For centuries, Chinese sages, rulers, and spiritual seekers have embraced a simple yet powerful principle that enables them to live in harmony with the source of nature and all life. The art of self-cultivation or xiu yang (pronounced "sheow yaang") is based on the concept that we can nurture our capacity to be fully human and awake, finding balance and peace in our home, life, and community. Author Mimi Kuo-Deemer leads readers through a combination of practices from meditation and mindfulness to yoga and qigong, offering ancient wisdom to help with contemporary challenges.

"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

"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 Lylward, Co-Founder, The Mindfulness Institute

"Profound and powerful." -- Norman Blair, author of Brightening Our Inner Skies

"Almost lost in China over the past century's onslaught of modernisation, 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