About Mimi
Mimi Kuo-Deemer, MA, is the author of Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis: Nourishing Practices for Body, Mind and Spirit and Xiu Yang: The Ancient Chinese Art of Self-Cultivation. She teaches qigong, internal martial arts (6th generation lineage holder in Baguazhang) and meditation, and once travelled the world as a photojournalist for organisations such as The New York Times, UNDP and UNESCO. Since graduating with Stanford University's class of ’94, she has lived and worked in China and the United States before settling in the British countryside with her husband and their dog, three cats, 6 chickens and 60,000 bees. She champions the balance of playfulness and precision as the best way forward in life, and never underestimates how sitting, breathing and conscious movement grant the clearest and most compassionate perspective on the joyful yet mysterious, messy and unpredictable job of being human.
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Watch a short film about what yoga means to me, some reasons I teach and love sharing the practice. Filmed, edited and produced by Bruce McCallum http://www.seriousvideo.co.uk/
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Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Mimi lived in China for over 14 years. In 2002, she co-founded Yoga Yard, Beijing’s first and leading yoga studio, which she co-directed for seven years before moving to the UK. She now lives in the British countryside, and teaches workshops, immersions and retreats as well as online via Zoom and movementformodernlife.com. Mimi is a graduate of Stanford University and SOAS, University of London, where she earned a masters with distinction in 2016 in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation. She has published a number of yoga and qigong DVDs/videos with New Shoot Pictures and is represented by the literary agency, Madeleine Milburn. She published her first book, Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis in December, 2018 (Orion Spring), and her second, Xiu Yang: Self-Cultivation for a Happier, Healthier and Balanced Life (Orion Spring), in June, 2019. In addition to teaching and writing, Mimi also helps run the Glow Fund charitable trust – a charity she and her husband established that helps disadvantaged Chinese and ethnically Tibetan children with severe orthopaedic conditions receive life-changing operations. |
The longer read...
Where it all started
The first time I practiced yoga was in 1995, fumbling through the postures with my mother's photocopied book from the 1970's. My mother, who put me into ballet school for walking with turned-in toes from the age of 4, knew I loved dance, and thought I'd like this movement-based health system she'd been doing on her own for years. She also recognised that I wasn't very well; I was an overworked, stressed-out, asthmatic photographer living and working in Beijing. The Yoga poses I did started to reverse my compromised health, and I quickly began feeling stronger and more revitalised.
I often look back at the first time I practiced from that book; I didn't know it then, but yoga did more than give me my health back – it started putting things in perspective. By cultivating a type of physical awareness that wasn't based on how I looked while doing it (like dance had trained me to think), I started to pay closer attention to my thoughts, emotions and sensations. As I learned to explore my body's possibilities and limitations on my mat, I began to treat myself and others with more respect and compassion. I eventually discovered that yoga made me happier. It helped break down a lot of negative ideas I had about myself that simply weren't true. In other words, yoga made me feel more comfortable in my own skin.
These days I no longer photograph professionally, but I feel as though yoga has helped me see more clearly. Alongside my love of yoga and meditation, I also have been practising a mixture of medical, spiritual and martial forms of qigong that is influenced by a keen interest in Daoism and the Chinese theory of Wuxin, or Five phases/elements. To me, yoga, qigong and meditation represent the art of being, feeling, creating and learning. They help me feel more awake, alive and able to love.
Where it all started
The first time I practiced yoga was in 1995, fumbling through the postures with my mother's photocopied book from the 1970's. My mother, who put me into ballet school for walking with turned-in toes from the age of 4, knew I loved dance, and thought I'd like this movement-based health system she'd been doing on her own for years. She also recognised that I wasn't very well; I was an overworked, stressed-out, asthmatic photographer living and working in Beijing. The Yoga poses I did started to reverse my compromised health, and I quickly began feeling stronger and more revitalised.
I often look back at the first time I practiced from that book; I didn't know it then, but yoga did more than give me my health back – it started putting things in perspective. By cultivating a type of physical awareness that wasn't based on how I looked while doing it (like dance had trained me to think), I started to pay closer attention to my thoughts, emotions and sensations. As I learned to explore my body's possibilities and limitations on my mat, I began to treat myself and others with more respect and compassion. I eventually discovered that yoga made me happier. It helped break down a lot of negative ideas I had about myself that simply weren't true. In other words, yoga made me feel more comfortable in my own skin.
These days I no longer photograph professionally, but I feel as though yoga has helped me see more clearly. Alongside my love of yoga and meditation, I also have been practising a mixture of medical, spiritual and martial forms of qigong that is influenced by a keen interest in Daoism and the Chinese theory of Wuxin, or Five phases/elements. To me, yoga, qigong and meditation represent the art of being, feeling, creating and learning. They help me feel more awake, alive and able to love.
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Deepening gratitude for my teachers and community
I credit Erich Schiffmann for inspiring me to teach yoga. I did my first training with him in 2002 and began teaching immediately afterwards. Erich imparted to me the ideas that teaching, meditation and one's own yoga practice are some of the greatest gifts in life. I thank him at the end of each of my yoga practices and appreciate the free-flow of love and goodness that emanates from him daily. In 2003, I met Donna Farhi. Studying with her granted insights to questions I had about my own practice and teaching. In January, 2012, after nearly a decade of studying with her around the world, I completed her Advanced Teacher Training in Christchurch, New Zealand. Today, the principles she has shared over the years continue to foster an intuitive and subtle approach to yoga that humbles me the more I learn. In 2015, I began to study mindfulness meditation under Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman. As highly respected Buddhist dharma teachers, they have an uncanny ability to share ancient teachings using articulate, contemporary language. Through them, I've begun to learn valuable skills and means to meet the challenges of being human. Since 2016, Martin has been my steady guide and dharma teacher. I thank him for his guidance in awakening greater compassion and insight in how I meet experience. Since 2019, I have been studying internal martial arts (neijiaquan) with Liu Xuyang, a 5th generation Baguazhang master in Beijing. I am honoured to now be a sixth generation lineage holder of his tradition, which is in Liu Fengchun's Baguazhang. I am grateful to have my shifu sharing the longevity of a practice that has been passed on through so many generations, and feel the blessing and responsibility of transmitting these teachings on to my students to the best of my ability. Over the years, I've also drawn much inspiration from Max Strom, whom I assisted through his 200 hour Yoga Alliance teacher training, and Matthew Cohen, who first inspired me to integrate yoga and qigong. Most of all, however, I am grateful to the learning I gain each day from the community of teachers around me, my students and my self-practice. |
With Erich Schiffmann in Santa Monica, CA
With Donna Farhi in Suryalila, Spain
Graduating bows with Mark and Martin
Training in Beijing with my Shifu, Liu Xuyang
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Meeting Benjia and his grandmother during a Glow Fund mission, China 2016
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Where life has brought me
I was born and grew up in the United States, graduating from Stanford University with a degree in American Studies. I have lived in Beijing, China for 14 years, where I worked as a documentary and portrait photographer, as well as co-founded and co-directed Yoga Yard, Beijing’s first and leading yoga centre. In October 2009, I moved to London with my husband, Aaron, a Five Element Acupuncturist, co-founder of The Source Clinic, and documentary photographer. I finished a Masters in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, University of London in December, 2016, and for the last 10 years have been helping my husband run the Glow Fund, a charity that helps Chinese orphans and Tibetan children with severe disabilities receive life-changing orthopaedic surgeries. In 2018, I moved to the English countryside of Oxfordshire, where I will balance my teaching schedule with gardening and writing. I am honoured to be represented by the literary agency, Madeleine Milburn. I have authored two books published through Orion Spring, UK: Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis: Nourishing Practices for Body, Mind and Spirit (December 2018) and Xiu Yang: Self-Cultivation for a Happier, Healthier and Balanced Life (June 2019). Credentials:
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