An Inquiry by Cherie Aimée

What allows humans and the living world to flourish?

An evolving body of work exploring how we create meaningful, beautiful and dignified lives through profound change, in relationship with one another and the living world.

Introduction

Flourishing Ecology is an evolving inquiry into the conditions that allow a human life to flourish. It brings together the body, relationship, belonging, meaningful participation, aging, care, the living world and the deeper questions that accompany being human.

The inquiry has grown from Cherie Aimée's own experience of profound illness, survival and rebuilding, alongside decades of professional experience, spiritual study, contemplative practice and learning within communities.

Flourishing is both a personal and collective experience. It invites us to remember, restore and cultivate together, honoring what was lost, what survived and what can be carried forward.

When the life you once knew is no longer possible

There are seasons when life changes so profoundly that the ways we once lived, worked, loved and belonged are no longer possible.

Perhaps you’ve spent years building, creating, caring for others or finding your place in the world. Then illness, loss, displacement or an unexpected turning point changes the conditions of your life.

What follows is more than a question of beginning again. It is an invitation to explore what remains, what needs tending and how a meaningful life can take shape within a new reality.

Flourishing Ecology is a place to explore those questions.

How do I remain deeply connected to life, to others and to the living world while honoring the reality of who I have become?

Making room for who we have become

For so many years, the question may have been how to survive, how to heal, how to fulfill our responsibilities and how to remain connected to the people and places we love.

But profound change can leave us inhabiting a life we never imagined. A different question begins to emerge. How do we honor what has happened while making room for who we are becoming?

Sometimes the most unfamiliar part of becoming is learning to inhabit a life that has changed beyond recognition.

After years of surviving, grieving, questioning and rebuilding, we may find ourselves discovering new ways to belong, contribute, create and receive what is good. A meaningful life may look very different from the one we once imagined, yet still hold beauty, dignity and possibility.

Areas of inquiry

Areas of contemplative inquiry, explored together through reflection and conversation.

An Original Audio Experience

Death,

Life &

Everything

Between

Cherie Aimée

An Original Audio Experience

Death, Life & Everything Between

What happens when we die? And how do we navigate a world that feels increasingly uncertain?

An intimate exploration of death, consciousness, grief, love and the mystery of being human, through the perspective of someone who crossed the threshold of death and returned.

Coming January 1, 2027

Private conversations

The Visionary Session

A private conversation for those envisioning what comes next.

For founders, artists, leaders, storytellers and visionaries navigating consequential decisions, new directions or the evolution of something meaningful they wish to bring into the world.

A 90-minute conversation drawing upon lived wisdom, spiritual insight and decades of experience across leadership, storytelling and human transformation. Together, we explore the larger vision, the decisions before you and the possibilities seeking expression.

90 minutes · By private inquiry

Submit a Private Inquiry

Seasons of Change

A private conversation for finding your way through life’s changing seasons.

For those navigating grief, loss, changing relationships, shifts in identity or the unfamiliar experience of living after profound change.

A 60-minute conversation offering compassionate reflection, meaningful perspective and space to explore what is changing within you. Together, we consider how to cultivate belonging, connection and a meaningful relationship with life as it unfolds.

60 minutes · Private session

Schedule a session

Scholarships · Coming in 2027

An opportunity to make the mission of Flourishing Ecology more accessible. Further details will be shared in 2027.

The Five Sacred Elements

Pathways That Shaped the Inquiry

Flourishing Ecology has emerged through lived experience, sacred relationships, ancestral remembrance and a deepening intimacy with the living world. These pathways continue to shape my understanding of the body, beauty, belonging and what it means to be fully alive.

  1. 01 · Earth · Roots & Belonging

    Kinship, ancestry & the living world

    Connection with animals, plants, seasonal rhythms and the wisdom of remembrance.

  2. 02 · Water · Memory & Renewal

    Grief, mystery & surrender

    Emotional depth, sacred ritual and the wisdom of allowing life to flow.

  3. 03 · Fire · Desire & Transformation

    Rose, myrrh & the body

    Faith, tenderness, embodiment, devotion and the remembrance of life through the senses.

  4. 04 · Air · Presence & Inner Freedom

    Ritual, beauty & rest

    Sacred rhythms, nourishment, presence, trust and the art of inhabiting life.

  5. 05 · Ether · Consciousness & Love

    Death, consciousness & return

    The mysteries of consciousness and the cycle of life, death and becoming.

These pathways are not separate from one another. They are living relationships that continue to shape how I understand the body, the sacred, the natural world and what it means to be fully alive.

Insights from the field

Essays, audio reflections and field notes exploring what it means to live, heal, belong and flourish in relationship with ourselves, one another and the living world.

EssaysLong-form writing exploring a flourishing human life.→
AudioSpoken reflections and contemplative recordings.→
Field NotesObservations from lived experience and the living world.→
PodcastsSelected interviews and meaningful conversations.→
Pink rose in bloom against deep green foliage

Photograph by Alicia Christin

Professional experience

Before Flourishing Ecology, Cherie spent years as an entrepreneur, founder, advisor, storyteller and international speaker. Her career spanned technology, leadership, social impact and global communities, bringing her into conversation with people and organizations across cultures and ways of life.

Her story and insights have reached millions through television, film, media and public speaking, including appearances on Megyn Kelly TODAY and The Dr. Oz Show, international keynotes, and gatherings exploring leadership, consciousness, ancestry and the near-death experience.

She has also contributed to conversations at leading medical and academic institutions, including the New York Academy of Sciences, where she joined prominent researchers and physicians exploring resuscitation science and the mysteries of death. At Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian, she delivered a keynote to more than 300 international cardiothoracic physicians, surgeons and engineers, bringing the lived experience of cardiac arrest and survival into dialogue with medical science.

Beyond public speaking, she has contributed behind the scenes as a storytelling consultant and alongside founders, organizations and global initiatives. These years shaped her understanding of leadership, human behavior, story, culture and what people reach for when the structures they have built no longer hold.

Selected experience

  • 2025GOSS Magazine, Manifest Issue No. 100
  • 2024Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Film Consultant, Storytelling & Near‑Death Experience$405 million worldwide box office
  • 2024International Association for Near‑Death Studies, Co‑host & Keynote
  • 2022Global Leadership Africa Summit, Keynote
  • 2020Wander Darkly, Cast, Talk Show Guest2020 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection
  • 2019New York Academy of Sciences, Featured SpeakerWhat Happens When We Die? Insights from Resuscitation Science
  • 2019Women in Cybersecurity, Keynote
  • 2018Megyn Kelly TODAY / The Dr. Oz Show

As seen in

TODAY
Forbes
Inc.
Nasdaq
NHK
abc
FOX
LIONSGATE
GOSS
NBC NEWS

Selected Features

Kind words

“Her speech about her own near-death experience and health journey had so much incredible depth, emotion and insight about why we are here and how we can live our lives with greater purpose and peace. She delivered her message with such grace, eloquence, passion and wisdom. I left with a greater understanding of taking care of myself, living with greater connection to others and more meaning.”
LanaNew York, NY
01 / 10

The Rose Circle

The Art of Flourishing, Together

An intimate, intergenerational circle of women exploring the art of flourishing through beauty, spirituality, cultural remembrance and meaningful relationships with one another and the living world.

Together, we honor what was lost, what survived and what can be carried forward. Through shared wisdom, reciprocal care and meaningful connection, we cultivate new forms of belonging and discover what it means to flourish through life’s changing seasons.

The RoseCircleDevotionBeautyKinshipPresenceNourishmentBecoming
Devotion
Honoring what is sacred and meaningful.
Beauty
Cultivating wonder and reverence for life.
Kinship
Deepening relationships with one another and the living world.
Presence
Making room for contemplation, listening and rest.
Nourishment
Tending to the body, heart and spirit through care, pleasure and restoration.
Becoming
Allowing ourselves the freedom to grow and change.

An Invitation to Connect

The Rose Circle is taking shape as an intimate, intergenerational community of women devoted to beauty, belonging and the flourishing of life together.

Black-and-white portrait of Cherie Aimée

Devotion: The Way of Beauty

An embodied movement art collaboration between Cherie Aimée and photographer Hande Gurdogan.

About the Artist & Storyteller

Cherie Aimée is the founder, storyteller and wisdom-weaver behind Flourishing Ecology. Her perspective emerges at the intersection of lived experience, professional knowledge, spiritual and contemplative study, and a deep relationship with the living world.

Through thoughtful reflection and accessible contemplative, creative and embodied practices, she explores the conditions that support human flourishing, cultivating greater presence, connection and meaning.

The loss of her cultural heritage in childhood, followed years later by an extraordinary near‑death experience, profoundly shaped Cherie’s understanding of identity, belonging and what it means to be fully alive. Her story subsequently reached more than 100 million people worldwide through television and film.

Today, these understandings are woven into the rhythms of her everyday life. Time with horses, healing rituals, farmers markets, food grown close to home and meaningful relationships within her local community. Flourishing Ecology is not simply something she studies or writes about. It is a way of life she actively cultivates and inhabits.

Cherie lives by the lake surrounded by farms with her husband of nearly twenty years.

Cherie majored in international history while studying ballet, jazz, modern and African dance throughout college. She is also professionally trained in embodied practices.

Her journey through life, death and renewal has included cancer, cardiac arrest, prolonged life support, coma, brain injury and heart transplantation, followed by more than fifteen years of physical and neurological rehabilitation.

An extraordinary initiation into the sacred medicine she would one day carry.

Spiritual traditions & ways of knowing

With gratitude for the teachers, elders and traditions whose wisdom continues to shape my life and understanding.

  1. 01 · The body

    Somatic & embodied practices

    John F. Barnes Myofascial Release, Somatic Experiencing® and Feldenkrais®.

  2. 02 · The creative life force

    African ancestral teachings

    Yoruba, Zulu and Zimbabwean mentorship on ancestral remembrance.

  3. 03 · Kinship with the living world

    Indigenous teachings & relationships

    Lakota and Algonquian teachings on kinship and reciprocity with the living world.

  4. 04 · The heart

    Christian mysticism

    The sacred and embodied teachings of Christ on love, grace, prayer and divine union.

  5. 05 · Energy & presence

    Reiki mastery

    The practice of compassionate presence, energetic awareness and healing touch.

  6. 06 · Balance & inner awareness

    Eastern philosophy

    Indian yogic traditions, Taoist philosophy, contemplative yoga and meditation.

  7. 07 · The cosmos

    Evolutionary astrology

    Exploring the soul’s evolution and our relationship with the cycles of life.

Pink rose in bloom against deep green foliage

Flourishing Ecology

Letters from the Field

Photograph by Alicia Christin

A personal correspondence from Flourishing Ecology

Letters from the Field

A little beauty for the journey.

Occasional correspondence exploring the human experience through storytelling, beauty, relationship, the living world, and the questions that shape how we live.

An invitation to contemplate your own life, discover what matters, and explore what flourishing might mean for you.

Your information will be treated with care.

Contact

For inquiries, collaborations, speaking and other correspondence.

Your information will be kept private and will not be sold or shared for marketing purposes.

Perhaps coming home to the Self is not about recovering who we were before everything happened.

Perhaps it is about finally making room for who we have become through everything that happened.

And allowing that person the freedom to live.