Nicole Gibson is an Australian social entrepreneur, author and speaker. As a teenager she founded the Rogue & Rouge Foundation, and by her early twenties she was one of the youngest people ever appointed to Australia's National Mental Health Commission.
Today she leads Love Out Loud — a movement built on a simple, radical idea: that learning to fall in love with yourself, and to give and receive love freely, is the ground of a healthy life. She is also building a biotechnology, bridging the inner work with the science.
For Nicole, longevity has an underrepresented centre: love, presence and the will to live. The will to live, she says, is what quietly translates into the right mindset and the right behaviours — looking after yourself, not wanting to do yourself harm.
Her worry is that the field becomes so consumed by biometrics and breakthroughs that it forgets the human being at the heart of it. Put spirit, love and meaning back at the forefront, she argues, and people will naturally begin to extend their lives.
Love Out Loud · FounderRogue & Rouge · Foundation founderNat'l Mental Health CommissionMelbourne, Australia
Melbourne · Australia
Where we met
A walk in a Melbourne park
We met Nicole in Melbourne — a walk and talk through a park with Marek and Alek, about the part of longevity the science can miss: love, presence, and the quiet force that makes someone actually want to live.
Melbourne
Australia
An easy, open conversation outdoors — "an international friendship," as she put it.
Love Out Loud
Her movement
On learning to fall in love with yourself — and to give and receive love from life.
The will to live
The heart of it
Why presence and meaning, not just metrics, are what truly extend a life.
"We could live to 200, 500, a thousand years — but if we were really present, we'd realise we're already infinite."
— Nicole Gibson, in Melbourne
On the quest
Moments in Melbourne
The next generationAlek with Nicole, MelbourneThe interviewAlek & Nicole, Melbourne
In her words
The missing conversation
"This is a very underrepresented conversation in the longevity space — my fear is that we become so consumed by the science that we forget it."
Nicole Gibson · Melbourne
The addiction to convenience is being driven by a total fear of truly being present.
Nicole Gibson
Giving love and receiving love eventually becomes this really coherent synergy — one and the same.
Nicole Gibson
There's a will to live — and it permeates into the right mindset, the right behaviours, looking after yourself.
Nicole Gibson
Put spirit, love and meaning at the forefront of how we live — and we'll naturally start to extend our lives.
Nicole Gibson
In his own words
Straight from the interview
From our walk with Nicole in Melbourne — how she sees the human heart of longevity, the movement she leads, and what she hopes we don't forget.
Her view: love is the ground
Beneath the science, Nicole sees a human foundation the field can miss. Activate the repressed life force, she says, and a will to live appears — and it quietly shapes the mindset and the behaviours that keep us well.
"There's a will to live — and it permeates into looking after yourself, not wanting to do yourself harm."
Melbourne · from the interview
Her movement: Love Out Loud
Love Out Loud is her answer: first, discovering that love is who you are underneath the conditioning; then learning to express it — and to receive it — until giving and receiving become one and the same.
"The addiction to convenience is being driven by a total fear of truly being present."
Melbourne · from the interview
Her wish for the journey
Her hope is that the movement keeps its soul — that we don't get so lost in biometrics that we forget the person. Put love and meaning first, she says, and longer life follows.
"Put spirit, love and meaning at the forefront — and we'll naturally start to extend our lives."
The video interview is coming. Recorded interviews go live after the launch of the film & series Live Beyond.
Selected passages from our walk-and-talk with Nicole Gibson — in Melbourne, Australia. Lightly edited for readability.
On the movement she leads
Nicole Gibson"The movement I lead is called Love Out Loud. Step one is figuring out that that is who you are — love — underneath all the layers, the conditioning, the stories we tell ourselves. The second step is learning how to express that, and also to receive it, from life. In the journey you get to a place where you realise it's one and the same: giving love and receiving love eventually become this really coherent synergy."
On the will to live
Nicole Gibson"It comes back to the vital force within us — the life force — and being able to extend that. A lot of people have a kind of repressed life force. Once you activate it, you start to realise there's a will to live, and that starts to permeate and translate into the right mindset, the right behaviours — looking after yourself, not wanting to do harm to yourself."
On presence & convenience
Nicole Gibson"The addiction to convenience is being driven by a total fear of truly being present — present with what's there: the things you feel, the things you think. How able are you to be still and honest with yourself? For most, that still feels unimaginable. It's the journey of forming a relationship with yourself where you no longer avoid, distract and reach for convenience as a way to deflect."
On being infinite
Nicole Gibson"We could live to 200, 500, a thousand years — but if we were really present, we'd realise we are already infinite, irrespective of the years. The paradox of being human is feeling there isn't enough time to express what's infinite about us. But the more we value what isn't material, the more we'll naturally start to extend our lives."
On the missing conversation
Nicole Gibson"This is a very underrepresented conversation in the longevity space, and my fear is that we become so consumed by the science and the biometrics — and I work on this myself, I'm building a biotechnology — that we forget it. We don't have a world that puts spirit, love and morality at the forefront of how we live. Put those first, and longer life follows."
More passages from the full interview will be published here.
Continue the quest
More minds on the quest
Nicole leads at the Creating the Movement layer of the Longevity Map — the culture and meaning of longevity. Here are others on the quest, and the full cast of 100+.
