Joel Cross

Joel Cross, known online as A Soul Called Joel, is a meditation teacher and musician based in Cleburne, Texas. Before turning to teaching he worked as a songwriter and guitarist, and his collaborations with the singer India.Arie earned him a Grammy nomination. He later trained as a meditation teacher with davidji, and music still runs through his work: many of his guided sessions are carried by his own guitar, and his reflections often draw on poetry and time spent outdoors.

His teaching is about coming home to the heart, learning to notice what is felt and to respond rather than react. He treats emotions as signals worth listening to, a theme he explores each week on his podcast, Emotional Evolution, which grew out of an earlier show called Hello Beautiful Souls. Most of his teaching happens in Beautiful Souls, an online membership with a live half-hour meditation every morning, weekly sharing circles and monthly workshops arranged in seasonal themes such as self-devotion. He also created the R.I.S.E. Journal, a guided practice of meditative journaling built on four steps, and sells self-paced meditation journeys of ten to thirty days. In 2027 he co-leads a week-long retreat with Dené Logan at Blue Spirit on Costa Rica's Pacific coast.