Inner work for collective liberation.
Spiritual Grit is a warm, spiritually grounded show about staying human while working toward justice. Its episodes move from tarot cards, breath, poetry, and nervous system regulation into larger questions about anger, grief, oppression, love, and liberation.
PRESS PLAY
Spiritual Grit is a spirituality show with its feet on the ground. It treats inner life as political without making spiritual practice feel like a slogan. The show’s recent episodes move through anger, grief, intuition, nervous system resilience, tarot, breathwork, poetry, meditation, and the everyday work of choosing a response instead of being ruled by reaction. The pace is unhurried. A question may begin in the body, in traffic, in a bad mood, or in the weather, then slowly become a meditation on guidance, liberation, or the kind of love that can survive pressure. The show is especially interested in what happens when spiritual language meets real harm. It does not ask people to float above rage. Instead, it notices rage, names it, breathes beside it, and asks what it may be trying to reveal. Episodes about nervous system regulation connect somatic steadiness with the capacity to keep resisting despair. A discussion of losing one’s grit turns frustration into a lesson about cooperation, community, teaching, learning, sharing, and listening. Seasonal and lunar imagery appears often, not as decoration, but as a way to think about timing, intention, release, and renewal. Poetry gives the show another register. Rumi and Hafez are read as invitations to linger with old lines rather than simply admire them and move on. The episode with JS Park brings a broader conversational frame, exploring collective grief, desecrated humanity, intergenerational trauma, colonial harm, and the difficult hope that wounded people do not have to pass pain forward. That is the show’s core tension. It wants tenderness without denial. It wants moral clarity without losing the person who is overwhelmed, angry, tired, or unsure. Spiritual Grit suits listeners who are drawn to meditation and tarot but also care about white supremacy, marginalized communities, collective liberation, and the emotional cost of public struggle. It is not polished distance. It is a thoughtful, intimate practice of staying awake.
Made for: For spiritually curious listeners who want meditation, tarot, poetry, and somatic practice connected to social justice rather than separated from it. It especially fits people trying to stay grounded while facing anger, grief, activism fatigue, and moral uncertainty.
What sets it apart: Spiritual Grit stands apart by refusing to treat healing as private self-improvement alone. Its reflections keep returning to the body, the community, and the larger systems that shape both pain and liberation.
Welcome to Spiritual Grit, the podcast where we talk real-talk about spirituality through the lens of activism and social justice. What happens when activism and spiritual practices collide? What sparks of change call for the grit we need to create meaningful strides in social justice. I'm your host, Leslieann Hobayan, poet, priestess, activist, professor, hip hop dancer, and bad-ass mama. Join me as we dive in to learn more about our deepest selves so that we can be better ancestors to create a stellar world for our descendants. Grab your dancing shoes and let's get groovy with the grit!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Leslieann Hobayan connects embodied spiritual practice with the emotional demands of activism, grief, and life under oppressive systems.
Spiritual Grit keeps asking how inner repair changes the way a person meets public harm. Leslieann Hobayan moves between solo reflection and guest conversation, bringing nervous-system regulation and bodily grounding into discussions of activism, oppression, and collective…
Rage in the car meets a journal entry; Leslieann Hobayan lets you sit with both.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm, grounded reflection on how sustained inner work can become visible in everyday life.
This single-episode review presents inner healing as something that can move from private work into visible presence. The host's long effort is reflected through the surprise of people who notice a new radiance, giving the episode an accessible way to talk about change without…
Hobayek traces a week of irritation and asks how to pause before responding.
After a hectic week, Spiritual Grit host Lesley-Ann Hobayek catches herself yelling in the car and growing irritated with people on the road, at the grocery store and in conversation. She asks what her anger might be showing her.
A searching conversation about grief, inherited pain, and the hard practice of refusing to pass wounds on.
Spiritual Grit looks at collective grief through the strain it puts on a person's sense of humanity. Lesley-Ann Holbein's conversation with JS Park, a hospital chaplain, published author, and viral blogger, moves from family wounds to the harder work of not handing that pain…
A grounded reflection on resisting oppressive systems while keeping room for joy, love, and collective action.
Spiritual Grit treats spirituality as something tested in public life, not tucked away from it. Lesley-Ann Holbein uses the Knight of Swords to frame a call for knowledge, action, and the nerve to look clearly at oppressive systems without softening what they cost.
A driving irritation becomes a grounded reflection on nervous-system regulation, spiritual alignment, and moral action.
Spiritual Grit starts with a familiar flash of irritation: another driver slipping into a gap that had been carefully left open. Lesley-Ann Hobayek uses that small road moment to open a larger reflection on moral orientation, love, alignment with everyone's highest good, and the…
A grounded conversation about caring for the body when spiritual practice and activism demand presence.
Spiritual Grit frames care for the body as part of spiritual responsibility, tying grounding to the ability to stay present in practice, daily life, activism, and collective liberation.
Lesley-Ann Hobayan introduces a 'best of' episode on building community through spiritual grit, blending activism and spirituality for liberation.
Leslie Ann Hobayek uses a Wild Horse tarot card and Hafez’s “Needing a mirror” poem to frame questions about purpose.
On Spiritual Grit, Leslie Ann Hobayek connects the Lovers card from the Lightseers Tarot with her question of how to thrive instead of merely survive.
Lesley-Anne Hobayan introduces a month of exploring Rumi's poetry and quotes to deepen spiritual understanding.
Lesley-Ann Hobayek opens Spiritual Grit Ep 311 with the Sun card, which she says signifies "joy, inspirational success, abundance and fulfillment" and a "yes card" under the full moon in Libra.
Lesley-Ann Hobayan discusses the spring equinox and new moon in Pisces as opportunities for planting intentions and dreaming for liberation.
Lesley-Ann Hobayan discusses losing her grit and feeling frustrated, then draws the Three of Pentacles tarot card to explore cooperation and community.
Host Lesley-Ann Hobayan introduces a tarot card reading about releasing the old to make space for new opportunities, emphasizing somatic practices and reframing.
J.S. Park says forgiveness can mean refusing to "desecrate their image" the way harm was done to you.
Lesley-Ann Holbein uses the Knight of Swords from the Lightseer's Tarot deck to connect speed, discernment, and the risk of "frying your nervous system." She argues that activism in the United States now requires both collective action, like Minneapolis efforts to "get ICE out," and visible celebration, like Bad Bunny's halftime show.
Lesley-Ann Hobayek uses the Seven of Swords reversed from the Light Seers tarot deck to frame honesty, "love and integrity," and self-deception.
Host Lesley-Ann Hobayek opens Spiritual Grit by pulling a reversed Devil card from a Sears tarot deck, framing the episode around release, shadow work, and breaking free from addictive patterns.
Host Lesley-Ann Hobayan celebrates the 300th episode of Spiritual Grit with guests Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor and Tamiko Nimura, reflecting on the podcast's journey since February 2020.
Lesley-Ann Hobayan introduces the concept of discernment and intentional focus using the three of wands tarot card, encouraging listeners to shift stagnant energy through dance and groove.
The host discusses managing overwhelm during societal collapse through spiritual and activist practices.
Lesley-Ann Hobayan discusses the importance of reclaiming personal power through somatic practices and resistance against injustice.