oakshine
my background
I was born straddling a continent, in the south of England, to Japanese (paternal) and English (maternal) lineage.
I was a toddler when we moved to Japan, and a teenager when I returned to England.
Ancestral guidance led me to a degree in Chinese Studies at Oxford, and on to Taiwan after graduating.
English is my mother tongue, but fluency in Japanese and Mandarin has gifted me opportunities to reach a unique perspective of life and the cosmos.
I spent a few years in Taipei studying and teaching yoga and meditation in a beautiful community.
Taiwan is infused with a magic enabled by a flow of ch'i, thanks to an undercurrent of respect for ceremony and subtle energetics.
Synchronicities guided me to a master of ancient Daoist movements (internal arts) known as taiji daoyin 太極導引. I studied intensively with him at the foot of Yangming Mountain, alongside a group of Taiwanese folk.
jungle bathing in Taiwan. image by David
Kamakura. Image by Lili
I also lived in Japan for four years as an adult.
I spent time on organic farms, immersed in the ways my ancestors lived. I hitch-hiked across the country and connected with folk who could read the clouds, the air, the shadows.
And in the Japanese forests I led forest-based walking trips and retreats, awakening the senses in communion with nature. I worked with a range of movement teachers, healers, and Buddhist priests in this role and learned about animist worship, holism, and the sanctity of ancestral lineage.
I am now based back in my motherland, in West Yorkshire, where I feel an intimacy with the moors and forests.
I work using somatic movement, breath work, and meditative practices. These help to restore the natural flow of ch'i in and around the body, and to integrate all parts of ourselves into daily earthly existence.