An interview with Ms. Guo Jian, Yoga Training and Education Master
“Both male and female leaders have one common trait, which is they all have a very high sense of social responsibility as well as commitment. This is an essential quality for a successful entrepreneur.” So says Ms Guo Jian when asked how female leaders differ from male leaders.
“Men and women are inherently different. Male leaders show more social responsibility in areas such as financial data, production and processing,” says Guo. “Female leaders play more of a connecting and sharing role, with the ability to improve harmony, and their social value is more fully presented especially in areas such as media, beauty, and fashion. In addition, female leaders are more likely to promote the cultural development and harmony of society with their group influence ability, including enhancing the rationality of the system and improving the happiness of the society.”
Ms. Guo Jian graduated from the Guangzhou First Military Medical University in the 1970s and became an ophthalmologist at the Guangzhou Army General Hospital. She practiced ophthalmology and medical plastic surgery in the 1980s at Guangzhou First People’s Hospital. In the 1990s, Guo Jian entered the health and wellness industry and started to explore ancient Yoga and its profound culture. She has promoted the healthy development of yoga culture in China. Guo was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 and then devoted herself fully to life-care education, China Breast Cancer Awareness Activities and Yoga holistic training. SpaChina interviewed Ms. Guo.
How have you leveraged your leadership and influence in your yoga and body-mind practice?
As a former military woman and clinician, I am involved in the field of cultural communication, body-mind education and life-care education through the approach of yoga. In addition to a solid foundation in medicine and psychology, I also have certain knowledge of Eastern life sciences, as well as TCM and yoga. In the process of continuous learning, I have gained a deeper understanding of self-care and self-awareness. I have indeed reaped a beautiful state of life.
In the effort of improving my state of life, I am actively learning, enriching my knowledge, enjoying my work, and always being creative. Such a happy state of life comes from the love and joy that overflows from within after practicing yoga. Through the practice of yoga and the practice in my work and life, I have achieved the coupling of intellectuality, materiality and sociality.
My life actually started at the age of 60, and now ten years have passed and I am still learning continuously and sharing my knowledge with more people through education and training, which is what I call intellectuality. In terms of sociality, I really enjoy serving the companies in the health, beauty and spa industry that I am in. In terms of materiality, I have fulfilled it by teaching students and helping them to grow. I am influencing my students in such a way that they always say, “Teacher, I don’t want to retire either. I am not afraid of getting old now. I can still work when I am old.”
I live each day as if it were my whole life and enjoy it to the fullest. So, I think my leadership lies in the inner intellectual abundance, and in awakening more people’s life potential through my expressiveness and happiness.
What are the advantages and challenges or obstacles for women as business leaders in China? How can these obstacles be overcome?
Both in China and the world, over thousands of years, male power and the male mindset have dominated the society. Though there has been progress in this aspect as society advances, there are still some fields and industries where women may face strong barriers. For example, we often see women managers at the middle level at big companies, but it is difficult for them to continue to move up the ladder and enter the top senior management level. This is related to the inherent social hierarchy and management model.
In addition, in Chinese society today, there is still some kind of questioning or hidden bias against women for no reason even though women have done a very good job. Apart from that, I think these so-called obstacles may also stem from women’s own physical and mental limitations, as well as the nature of women. Women are more sensitive, and sometimes emotionally unstable and easily fluctuated. So when making decisions, they are more emotional and sometimes lack rationality. These are actually things that female leaders should try to overcome. Therefore, when it comes to making some strategic and forward-looking decisions, it is important for women to have male partners or close friends beside them so that they can listen to different opinions, and each can put their qualities to good use.
Do you encourage women to develop or exercise their leadership in your courses?
In my career of life care education, one of my main courses is the Life Management Workshop, which is specifically designed for women entrepreneurs. On the courses, I lead the participants to train their inner force through physical movement such as dancing, games, and group activities. In terms of masculine force, they will be trained to discover their inner passion for work and transform it into effective action and execution, as well as the courage in making decisions. On the side of feminine force, the course will help them to develop the power of connection, love and art. On the mental level, it develops a sense of mission, intuition and creativity.
In modern China, the rise of women is very evident, and their leadership has become stronger and stronger, already driving the progress of society.
How important is mental health to a person’s overall well-being?
From a biological perspective, our brain activity affects the thalamus, the emotional center, which works on the pituitary gland, and in turn affects our adrenal and gonadal axis. Therefore, a person’s mental health, i.e., the soundness of the cognitive system of the brain and the enhancement of the mind, is very important for one’s happiness power.
What is happiness? According to WHO, happiness refers to a state of completeness in physical, mental, and social relationships. I summarize happiness as three H: Health, physical health; Happiness, happiness in the heart; Harmony, harmony in relationships. Happiness can be described as the subjective feeling we have about the state of our life. Therefore, the understanding and care of one’s own life and the expression of a good state of life is truly a kind of happiness power, that is, the satisfaction of one’s own state of life.
Can learning yoga or meditation help improve mental health?
Yoga and meditation is a very complete system of life sciences from ancient India, which includes various asanas for physical conditioning and meditation for spiritual practice, using the breath as a bridge to cultivate the mind and body. In each asana, the body’s autonomic nervous system is trained. At the same time, all the asanas are completed with the training of awareness and breath. Therefore, yoga is not just about fitness, but a complete training of the body and mind.
Yoga emphasizes a sense of “mystery”, that is, unspeakable. So it must be experienced by oneself. It is both a life practice and a lifestyle, which allows each of us to embrace the awareness of life, and to fine-tune the state of life we perceive at the moment to the most ideal state, which is mental health. The highest state of yoga is samadhi, a presence of love and joy in the moment, where you feel unconditional love and joy overflowing out, and this feeling is yoga. So we are not practicing yoga, we are living yoga.
What is the impact of social media and digitalization on people’s mental health? What should we do about it?
The big wave of social media and digitization cannot be stopped. It’s a global trend, so we have to embrace it, but we shouldn’t be overly dependent on it. From the point of view of efficiency, it is good and reflects the progress of society. However, the large amount of fragmented information brought by it may affect our ability to concentrate, and twist people’s values, aesthetics, and understanding of health and well-being. Long-term indulgence in it can also have a great impact on our eyesight, cervical spine, and physical and mental health.
We need to take good care of ourselves, embrace the wave of digitalization and enjoy the dividends it brings. However, it is very important that we must remain aware and alert, and not be completely passively led away and get lost. Therefore, we have to consciously maintain a balance, connect more with nature, interact more with people around us, and take the initiative to contribute and give, to trust and love. Meanwhile, we need to learn to enjoy solitude and self-companionship through breathing, meditation, reading, and artistic experiences.
Please give a piece of advice to women who want to become leaders.
I learned a saying from Japan: “Respect the Universe and Love People”. We need to respect the natural laws of the universe, which also include the balance between feminine and masculine qualities in ourselves. So we need to think about how to switch the roles in different situations. We must take care of ourselves and live a good life, so that we can influence, care for and lead others to grow together.
