Joni Johnson on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Joni Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Joni, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I am in the long process of writing a book. I am also taking steps to launch a podcast.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a liminal mystic and the founder of Solumira, a living sanctuary for soul remembrance, embodiment, and collective healing. For nearly two decades, I’ve walked a spiritual path that is equal parts mystical and grounded—rooted in Reiki, Yoga, intuitive guidance, freeform movement, and Earth-based living. My work centers around helping people return to their inner truth, reconnect with the sacred in their bodies and daily lives, and remember the deeper story they belong to.

Solumira offers Truth + Alignment Sessions, repair ceremonies, and community spaces that open portals for transformation and authentic expression. What makes this work unique is the integration—spirit meets structure, healing meets creativity, and personal evolution is held within a wider call to collective awakening.

I’m currently writing a book about my eighteen-year mental health journey, The Sky Inside the Cage, and in the coming year I’ll be launching a podcast featuring conversations with voices in spirituality, ecology, mental health, art, and healing. Everything I create is an offering to the ongoing remembering of who we truly are.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
The part of me that protected my heart through separation and armor. For a long time, I learned to compartmentalize my emotions, to stand strong, to keep going when life gave me no room to fall apart. That version of me was brilliant, loving, and deeply devoted to my survival. She knew exactly what was needed at the time to keep my spirit intact.

But now, I no longer need to guard my heart in the same way. I am releasing the protective shell that once kept me safe, and allowing myself to soften—fully. I am learning to remain open even in uncertainty, to feel deeply rather than brace, to let love flow in and out without resistance. This is the next evolution of trust: to be tender on purpose. Vulnerability is my medicine, my teacher, and my offering. I am letting myself be held by life in ways I once thought I had to hold alone.

Is there something you miss that no one else knows about?
I miss the world before everything sped up. I miss the quiet—when presence didn’t have to be protected or scheduled, when we didn’t have to peel through so many layers just to find ourselves again. I often grieve the present while I am still in it, because I am aware of how fragile it all is—people, seasons, moments of connection. I know there will come a time when I will hold more responsibility, when I will have to carry more light as the elders and guides of this world transition. Because of that, I let my inner child play now. I give her space to rest and wonder, because I can feel how much weight my heart will hold in the future.

On a very human level, I miss the simplicity of being with my grandmother—those slow, sacred moments of sitting together with nothing to prove and nothing to fill. And on a soul level, I miss a world without constant noise, where silence was accessible and belonging didn’t require explanation. I miss the softness of a life that was allowed to unfold at the pace of breath.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
I believe this life is a kind of soul-school—a sorting ground where we remember, forget, and remember again. I believe we are not the only intelligent life in the universe, and that our imaginations themselves are one of the ways God speaks. I believe reincarnation is real, though not for everyone, and that this is my last time here in a human body. I feel myself preparing for a life—and a future—centered in Light.

As I grow older, I’m beginning to understand Oneness not as a concept, but as a field of radiant consciousness we touch in brief moments of clarity. Like when an optometrist shifts lenses during an eye exam—one frame becomes clear, then another, then another. Truth arrives in flashes. We glimpse it, we lose it, we find our way back. I believe there is divine humor in this—what some call the Cosmic Giggle. The dance of remembering and forgetting is not a mistake; it is how the soul expands.

I can’t prove any of this.
But I feel it in my bones.
And I live as if it is true.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I think, in many ways, I already live as if I have only a day. I treat each day as its own lifetime. But if I knew with absolute certainty that I had ten years left, I would stop delaying the things that matter most to my soul.

I would finish writing my book and release my podcast into the world. I would marry, have children, and savor the ordinary sacredness of raising them. I would write them letters and keep a daily blog just for them—so they would always know how deeply they were loved and who I was while loving them. I would voice-record stories, film moments, and leave behind laughter and surprises for the people I adore, long after I’m gone.

I would stop spending energy on anything that dims my spirit. I would spend less money on the unimportant, and more time growing a garden—pressing flowers, tending the soil, creating beauty with my hands. I would pray every morning to ask God for the symbol I will leave behind for those I love. And I would plan the parts of my departure that could ease the hearts of those who grieve.

I would speak more.
I would write more love letters.
I would let joy echo.

Because if I had only ten years, I would want my life to become a blessing that continues long after my physical presence leaves the room.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
The black and white shots are by Grant Beachy.

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