Meet Aubrey Yee

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aubrey Yee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aubrey, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?

“Life is for living, Love is for giving, Have you heard?”

I found this handwritten note, scribbled in my dad’s signature, all-caps style, resting on his nightstand He must have read it every day while he was sick. He had just died of cancer after a swift and valiant decline. He was 58. I was 20.

I had just been gifted the experience of being with someone I loved with all of my being as he took his last breath. I was holding his hand as the ineffable part of him departed the biological human-suit. It was the most profound experience of my life so far.

I went into a 3 day experience of what I can only call oneness. I was no longer a being with a boundary. I was the universe. I was enmeshed with everything and everything was me. I remember the part of my brain that was still cognizant saying to myself, “Remember this, it won’t last forever.” And it didn’t.

After those few days, I came back to my more normal, waking reality and the deep grief of losing a father I had loved immensely.

I thought to myself, quite simply, you’re alive until you’re dead so if you’re not dead yet, what is there to be afraid of?

I made a commitment to myself in that moment to live a life that was fully alive. To not be held back by fears created by my mind.

I have taken a series of leaps in my life. Starting an import business at 25 with zero experience and less money and building it up over a decade into a successful retail store and interior design office until we sold it in 2011. Buying our first house at 29 years old with no money (again), fixing it up and selling it and then doing it again and again. Going back to school at 35 with no plan other than my curiosity and profound knowing that something wanted to happen next. Over and over saying yes and taking the leap when I had no idea if there was a net to catch me.

It has all felt both random and right. And now, with the hindsight of decades of life, I can see how it all fits together. I could not be the person I am now without each of these experiences creating the tapestry that is me.

I think that risk is the same as stretching. The more you do it, the more flexible you get. When you can get comfortable with knowing that everything is temporary, everything is impermanent, risk become part of being fully alive.

I often take leaps of faith, jumps from a known that has run its course into the great abyss of the unknown, guided only by faith that it is time to go. I’ve come to know that the universe always meets you halfway. And that even if things don’t work out, they did work out because that’s how it was supposed to work out. It couldn’t be any other way, because that’s the way that it is.

When you realize that failure is actually just learning in disguise, things get much less risky.

I’m speaking about the kind of risk you experience when you leave a job you don’t like without knowing what your next job will be. Or when you say the thing that needs to be said that everyone is afraid to say. The kind of risk that feels scary because your mind is telling you a story of everything that could go wrong.

Worry is just a story about the future. You can tell yourself any story you want about the future. The future does not exist. So why not tell yourself the story of how it all works out? What becomes possible then…

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a futurist, author, speaker and guide at the nexus of the spiritual and political, in service to co-liberation for all beings, human and non-human. My work is contextually grounded in my knowing of this time as the Great Turning, the age of consequence and the age of remembering.

What this means to me is that humanity is at a crisis, turning point moment of dissolution and rebirth. The systems of dominant culture are dissolving because they do not serve Life and true liberation. We are confronting the toxicity of the worlds we have collectively created. And simultaneously. we are remembering ourselves as miraculous beings of Earth with the collective, imaginal capacity to build new world of thriving for all of Life.

This turning, this transition is a significant mission, and it may not be realized for many generations But this is the mission that brings life to my work and meaning to my life.

My goal is to help as many people as possible reawaken to the magnificence of being fully human and connected to the Earth. I call this the shift from modern mind to ecological mind and it is a journey of whole body, whole being realignment.

This work for me takes many shapes, all enlivened by this core mission. I lead a few fellowships around futures and systems change, narrative-led activism, leadership and reconnecting to Earth. I facilitate journeys of transformation for individuals in a coaching/mentorship practice and in groups both in person and virually. And I write and speak about these ideas.

In Hawai’i, my lifelong home, my husband and I steward a permaculture farm and temple called Hokuao which is the Hawaiian name for Venus when she becomes the morning star. It is a place of getting hands in the dirt and cleansing the spirit to realign with earth-based wisdom traditions.

In 2026 I will be launching a cohort based, whole body attunement fellowship called Interbeing with my dear sister Pipa Cardoso. Interbeing is designed for people who are ready to practice emerging-futures leadership and will take place over 7 months both virtually and with a week long in-person in Portugal.

My book Our Beloved Futures is a good place to start your journey of unraveling to be rewoven whole. It is a mythopoetic book, helping readers to orient to our moment, face the grief of our systems collapse and move towards our original genius, rather than being collapsed by the challenges we face. I believe that when we remember our very unique genius and find the others with whom we can imagine, we become an unstoppable force of world building potential in service to more beloved futures on Earth.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Imagination – imagination is a human superpower. The future does not exist and the past is an equally malleable story we tell ourselves. When we allow ourselves to fully imagine the possible, not just the probable or the undesirable, we bring new worlds into being. We are that powerful.

All of our current systems, buildings, practices, patterns and cultures were built this way. Build your imaginative capacity by catching yourself when you slip into negative thought patterns.

Start to recognize the inner critic voice and what they sound like. Give them a character – name, shape, texture – and begin to learn how to notice them but not be overtaken by them. Then imagine differently. If the fear voice was telling you ‘you can’t’ or ‘you won’t’ what happens when you tell the story of ‘I will’ and ‘I can.’ Both are equally possible.

Love – if you can hate a stranger you can just as easily love a stranger. What would it look like if you walked around everyday loving every person you saw for exactly who they are? Try it. In the TSA line, at the grocery store, in your school or workplace, see each person as whole and innocent even if they are traumatized and acting from that place of trauma.

You will still want to hold firm boundaries for yourself. A toxic person is not allowed to stay in my space or life for long, but even then I will still love them and hope that they find the healing they need. Love is a profound healing agent and magnetic force for more love and joy in your life.

Curiosity – get curious. About everything. Get curious about what you’re curious about. Ask lots of questions about yourself, your patterns, your thoughts, your visions. Ask questions of others and really, truly listen to the answer without imposing your beliefs or judgements. The world is alive with information that will guide you to your highest joy and expression of service in this lifetime.

If you listen deeply to the world around you, all the answers will be provided and you can move with the grace of a bird or the wind. Try it and see what happens. And notice, also without judgement, when you aren’t curious and are acting as if you have all the answers.

Remind yourself that no one, and I mean no one, knows what they’re doing. We’re all making it up as we go along.

You have just one wild and precious life, enjoy the ride.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My children have been the most helpful in helping me overcome challenges and build the essential skills, qualities and knowledge I need to be successful. I believe that parents are stewards to souls that arrive with little knowledge of this earth-world but with a profound and unbroken knowledge of other worlds and source.

When we listen to our children for their wisdom and see our role as parent as the guide here to protect their innocence and accompany their journey to adulthood, we open up a portal of reciprocal learning and relationship that is truly profound.

My children expect the best of me and lovingly mirror for me when I slip into old, unhealthy patterns. I am so grateful for this. They also literally represent the futures. I do the work that I do in order to build worlds of kindness where cultures of care are normal and the Earth is tended as the sacred being that she is.

If you are not a parent, there are still children in your life and you can hold this space of steward for them. It is a deeply nourishing and rewarding role, and a sacred duty in culture to nurture the future generations in their unique genius.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ourbelovedfutures.com
• Instagram: @aubrey.morgan.yee @ourbelovedfutures
• Facebook: Aubrey Morgan Yee
• Linkedin: Aubrey Morgan Yee
• Other: Substack: https://ourbelovedfutures.substack.com/

Image Credits

Photo 1: Briar Rose
Photo 2: Federico Zuivre
Photo 3 & 4: Emma McCullough