“People tend to think it’s one thing or the other. This or that. ‘I don’t meditate, I pray.’ Or, ‘I’m a southern church-going person so that means I can’t be a yogi.’ But I don’t see it that way. I see it as all integrated. With different sexual orientations and gender, with wellbeing and poor. Whatever it is, how do we find that oneness.”
Valerie June—she of the enlightened, almost otherworldly sense of connectivity—is sharing the spirit that guides her through her days. The personification of the “Yes, and…” ethos, the Tennessee-born artist can as easily espouse on the merits of drinking tea and talking to trees as she can lay down a soul-baring tune that stops you in your tracks. She sings of triumph and pain, loss and grace.
Lately, fans are seeing a lot more of the wellness-focused side of June, who was spotlighted on the 2021 class of CMT’s “Next Women of Country” (June spoke and performed at the 2023 Hollywood & Mind Summit, which was founded by the author of this piece) and is currently touring the U.S.
After becoming involved with the Obama Administration’s Turnaround Arts program and then engaging in virtual meditations with students in the Memphis school system during the pandemic, June made a calculated decision to bring her meditations to her social media channels. Her latest evolution is release of a guided journal.
Noting that bridging her worlds “was way smoother than I thought it would be,” June says she’s happy to serve as a conduit to help ease struggles, realign an outlook, or open a conversation—for those who want it.
“I was raised in the South with a very strong Christian upbringing, and also in a lot of Black families mental illness isn’t addressed. It’s just not talked about, it’s all hush-hush if someone is struggling. And so when I thought about bringing this side of myself to my audience, before I got the confidence, I thought, ‘Everyone believes what they believe. Some people don’t meditate, some people don’t talk to trees. Some people are Buddhist or they go to church or whatever. Let my fans have their thing,” she says.
“But then I thought, everyone has a form of connecting to the inner world that can bring them calmness and peace. And to me that’s what music is doing anyway, when you find a song that you’re your energy and your mind into a totally different space. And just because I share a guided mediation doesn’t mean a particular fan even has to tune into it.”
June was invited to lead a meditation to kick off the Saturday performances at this year’s Newport Folk Festival, where she says several attendees, some in tears, approached her to share that her virtual meditations had helped them get through dark days.
“When fans come up and say this to me—that these meditations were just right on time for them—that makes me feel so good. Because we need to be able to connect,” she says. “And I think so many creative people have other gifts they can share. I always like to learn about artists. I feel fearless when I look at someone like Patti Smith who writes books and poems and songs. And I was watching the Donna Summer documentary, and I didn’t know she was an amazing painter.”
Her journal, “Light Beams” offers a different, but equally rooted guidance. In a similar vein as journals by poet Rupi Kaur, author and podcaster Case Kenny and author Monica Sweeney, the book was a natural progression for June.
“I’ve always used journals for writing songs or collecting clovers and rose petals or whatever it is. I have years and years’ worth of journals. People will ask me in interviews about wellness and other things, and I can’t say it all in interviews. So I thought, Is there a way I can put some of these ideas and thoughts and visions and wishes all in one book so that people can open it and go inside themselves and write what they feel,” she says.
“It’s very much a book that involves the writer inside of you coming out. The biggest thing about the book is it causes people to question. I think when you start to question things then change is possible. So a lot of the prompts are meant to help people see light in their day and to see light in the world and to put that out each other and lift each other up.”
And then there’s the subtitle: “A Workbook for Being Your Badass Self.”
“I asked myself as I was creating it, ‘What does it really mean to be a badass? I can be a badass all by myself, but I don’t think that’s what it means. I think being a badass means the way you treat others and the way you see the world around you. Being a badass extends beyond you. Whatever you are putting out there energetically through your mood, your attitude, your joy, your optimism, your positivity—and sometimes I’m putting out some dark light when I’m feeling bad—that can make you a badass.”
June is inserting her badass self at a time she believes walls are barriers are beginning to disintegrate around what it means to care for our mental health and overall wellness—both in the music industry and the popular lexicon.
“I think even being invited to Hollywood & Mind is showing how things are changing. People are open to having conversations, discussing joy and sadness and all things in between. Music naturally does it, without scientist on a panel, just sitting and playing some songs like the bluesmen did on the plantation that would affect so many people in that community,” she says.
“So now the conversations are starting to happen, bringing in scientists and teachers as well as everyday folks who have methods for healing. I don’t think it’s happening super-fast, but even the fact that people are open to it is huge to me. It’s so needed.”
Mind Reading (formerly Hollywood & Mind) is a recurring column that lives at the intersection of entertainment and wellbeing, and features interviews with musicians, actor, creators and other culture influencers who are elevating the conversation around mental health.
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