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 meditation, qigong, internal martial arts (6th generation lineage holder in Baguazhang) and Daoist Flow yoga. Born in the United States, she lived in China for 14 years before settling in the British countryside with her husband and their dog, three cats, 5 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.
The longer read...
Where it all started
The first time I practiced qigong was at the Shaolin Temple in 1984. I was 14 years old. I spent one week learning movements under the kind tutelage of a monk and loved it, but didn't remember a thing. In 1995, I tried yoga, 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. Soon after I began earnestly practising yoga, I began meditating. I also discovered qigong. By cultivating a type of mental, physical, energetic and intentional 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. The more I practiced, the more I started to see my own limitations and possibilities. This led me to treat myself and others with more respect and compassion. I eventually discovered that meditation, yoga and qigong made me happier. It helped break down a lot of negative ideas I had about myself that simply weren't true. In other words, my practices made me feel more comfortable in my own skin.
These days I no longer photograph professionally, but I feel as though each of my practices, which have expanded to include the internal martial arts of Baguazhang, Xingyiquan and Taijiquan, continue to help me see more clearly. To me, these traditions champion 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 qigong was at the Shaolin Temple in 1984. I was 14 years old. I spent one week learning movements under the kind tutelage of a monk and loved it, but didn't remember a thing. In 1995, I tried yoga, 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. Soon after I began earnestly practising yoga, I began meditating. I also discovered qigong. By cultivating a type of mental, physical, energetic and intentional 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. The more I practiced, the more I started to see my own limitations and possibilities. This led me to treat myself and others with more respect and compassion. I eventually discovered that meditation, yoga and qigong made me happier. It helped break down a lot of negative ideas I had about myself that simply weren't true. In other words, my practices made me feel more comfortable in my own skin.
These days I no longer photograph professionally, but I feel as though each of my practices, which have expanded to include the internal martial arts of Baguazhang, Xingyiquan and Taijiquan, continue to help me see more clearly. To me, these traditions champion 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 shifu and teachers
My teachers are the sources of deep inspiration and trust. These are a few who have and continue to foster and shape my love of learning and sharing my practices. In meditation and dharma practice, Martin Alwyard has been my steady guide and dharma teacher for many years now. I thank him for his guidance, trust and down-to-earth teachings that guide me along this transformative path of awakening. I am honoured to co-teach retreats with Martin at his retreat centre in France. I continue to draw inspiration fro my first qigong teachers, Sifu Matthew Cohen and Cameron Tukapua. In 2003 and 2004, they open the door to a world of movement, philosophy and Chinese medicine that has completely reshaped my health, life and practice. In the internal martial arts (neijiaquan) of Baguazhang and Xingyiquan, I am a disciple of Liu Xuyang, a 5th generation Baguazhang master. As a 6th generation lineage holder in the tradition of Liu Fengchun's Baguazhang, I am grateful to my shifu for sharing the longevity of a practice that has been passed on through so many generations. I also feel the blessing and responsibility of transmitting these teachings on to my students to the best of my ability. In Taijiquan (Taichi Chuan), I am learning from Shifu Huang Ping – a former Chinese National Champion and member of the China National Wushu team, specialising in Taiji and Bagua. She brings a light-hearted approach to the discipline of form and technique that is truly inspiring. I will forever be grateful to my first yoga teachers, Erich Schiffmann and Donna Farhi, who imparted to me the ideas that teaching, meditation and one's own practice are some of the greatest gifts in life. 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. |
Training in Beijing with my Shifu, Liu Xuyang
Co-teaching with Martin Aylward
With Erich Schiffmann in Santa Monica, CA
With Donna Farhi in Suryalila, Spain
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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 in upstate New York and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in American Studies, I moved to Beijing, China, where I lived for 14 years. For most of my time in China, I worked as a documentary and portrait photographer, though for a short time, I also ran a wedding magazine! In 2002, I 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 (2018) and Xiu Yang: Self-Cultivation for a Happier, Healthier and Balanced Life (2019). Credentials:
BA, American Studies, Stanford University, class of '94 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 6th Generation Lineage Holder in the Liu Fengchun tradition of Baguazhang
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