Aubree Nichols is an avid writer, calling herself a feminine feminist. Her writing for The Week, Observer, and Elite Daily have made her a resonant voice in the self-love movement, which she believes is the ultimate love story. She believes simply, that love changes the world. Aubree has a degree in Organizational Change, and cultivates community and ignites creativity within organizations with her proprietary workshop, Stoked! Her spirit animal is the Black Swan.

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Contact Info

• Website: AubreeNichols.com
• Writing: aubreenichols.com/writing
• Book: Darkness Before Light by Aubree Nichols (contributor)
• Instagram: @aubreenichols

Most Influential Person

• Glennon Doyle Melton, author of Love Warrior

Effect on Emotions

• “I have an intense emotional life so, I would say it has made me more steady and less reactive.”
• “It has given me pause in between thoughts and actions.”

Thoughts on Breathing

• “Breathing is the power that we all have within us. It tells our body that everything is just fine.”

Suggested Resources

• Book: Darkness Before Light by Aubree Nichols (contributor)
• Book: Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There by Tara Schuster
• Book: Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
• App: Insight Timer

Bullying Story

• “I think have always been my own worst bully. People could be saying good things about me but in my brain, I would just think that they are all lying.  My internal chatter was so against me.”

Free Gift

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Episode Transcript

Aubree Nichols:

Yes, I absolutely am. I meditated before I came on with you, Bruce. Nice to see you. Nice to be here. Happy Monday.

Bruce Langford:

Yeah. Happy Monday to you too, Aubrey. Yes. I'm really looking forward to this chat. I know that you're working on a book with the subtitle, ‘How I Stopped Searching, Starving and Striving and Became the Woman of my Dreams.' That's a pretty intriguing title, that you've become the woman of your dreams. But let's talk about mindfulness for a second. What does mindfulness mean to you? Audrey?

Aubree Nichols:

Mindfulness means being in the here and now. It means smelling the smells. It means hearing the birds chirp; looking at the colors of the trees, watching the waves crash, knowing each one of them is different. It just means you're nowhere else. But that present moment, that's what it means to me.

Bruce Langford:

And so where are you located? Can you look out the window and watch the waves crash, Aubrey?

Aubree Nichols:

I'm in Los Angeles on the West side. I'm Marina del Rey, so no, but I do see green trees, I see grass, I see flies, birds, Also the garbage truck.

Bruce Langford:

Yes, the garbage truck just went by just before we hit record, didn't it Aubrey?

Aubree Nichols:

Yeah, it did. But, you know, I have my writing desk where I can see as many beautiful things as possible and I think a lot of the most beautiful things are the things that are in nature and outdoors.

Bruce Langford:

Is that what inspires your writing, Aubrey nature and outdoors?

Aubree Nichols:

Well, funny enough, no. What inspires me is people, people, people, people. I love people. I love interactions with people. I love the good ones, the bad ones, the ugly ones. That's actually where I get my steam and my really intense emotions that fuels that essay that I gotta sit down and write. And most likely when I write it, there's going to be a lot of tears and anger cause it's like working through something. But it usually comes up against when I have an interaction with a person. But nature allows me to just really be present and relaxed and that's what nature does for me. Especially getting in the water.

Bruce Langford:

And so how much of your writing is on the topic of being feminist?

Aubree Nichols:

Well, I would say that being a feminist is sort of a new territory for me. I lived in New York city for the last 20 years. I moved to LA very recently, but I grew up in Houston, Texas. And that is not the land of the feminist. I mean, Texas women are strong, sort of salt of the earth, but they all are also beauty Queens, super sweet. They have upheld the patriarchy. So if any of my writing is about being a feminist, it's probably about the tension about becoming a feminist, but not being brought up a feminist, you know, dating a man who I really want him to still open the door and protect me. And honestly, when I sit down for dinner with him, I won't even reach for my wallet. Does that make me a bad person or a bad feminist? I don't know. So it's usually writing about the tension that lies there.

Bruce Langford:

I mentioned in the intro that your spirit animal is the black Swan. So why is that? How did that come to be?

Aubree Nichols:

With everything that I am is, you always feel & see a lot of light, a lot of brightness, but there's also a lot of dark, you know, I've been there, I've done that just down in the trenches. You know, there's a grittiness and a texture to me. And so when I saw the movie with Natalie Portman, she's a ballerina. It's titled ‘Black Swan', it really embodied this feeling, the spirit that I think I bring to the table, which is like that texture and grit and sort of dark, maybe a couple F-bombs paired with this pink light, bubbly essence. So I think that's what I mean, although we did talk about the Black Swan means something totally different.

For the rest of the interview, please go to www.MindfulnessMode.com/528