About Mimi
Mimi has been a lover of the movement arts since a young age, when her mother put her in ballet school for walking with turned-in toes. An author and teacher of both students and other teachers for over 20 years, she champions the balance of playfulness and precision as the best way forward in life, and never underestimates how sitting, breathing and conscious movement can provide the clearest and most compassionate perspective on the messy, complex and often 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 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 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. I thank them for helping deepen my ability to feel compassion and gain insight. 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. Currently, I am studying qigong with Liu Xuyang, a 5th generation Bagua master in Beijing, China. 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. |
Erich Schiffmann - Santa Monica, CA, 2007
Donna Farhi on her farm in New Zealand, 2007
Graduating bows with Mark and Martin
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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:
MA (Masters of Arts) with distinction, Traditions of Yoga and Meditation, SOAS, University of London SYT (Senior Yoga Teacher), Yoga Alliance Professionals UK E-RYT (Expert Registered Yoga Teacher), Yoga Alliance USA YACEP (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider), Yoga Alliance USA MTI (Mindfulness Training Institute) accredited teacher
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