Energy Healer and Wellbeing Instructor Yinki Nicole Wong founded Yin-Ki Wellness & Coaching with an aim to support individuals on their journey to holistic wellbeing. In a one-on-one with Hive Life, the wellness expert dives into her personal encounters with mental health, and shares her stance on striking a healthy balance between your mental, physical, and emotional selves.
Yinki Nicole Wong traded her career in the art business for a more holistic role as a meditation instructor and sound healer, establishing her own wellbeing practice Yin-ki Wellness & Coaching. Through applying various holistic healing modalities in her day-to-day life, Yinki was able to shift her life around, and hopes to inspire others on their wellness journey by extending her support in the realms of holistic wellbeing, sound healing therapy, as well as self love and empowerment coaching.
Yinki shares about her journey to wellness, the transformative benefits of the ancient art of sound healing, and a step-by-step guide to practising wellbeing and harmonising your innermost self.
Hailing from Asia’s “city that never sleeps,” Yinki Wong was accustomed to the fast-paced environment in Hong Kong for as long as she remembers. In her early life, Yinki shifted across various big cities, including New York, Madrid, and London, with an equally brisk urban lifestyle. Living life at such a pace came with many benefits, but eventually began to take a toll on her mental and emotional wellbeing. It was not until later in her career in the art industry that Yinki encountered a significant shift in her mental state as she struggled to strike a balance in her hectic lifestyle.
Yinki described her passion for art as a major factor at play in facilitating her journey to mental wellbeing, saying, “I really enjoyed the art itself, but the business and the work wore me out. While it wasn’t the best fit for me, I particularly enjoyed the visceral aspect of it- just being able to interact with art and be in touch with emotions, and that was the start of me [seeking] that solace in life.”
Yinki soon after made her way back to her hometown, as she felt a strong desire to reconnect with her family and ancestral roots to find a sense of wholeness.
Yinki was first introduced to holistic wellness when she experienced immense stress and had depression during her college years. While most may opt for traditional clinical therapy to “ get rid of the problem,” Yinki allowed herself the time to heal, and went for a more holistic approach, which sustained her in the long run.
“The more I dove into holistic wellness, the better it helped me move past those depressing periods in my life, and that was what inspired and started everything.”
Her personal mental health encounters steered her on the path to start her own wellness and coaching centre, where she facilitates holistic wellbeing for others going through similar experiences.
Yinki acknowledges each and every experience as its own unique self, and offers a safe space for her clients to move past stigma and personal constraints, helping them seek their truth and subconscious selves. As a wellness practitioner and certified sound healer, Yinki incorporates various holistic healing systems, from sound and energy, to self-sustaining, empowerment, and other essentials.
“This was something that really benefited me, and then I realised that I could bring this back home, and have my own spin on it, [integrating] my own culture, nuances, and background,” Yinki added.
Marginalised communities are often exposed to major disparities in mental health and women of colour in particular are among the most underserved groups in Asia and around the globe.
Yinki devotes her efforts to serve those like her, who lost themselves to their upbringing, their environment, and unending societal pressures. She expressed, “I have a passion for giving back to women, especially those of colour, as there is so much that has not been explored. We grew up with all this conditioning that we received about how Asian women should be right, carrying all these burdens that don’t belong to us.”
Yinki described her intentions to guide women of colour with challenging vocations to reprioritise their mental and emotional wellbeing, empowering them to reconnect with their confident selves, while educating them on necessary steps to set boundaries and avoid burnout.
“There is a much needed emphasis to decolonise spiritual practices, and also provide a safe space for those from a similar background and upbringing,” Yinki continued.
In addition, Yinki hopes to demystify the ancient practice of sound healing that has been passed along for generations, exploring the science behind the vibrations and their impact on our brainwaves, energies, and wellbeing.
What is Sound Healing?
“Sound healing is about listening to yourself and allowing your body to heal on a cellular level, since we are always on the go. As a sound healer, I want to remind my clients to return back to their whole selves- we all have it inside of us, it’s just that we forget from time to time because of the conditioning, voices or judgements,” said Yinki.
While we all must have heard of singing bowls and gongs, sound healing is the practice that harmonises the use of those instruments to generate different vibrations that allow our body, mind, and subconscious selves to heal. It functions on two separate fundamentals, first understanding the different frequencies of human emotions, and how each has its own sound and vibration. The second principle works on surfacing those repressed emotions, often left unexpressed or buried deep in our subconscious, which are the key contributing factors to our mental and physical ailment.
Furthermore, Yinki described her sound healing and wellness approach as radically compassionate and non-judgemental, where she provides her clients a safe and tranquil space to find alignment within their lives and explore their innermost selves.
Tips On Practising Holistic Wellness and Energy Healing
Make it a Priority to Practise Meditation
Although committing to meditation may seem time-consuming, Yinki stresses the importance of prioritising your mental wellbeing, highlighting the many benefits and changes a person experiences upon fulfilling their daily meditation.
As some may find it difficult to sit around humming to their thoughts, Yinki suggests “to trust your breath,” relax your mind, and practise a different technique called transcendental meditation.
The practice requires one to first sit still, follow your breath, and repeat a self mantra to step away from your thoughts and “ascend to your higher levels of consciousness.” The bliss of the technique is that it does not take up much of your time, and spending only 20 minutes per day can essentially help you build a habit, improve your stress levels and mental clarity, as well as renewing your self-control and emotional management.
Yinki recommends trying a meditation application to help you stay committed to the mindful initiative, and for herself she currently uses Insight Timer, which guides her with timing, tracking, and celebrating her everyday meditative progress.
Try Deep Belly Breathing Pranayama
“For deep belly breathing, all one has to do is to lie down, place both hands on the belly so that the middle fingers touch in the centre line, and breath into the belly expanding it like a balloon, and as one breathes out release all the air out, imagining all the air from a balloon being released. This is incredibly calming for our nervous systems, and helps to let go of tension and invite deep and authentic relaxation,” Yinki advised.
Adopt Little Habits for Big Changes
Yinki personally lives by the Confucius quote, “a person who moves a mountain starts with small stones.”
For her bedtime routine, Yinki tries to spend some quality time reading, and having these little goals in her mind builds momentum for her to try and achieve more every day, while enjoying the process rather than worrying about the end result.
Take Regular Spiritual Baths
Spiritual baths are a traditional practice incorporated in many cultures, symbolising the cleansing of our mind and spirit, with the intent to heal our subconscious senses. The practice is widely adopted by many healers, reiki practitioners, and others, to aid in clearing our chakras to rid of the blockages and negative presence.
Yinki suggests integrating spiritual baths into your wellness routine and rituals, as a means to cleanse your spiritual being. “Release unwanted energies that don’t serve you well,” and take the approach as an overall reset to start afresh, she advised.
Heal Yourself with Sound Daily
“Sound Healing works like a massage for the vibrational and emotional body. Sound Healing [together with] meditation brings immense benefits on the physical, emotional, and mental states. Scientific Studies show that during Sound Healing sessions, our brainwaves reach the frequency associated with deep relaxation (Alpha-Theta Waves at 7.8Hz) This meditative state activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), consequently steering our nervous systems away from the “Fight or Flight” mode of the [Sympathetic nervous system] (SNS),” Yinki shared.
She further elaborated on sound healing’s effects on our body and mind, efficiently putting us in a deep state of composure, for us to reset and restore our energies, which in result will increase our overall productivity and efficiency.
Do Mental Health Checks
While all these tips may help you in your everyday life, it is essential to know when to seek support and conduct regular check-ins with trusted professionals. Mental health checks can be done either online, with your personal wellness coaches, or certified counsellors, therapists, and psychologists. It is a matter of finding the right fit for your needs, where you feel comfortable and supported.
Yinki herself prefers to perform regular mental health check-ins with third party professionals, for an unbiased and outsider perspective to shed some light on her internal struggles. She refers to these as a “great source of emotional release,” deeming them crucial to her personal wellness practice.
If you are looking for a wholesome space to practise holistic wellbeing in a sustainable manner, Yin-ki Wellness & Coaching offers various courses and coaching services that resonate with diverse needs and abilities.
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