Vita Anima

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Vita Anima A community for heart-centered practice, shared awakening, and living in right relationship with ourselves, one another, and the Earth.

10/08/2026

I can’t wait for you to hear the full conversation on YouTube or Spotify.

10/08/2026

What changes when we move from simply hearing to truly listening?

Devotional singer, poet, and mystic Eva Lyons explores the art of active listening and the power of giving something the full devotion of our attention.Using birdsong as an example, Eva describes how we can turn down the volume on distracting thoughts and become more deeply attuned to what is around us. When we offer our attention fully, listening becomes more than receiving sound; it becomes a relationship and a dialogue.

From Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times, a collaboration between the Center for Sacred Studies and Vita Anima.

Listen to the full conversation on YouTube or Spotify on October 10th.

See link in comments.

10/06/2026

What does it mean to have a spiritual practice that feels truly your own?

Devotional singer, poet, and mystic Eva Lyons reflects on the difference between following practices because we’ve seen how someone else does them and discovering how prayer, connection, and spirituality authentically move through us.Whether we’re relating to prayer, the elements, the directions, or other aspects of spiritual life, Eva invites us to find a way of connecting that feels deeply aligned and “head to toe real.”

Our spiritual practice can evolve as we do. The invitation is to keep listening for what feels authentic, freeing, and alive within our own relationship with the sacred. From Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times, a collaboration between the Center for Sacred Studies and Vita Anima.

Listen to the full conversation on YouTube or Spotify on October 10th.

See link in comments.

09/29/2026

How do we stay grounded when conflict pulls us toward judgment, anger, or despair?

Clinical psychologist Russell Park shares a practice he learned while serving as Chief of Mental Health in the California prison system: holding the tension between opposing sides long enough for the “us versus them” polarity to begin to soften. Russell brings that lesson into our lives today, asking how we can remain aware of what we’re giving our attention to without allowing conflict and the constant flow of difficult news to consume our energy.

What we focus on matters. Sometimes caring for ourselves means recognizing when anger, judgment, or despair is taking over and becoming more intentional about what we allow into our inner world.

Join us for the full conversation with Russell on Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times. The episode premieres Saturday, September 26, under the Full Moon.

Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

Links are in the comments.

09/26/2026

Can the difficult places in our lives become openings to something sacred?

Clinical psychologist Russell Park reflects on how some of our deepest spiritual experiences can arise when we aren’t seeking them at all. They may emerge when we’re facing difficulty, encountering an old wound, or simply becoming willing to open to what is happening. For Russell, learning to “see God in the shadows” means recognizing that even our wounds can become places where we encounter the divine.

Join us for the full conversation with Russell on Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times. The episode premieres Saturday, September 26, under the Full Moon. Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

Links are in the comments.

09/23/2026

How much does the way we understand an unusual experience shape what happens next?

Clinical psychologist Russell Park shares something he observed while researching spiritual crises: positive experiences tended to appear in religious literature, while negative experiences appeared in psychiatric literature, even when the experiences themselves could be remarkably similar. For Russell, this highlights the importance of context. The way an experience is understood by the person, their family, and those supporting them can influence how that person begins to integrate what is happening.

Join us for the full conversation with Russell on Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times. The episode premieres Saturday, September 26, under the Full Moon. Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

Links are in the comments.

09/20/2026

What do we listen to when we’re moving through a difficult experience?

Clinical psychologist Russell Park describes the “big Self” and “little self” as a way of understanding what can happen during a spiritual awakening or other challenging period. The little self can become caught in fear and ego, while the big Self helps us recognize the larger, transcendent dimension of what we’re experiencing. For Russell, learning where to place our attention can help us integrate difficult experiences and find greater meaning within them.

From Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times, a collaboration between the Center for Sacred Studies and Vita Anima.

See link in comments.

09/17/2026

What happens when a spiritual experience becomes overwhelming or doesn’t end when the meditation, retreat, or practice does?

Clinical psychologist Russell Park explains spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency, including what can happen when someone struggles to integrate an intense spiritual experience and it begins to feel like a crisis. Over time, Russell has increasingly preferred the language of “spiritual awakening” because it shifts the focus toward integration: understanding what is happening, recognizing that these experiences can take many forms, and helping people integrate them into their lives.

From Devotion in Motion: Heart-Centered Pathways for Transformative Times, a collaboration between the Center for Sacred Studies and Vita Anima.

See link in comments.

09/14/2026

We can learn so much from water…

09/13/2026

💛 “You’re not broken.”

Tatiana Berindei offers a powerful reminder that our responses to difficult experiences may make sense when we consider what we've lived through—and the culture we've been shaped by. Instead of asking only how we can fix ourselves, she invites us to ask a larger question: What about the culture itself needs to change?

None of us can redesign it alone. But we can begin the conversation about what isn't working and what we might create differently.

🎧 Hear more from Tatiana in Devotion in Motion: Honoring the Stages of Womanhood.

See link in comments.

Address

47212 Redbark Place
Sterling, VA
20165

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+17038676381

Website

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