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Liformers are a bunch of dedicated, joyful go-getters who inspire us daily with their creativity, honesty, and love of yoga. Our ‘Meet the Liformer’ series gives you the chance to get to know them a little better, find out how they practice, and catch their enthusiasm.
Xiaomi Yoga focuses on teaching yoga foundations online to beginners. Students are located in more than 30 countries around the world.
Where are you from?
I am from Jilin, China, but I travel around the world and everywhere could be home.
How did yoga come into your life?
It was destined for me to meet yoga. Being a mother got me stuck for three years. I wanted to break through a difficult situation. I wanted to reshape myself from within and explore the truth of life. So, I chose to practice yoga.
When did you realize you were hooked on yoga?
When I started to be addicted to myself. Haha! Just kidding.
Many women would ask how I balance between society’s roles and the self. I used to ask the same question. But after I started to practice yoga, I would say: no need to balance. You just need to be yourself bravely.
What yoga brings to me is not only beautiful postures but also much more courage and wisdom. I am still a mother, but being myself enables me to be a better mother, a mother that her son is proud of and follows. I learned how to love myself with the wisdom of yoga. All the characteristics you could find in me: self-insistent, self-determined, and free are all because of yoga. I am addicted to yoga and addicted to myself, who is so brave to be myself.
Why do you teach?
The initial reason is simply that I needed to earn money and support my dream to travel around the world with yoga and to explore the meaning of life. Now, teaching yoga is part of my life just like eating, sleeping, and breathing. There’s an interesting saying in Xiaomi Yoga that we call yoga practice health maintenance every day. And teaching is health maintenance for myself too. Yoga is what I love, and I am blossoming in it!
Tell us about your yoga community.
All the members of Xiaomi Yoga are called Xiaomi Girls. They would say that they have the strongest teachers here. I am proud we do have a very strong teaching team and are improving all the time. But what makes me prouder is the over 130,000 Xiaomi Girls from all over the world. All of them met because of yoga and benefit from yoga. They help each other during the journey, exploring and growing together.
We donated to the orphan school in Tibet. We sent food and accessories to the elderly in the social welfare home in Jilin. And we collaborated with the government in Shiping County and sponsored 30 students to accomplish their studies from middle school to college. Currently, there are over 100 members learning how to run social media with the help of Xiaomi Yoga. We help ourselves while helping others.
What’s your motto?
“I am rooted, but I flow”
This comes from a writer named Virginia Woolf. It is like the philosophy of yoga. Our eternal life force comes from rooting down, but life flows because energy and love are flowing too.
What are you reading?
I am reading Cao Min written by Cai Chongda. Every story in this book touches me. It tells the story of the three generations of a family in a small seaside town who struggled to make a living. These people are frustrated, confused, and unwilling to yield, but never stop.
What’s your favourite Liforme Mat? Why?
I like all Liforme yoga mats, especially the Hope Mat. The introduction to this mat asks, “Where does a Rainbow come from? It comes from a dream of loving with no limits. It comes from a place where all people are equal. A reflection of our passion, our lifeforce, our inner peace.” This just corresponds with Xiaomi Yoga’s vision. The mission of YiLiXiaoMi is to light hope for every girl via yoga and light their lives. If life is a hard journey, then let’s walk through it with yoga.
Aside from yoga, what do you love to do?
Travel, with my yoga. Life is the process of meeting the world, meeting all beings and then meeting ourselves. Travel allows me to feel this world while reflecting myself through all the experiences. Looking inside and being aware of the self is the meaning of yoga. Travel also enables me to be clear about the meaning of life, the broadness of life.
