Mimi Kuo-Deemer's Yoga Classes

Mimi Kuo-Deemer

In this final class of this series of yoga/qi-gong moves to nourish, support and revitalise the body and mind, we orientate our practice toward effortless ease. In Chinese this is a concept known as wuwei, or effortless effort. It is something we cannot strive toward but rather a quality that arises spontaneously through steady cultivation and practice. As such, we will take the ideas of rooting, rising, aligning and balancing and see what is possible in working with the fluid flow of effortless ease.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

With this class we take the ideas of rooting and feeling our body aligned between the skies above and earth below into a more full balance of yin and yang. This session will build a combination of strength and softness in the arms and hands and upper and lower body. When the energies of yin and yang come into balance in our bodies, it is known as the Tai Chi Axis.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Building on the last class’s focus on rooting to rise, this yoga qi-gong class builds a combination of strength and softness in the arms and hands and upper and lower body. Bring energy upward from stable roots to the spine. We will work to lengthen it and feel how our bodies can become a healthy and nourished axis between heaven and earth.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

In Chinese, there is a saying ‘gen shen di gu’, which means when the roots and deep the foundations are strong. From Moving with the Breath, we shift the focus to rooting firmly down in the earth and allowing our bodies to rise from this firm root up toward the sky. We will practice some more dynamic standing poses after an initial warm-up we practiced in class #1 to feel this connection more fully in our body.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Start to move with your breath in this beginners yoga class. Feel supported, nourished and revitalised. This first class in this series begins with finding the breath, so the body and breath move together in simple sequences that help condition our respiratory and circulatory systems. This will allow you to feel more invigorated yet also relaxed, clear and calm. As well as being an accessible starting place for many students, this yoga class is also a nourishing standalone class for when you need to calm jangled nerves and return strong and grounded to your breath.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

In Tibetan, there’s a mantra known as Om mani padme Om, or Hail the jewel in the lotus heart. The mantra suggests that through our practices, we can begin to polish a jewel that resides inside the lotus petals of our heart. When this polished jewel begins to reflect radiant light in all directions, we begin to awaken our innate qualities of wisdom and compassion. This mindfully paced gentle practice will integrate vinyasa yoga, qigong and mindfulness practices that can help the jewel of our lotus heart shine.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

The Buddha emphsised using right effort in our actions and intentions in meditation and life. This practice looks at how we can approach strength building practices, especially in the legs, using right effort so that we create more space for awareness and less reactivity. We’ll also explore the idea in qigong of using intention, not force – or yong yi, buyong l – and apply it through a blend of yoga and qigong forms to explore how we can harmonise effort and ease.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Feel centred, grounded and start to fine tune your awareness with this gentle and beautiful fusion of yoga, qigong and mindfulness class with a focus on twists and forward folds. With a gentle start, working with mindful movement, this is a practice exploring how we might work with twists as a way to discover greater ease and space in our physical, mental and emotional experience of being human. With twists, we are invited to curve our awareness inward and we grant ourselves space to learn to respond to whatever experiences arise. From this, we allow ourselves time to build better resources to meet the business of our outward lives.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

This well-rounded full body stretch, gentle yoga class has a focus on luscious side bends. Side bends are a fabulous way to move the whole body. They help open space in the lungs and respiratory muscles but are also highly therapeutic for the spine, back, and core. When these areas are less tense and more free, maybe you might feel that you can slide into that precious soft side of life. Although the class is gentle, you may find the moves tough!

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

This beautiful, simple meditation class focuses on mindfulness of the body as experienced through our elemental constitutions of earth, fire water and air, space and consciousness. The Buddha taught about elemental practices as a way to train attention but also to wake up the fluidity of our changing experience. Just as the elements of the natural world dance in an ongoing interconnectedness and ongoing state of change, we can also begin to become aware of our body and our experience of it through the elements with us and all around us. Enjoy! Clothing by Rumi X.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

This morning yoga and qigong class is focused on circular, smooth movements through the body and joints to set you up for the day. With some beautifully awakening qigong forms such as variations of swimming dragon followed by active sun salute variations and fluid movements through standing poses. Enjoy waking up all your senses in this awakening flow!

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

This morning flow class focuses on a connection to the natural elements. It is an awakening yoga practice with some qigong. The ancient yogis, Buddhists and Daoist sages believed that we are made of the elements of the natural world. This practice will help us awaken to this connection within ourselves to the elemental world around us. It’s very much like a shorter version of my morning practices, integrating yoga and qigong into mindful movements that help me harmonise my inner body with the outer world. This has a bit of everything – abdominals, hip work, backbends, twists, forward folds and arm balances. Enjoy!

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

The third in our work break series includes deep twists and standing poses to energise and get the blood moving again In qigong, it’s believed that energy flows where intention goes (yi dao, qi dao). This active practice combining yoga and qigong will revive and renew your body’s circulation and prana/qi flow. It’s a great one to do if you’ve been at at the desk and want a more active break, or as a morning practice to do before work. Clothing by Rumi X. "

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

The second in our series to provide a constructive break during work or study. These Yoga and Qigong practices all provide you with renewed clarity, and will help clear the cobwebs, also focus on clear alignment through the spine and limbs. It’s great to bring a mental focus and concentration back into the body when we're too in our heads. With some precision in our alignment as well as intentional practices from qigong such as ‘clearing the cobwebs’ (one of my favourites!), we can move forward with our day more embodied awareness and presence.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Take a short break from studies or your work. Much of our body’s tension is muscular, but actually, what the muscles and our body crave when we feel tight is deep, satisfying breaths.This short practice releases tension by focusing on exhaling fully and uses Burmese qigong, chest and shoulder openings and forward folds to calm and sooth the mind. Perfect for taking a break to release tension during the day, but also great after a hard day's work. Clothing by Rumi X.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

In doing yoga, we can learn from the Buddha’s wisdom of working with right effort. This practice will look at how we can move through a practice and learn to identify when we’re putting in healthy effort, or when our effort feels a bit more like a struggle! There will be some strong arm balances like one-legged crow (eka pada galavasana) where we can play our edge, but also moments of surrender. Hope you enjoy it.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

A beautiful flow to open the heart, warm the back and still the mind. In the Yoga Sutra, the busy mind is described as quieting down through a number of ways: lengthening the breath, concentration on objects, or on experiences in deep sleep or dream states. It is also suggested that the mind can be quieted by concentration on the ever-present source of light that is believed to dwell inside the human heart. This light grows brighter when we do practices – like polishing a jewel that begins to shine and reflects the light all around it. We’ll look at ways to work with sunlight and moonlight in this fluid vinyasa-based sequence, and help awaken the source of light within each of us.

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Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Featuring moon rather than sun salutes, this more nourishing practice is a beautifully nurturing slow flow and a nourishing sequence for the heart and soul. Great for when your body needs a little extra support, but you'd like to keep your movement practice. The human heart circulates the most oxygen rich supply of blood to itself first before it moves it out to the rest of the body. As humans we can also learn to care for our own bodies and experience, and use this care as a springboard to cultivate greater care for others and the world. “It is not arrogant or egotistical to feel good inside. You had nothing to do with it. It's simply the honest response to clearly perceived Reality.” – Erich Schiffmann

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