Victoria Yuen – Breathe and Be Mindful
Written by Leah Rando
At the age of ten months old, Victoria developed intestinal complica-
tions, being diagnosed with ‘intussusception’ (in-tuh-suh-sep-shun).
This overlapping of the intestinal wall, causing a major obstruction, was
difficult enough to face, let alone obtaining urgent medical care in her
remote home on the island of Rarotonga, New Zealand.
Because of the urgency, a surgeon was flown in from New Zealand to
remove the intestinal knot. The immense distress for a young child
resulted in the surgery not holding, so the decision was made to fly her
to New Zealand for the life saving procedure.
This experience resulted in a life of regular hospitalisation, crippling
pain and heavy pain medication, so she decided to launch her own path
of discovery to combat her condition.
Discovering that stress was inducing her pain, Victoria’s research in this
area resulted in recognising that meditation was one of the most
effective methods in stress reduction. She is now nine years pain free
due to using her research skills as a trained teacher in combination with
her 500 hours of yoga/meditation and mindfulness training.
During this process, great empathy developed for other sufferers of
disease and illness, resulting in further personal development and
educational programs, including twelve months training in yoga
therapy for breast cancer and a free health and wellbeing program
(Encore), for post-surgery breast cancer patients in the local region.
Focusing strongly on stress management, Victoria teaches meditation
in a variety of modes, including online, private and group settings. She
is also the author of three books on this topic and the designer of a
range of card decks with yoga poses. Her latest tool is her personally
designed card pack consisting of 18 different Mantras, encouraging
people to start the day with quiet reflection time.
“We live in such a frantic world and stress is one of the main contribu-
tors to illness, physically and mentally. With my work with cancer
patients and people with neurological disorders, I have seen the
positive effects of mindfulness and meditation, and I wanted to create
a set of cards that can be used as reminders when doing a meditation.”
“The cards are designed to look beautiful, and help people remember
that saying that they can focus on, so the mind can be tamed, and stop
wandering to negative, unsupportive thoughts.”
The documented evidence on the benefits of meditation improving
memory, stabilising emotions, improving concentration, increasing
happiness and supporting a healthy lifestyle is readily available.
Victoria remains focused on her methods being scientifically based and
easy for everyone to learn. With over 400 downloads of her medita-
tion, Victoria remains passionate about helping people around the
world relax, as well as sole parenting two children and managing her
online shop promoting healthy products.
Victoria invites you to connect at any of the following.
[email protected]
www.breatheandbemindful.com
www.facebook.com/bbmretreats