Xiu Yang

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781409183976

Price: £14.99

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‘Exquisite… for anyone interested in building a sustainable life that is imbued with vibrant healthy, mental and emotional clarity, and the most basic human need of all: happiness’ – Donna Farhi, author of Yoga Mind, Body, Spirit

‘A treasure chest for the heart and mind, a potent tonic for body and breath, and a vibrant life essence for the spirit’ – Simon Low, Principal of the Yoga Academy

‘A beautiful and timely gift’ – Sifu Matthew Cohen, Sacred Energy Arts Founder

‘Profound and powerful’ – Noman Blair, author of Brightening Our Inner Skies

For centuries, Chinese sages, rulers and spiritual seekers have embraced a simple yet powerful principle to enable them to live in harmony with the Source of nature and all life; the art of ‘self-cultivation’ or, xiu yang. Xiu yang works with the idea that we can steadily nurture our capacity to being fully human and fully awake. Like a field that is patiently cultivated to optimally grow the nourishing and healthy crops, we can undertake practices aimed at smoothing out the roughness and irregularities in our bodies, minds and spirits in order to produce a deep, lasting spiritual happiness.

Xiu yang promotes the idea that inner balance leads to outer radiance: in order to be in harmony with the world, we must first be in harmony with ourselves. By tending to the field of our own bodies, hearts, minds and relationships, we can start making positive changes within our lives and in the lives of others.

In this nurturing lifestyle guide, Mimi Kuo-Deemer champions the contemporary value of adopting this ancient approach. Through a combination of practices from meditation and mindfulness to yoga and qigong, Xiu Yangoffers a fresh approach to finding balance and bringing peace into your life, home and community.

Part I: The Art of Xiu Yang
Part II: Xiu Yang for a Healthy and Harmonious Body
Part III: Xiu Yang for a Balanced Mental and Emotional Life
Part IV: Xiu Yang for a Happier Place in the World

Reviews

Things I knew about myself but dimly, things I once knew but had forgotten, things I never knew at all. Xiu Yang is a wise and loving book. Thank you Mimi.
Carrie Gracie, news presenter, former BBC China editor
Kuo-Deemer doesn't simply write about these ancient teachings- she shares the fruits of practicing them, processing timeless truths in her own heart and mind and body, so that we can do so in ours. Xiu Yang gives glimpses of her own transformational self-cultivation, while showing us a path for our own
Martin Aylward, Co-Founder, The Mindfulness Training Institute
For far too long, we have been given a punishing routine of exercises aimed at controlling the body and mind, followed by self-care to soothe our troubled spirits. Mimi carefully shows us how we can no longer bandage over the damage we wreck to our minds and bodies, but CAN make practical changes to our daily lives that truly nourish and support ourselves and the world at large. This is an absolutely essential, and very practical survival guide for life, giving us clear tools to move into a life of balance and sustainable wellbeing.
Kat Farrants, Founder, Movement for Modern Life
Xiu Yang is a wonderful and clear resource of those of us who have lost touch with our own body and live a lifestyle of chronic stress and imbalance. Elucidating teachings nearly lost to humankind, Mimi Kuo-Deemer shines her inner light to show us the way to, as she so aptly puts it, "a self that is whole and complete." Highly recommended.
Max Strom, author of A Life Worth Breathing, teacher of breath work, and public speaker
Xiu Yang is an amazingly clear book about how to live in harmony with the world and universe by first experiencing harmony within ourselves. This is referred to as the art of self-cultivation, meaning the cultivation and nurturing of one's heart, the seat of consciousness, the home of the eternal, and the supreme sovereign. Mimi makes these ideas easy to understand, and very compelling. In simple words, inner balance manifests as outer radiance, as health, as a life lived with purpose, in balance and in harmony with all of Nature. It's about learning to live well . . . by experiencing real happiness and real peace right where you are.
Erich Schiffmann, author of YOGA: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness
Almost lost in China over the past century's onslaught of modernization, xiu yang is now at the centre of Chinese people's search for values and belief--a tribute to the enduring power of these ancient practices. In this slender but powerful book, Mimi Kuo-Deemer unlocks xiu yang for the modern reader, de-mystifying it without losing the eternal, timeless qualities that have made it one of Chinese people's most potent ways of living a good, honourable, happy, and healthy life.
Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao