Mimi has been a student of Yoga since 1995 and an avid lover of dance since 1978, when her mother put her in ballet school for walking with turned-in toes. Mimi teaches vinyasa Yoga, qigong and meditation. She champions the balance of playfulness and precision as the best way forward in practice and in life, and never underestimates how sitting, breathing and conscious movement can provide the clearest perspective on the messy, complex and often predictable job of being human.
Her two main teachers in the Yoga world, Erich Schiffmann and Donna Farhi, continually humble her with the idea that Yoga is the art of living, listening, and learning to embody a deeply spiritual tradition. Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman, her mindfulness meditation teachers, have helped her remember that it's possible to be present with kindness and care in each moment. Her qigong practice, inspired by her own curiosity and love for Daoism and the Chinese Five Elements, emerged as a complimentary and distinct practice alongside her love of yoga and meditation.
In 2002, Mimi co-founded Yoga Yard, Beijing’s first and leading yoga studio, which she co-directed for seven years before moving to the UK. She lives in Oxfordshire but teaches primarily at London's triyoga, where she co-teaches on their two year teacher training diploma course as well as runs immersion trainings. She is also a contributor on 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, is part of the London-based literary agency, Madeleine Milburn. She published her first book, Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis in December, 2018 (Orion Spring), and will publish 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.
