how trauma occurs, how it gets stuck in the loop within our body, how we push through with it (which is not necessarily the best thing), and what steps we can take to overcome it. I also shared the differences between trauma from physi...

Today’s episode is about SELF DOUBT. I take a look at how it plays a role in who we are and who we are being. It feeds impostor syndrome, which keeps us hiding and living small. Too many of us allow it to take over our life. Is this the life you want to live? Yes, most of us have experienced self-doubt at some point in our lives, but how we deal with it, how we cope with it, and how we might let g...

“Are our minds resting or are they being distracted by other things?” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is about what it means to rest and to go on a retreat. What are your perceptions or expectations when you hear the word 'Retreat'? Is there a schedule full of yoga and hiking? How important is it to rest and reset? We live in a culture and society where there's a lot of focus on DOing in order...

“We see the wound, we see how it got there, now the next thing to ask is how do I heal the wound, how do I stitch it up?” - Leslieann Hobayan Today’s episode is centered around racial trauma. What does it look like? How does it show up in our lives? How are we affected by the deeply ingrained racism of today’s society? For many of us, people-pleasing or looming fears can be the results of this tra...

“Intuition is our hotline to the divine. ”- Leslieann Hobayan In this episode, Leslieann talks about intuition. It’s not always readily accessible for a lot of people. Why? Because we’ve been conditioned to look for answers externally. When our intuition speaks to us, the external world tells us it’s crazy, illogical, unreasonable, irrational. And as children, we want to be safe, so we listen to t...

“If you don't take care of yourself, no one is, there is no one else who is going to take care of you except you.”- Leslieann Hobayan In this episode, we are asked to be reminded that we are spirit souls having a human experience and that we are here for a purpose.// Be mindful of how you use your energy. Yuu don't want to give your energy away to a drain. Ask yourself: does this nourish me? // Bo...

“Truth is who you are at your very essence - at your core” - Leslieann Hobayan Today, I’m talking about identity. In this episode, I explore the layers of identity and of coming back to your own self - returning to your truest self. // How people perceive us as an idea of who THEY think we are. They already have this projection that has affected us in some ways even though it's not true. // Sat Na...

“If you’re a mess, how can you help others? In what way can you help others at all?”- Ira Sukrungruang For this week’s podcast episode, I talk with Ira Sukrungruang, poet, writer, and creative writing professor at Kenyon College *and* a former Buddhist monk. We talk about “striving for nirvana first” before we can help others get to enlightenment. It’s another way of saying “put your own mask on b...

“Loosen up and just not have answers sometimes to feel through things.” - Su Hwang I’m so excited! Today I have a very special guest, Su Hwang! Su Hwang is a poet, activist, stargazer, and the author of Bodega (Milkweed Editions), which received the 2020 Minnesota Book Award in poetry and was named a finalist for the 2021 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She is a teaching artist with the Minnesota Pris...

We interrupt our usual programming to bring you a special episode I just recorded late last night. With the escalating violence in Palestine, I felt the urgency to speak about it. All day, I had felt heavy, like an anchor, and couldn’t figure out why. Then, it hit me. I could sense the grief and pain -- it’s so palpable. In this episode, I reiterate that spirituality and activism are NOT mutually...