Valerie June is Cultivating Joy, One Breath at a Time

March 27, 2025

Valerie June has always defied categories. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist with roots in gospel, blues, and Appalachian folk, she calls her sound “organic moonshine roots music.” But these days, she’s not just shaping songs—she’s shaping space for stillness.

Splitting her time between Brooklyn and Tennessee, June lives a life on the move, performing more than 150 shows a year. “In order to do that, I have to really heavily lean on my meditation practice and my wellness practice,” she says. “I basically use the day as like these little 10-minute pockets of grounding myself. No matter where I’m at, I’ll go for a 10-minute walk or 10-minute jog. And then I’ll say, okay, I’m just gonna dance for 10 minutes… do yoga for 10 minutes… do a 10-minute breathwork meditation, and just weave that into the day.”

For June, mindfulness isn’t just about sitting still — it’s about presence. “I bring mindfulness into washing dishes,” she says. “I’m grateful for the water… the soap… I’m in this practice of washing these dishes. And as I’m doing that, sometimes a song will come.” One of her most well-known songs, “Astral Plane” from her 2017 album The Order of Time, came to her mid-stir while cooking carrots and onions. “I heard the voice that said, ‘Is there a light that you have inside you can’t touch?’”

Joy, for June, is not light and fluffy — it’s radical. “Joy is so deep in there that you can be sad and still hold on to it,” she says. “I come to joy from the lynchings, from the rapes, from the skinnings, the burnings. I come to joy because I know that my people invented the blues… Joy is fierce. It’s powerful.”

A Black woman hugs herself with her eyes closed looking content.

Photo by Travys-Owen.

Her wellness work now includes teaching at retreats like Omega Institute and The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, where she learned the power of small, intimate circles. “You don’t have to be big to be impactful. Small communities all over the planet are these places where we can practice joy together.”

Whether she’s writing songs, poems, or simply breathing through the chaos, June is clear on one thing: the work is never done. “Trusting the path is a practice. You don’t arrive at it — you dive into it, again and again.”

She’s also continuing to share her light through music, with a new album, Owls, Omens and Oracles, arriving April 11.

When overwhelm hits — as it inevitably does — Valerie returns to what she calls her “three breaths” practice. “You pause sharp right there as soon as you feel like you’re about to snap,” she says. “You take in that first breath… pause again, and you hold it right there. I call that home, because between every breath — home, home all day long.” Breathing in, breathing out, she repeats: “I am home.”

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