DB’s Chaukei Ngai is a welcome breath of fresh air for the wellness community. Elizabeth Kerr reports.
“I’m lazy,” declares Chaukei Ngai almost laconically as she putters around her DB North Plaza yoga studio wrangling tea and firing up some music before a chat. It’s a typically soupy DB day and she’s between classes, so rushing to her email isn’t high on her to-do list – hence the ‘lazy’ crack. She’s here; that’s good enough. Unstressed is probably a better word to describe her work and life ethic.
Chaukei has been fortunate to marry work and life at the 18-month-old YogaUP after coming home from Boulder Colorado. When she made that decision, she was playing it by ear. Make no mistake: Chaukei is as even-keeled and as calm as, well, a yogi, but she’s not distracted or anything less than sure-footed. Chaukei has simply learnt to filter the stress out of her life.
“I never really handled stress well,” she recalls of her life before yoga.
The art of finding stillness
Born and raised in Hong Kong, in the Sai Wan area, Chaukei went to university in Vancouver to study interior design in 1995. That led to a deadline-driven, pressure- packed job in Taipei, which also brought a lifelong breathing problem back to the fore.
A four-pound, premature baby, Chaukei first developed breathing problems aged two. “I’d be gasping for air, and it was really scary,” she says. “There were lots of hospital visits but we never really knew what caused it. I just learnt to live with it.” Following an episode in Taipei and another trip to A&E, her doctor suggested her breathing issues might bepsychological. So Chaukei quit her job and went to study psychology in Toronto. “That’s how it all started,” she says.
In this case ‘all’ is her yoga path, one that took Chaukei to – no joke – the high-status International Yoga Asana championship in 2013. Her first brush with yoga came in Taipei in 2005, and she continued to practise when she noticed a remarkable improvement in her breathing. The regular hospital visits stopped, and Chaukei claims she, “gained the tools to become aware of this one little element. It took a while to figure out.”
Chaukei continued with yoga in Toronto and eventually headed to a teacher training course in Los Angeles. More changes were in store, as that’s where she met her eight-year-old son Osiris’ father, Esak, also a yoga champion. The last stop was Boulder. “I was attracted to the mountains,” she says simply. While it wasn’t exactly a culture shock, it was a new kind of life.
“After these cities, the fast pace and lots of Asians… I get to Boulder, which is not very diverse,” Chaukei says with a laugh. “But it was very natural, and the first time I saw it I thought, I could live here. I was pregnant, so maybe I was more connected to the environment or something,” she finishes with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Harmonising body and mind
Chaukei’s down-to-earth attitude and the dearth of brand names on the athletic gear she’s wearing make it easy to see why YogaUP has developed such a following so fast.
The studio, however, wasn’t part of a master plan when she made her way back to Hong Kong in 2014, Osiris in tow. Chaukei had been teaching out of her DB home, but travelling too. “It was an organic decision. Every time I went away my devoted students stopped their practice, so the studio worked for them too. It was very simple,” she says.
The space in DB North Plaza was perfect, a terrace making for an easy-going social spot, which was key. For Chaukei it’s all about community. “I like seeing everyone hang out on the terrace after class,” she says.
Discovery Bay was an organic choice too, never mind the fact that Osiris prefers it to the city and Chaukei herself is over the in-your-face nature of Central and Kowloon.
“I needed to pick a middle ground between Boulder and Hong Kong. I connected to DB right away,” she says. “My parents live in the New Territories, and there will always be a place in my heart for Hong Kong; it’s my home. But it just doesn’t work with a child. I knew DB would be the only place I could live if I came back.”
Sustaining consciousness
So here she is. And despite being a yoga champion – we’re getting to that – Chaukei is careful about cultivating a space that’s not just for “crazy yoga poses,” but also focuses on the discipline’s core tenet. YogaUP is for toning up and waking up.
“People come here and start opening up, not just physically but in the heart and mind. And people connect to each other organically. Yoga has its own magic,”
Chaukei says. Chaukei will help with contortions if asked, but these days her goal is betterment. After all, a yogi who needed to find a way to concentrate on his inner self created the asana. Similarly, Chaukei wants clients “to learn about themselves – to become a better mom, husband, person”. She respects the likes of Pure Yoga and its ability to spread the yoga gospel, but wanted her studio to be more personalised.
Chaukei’s seven years of competition actually laid the groundwork for YogaUP. Competing was more about learning to shut out the external noise. “When you’re up on stage, it doesn’t matter how much you practice if you don’t maintain focus and stay present,” she says. “We’re all afraid of falling in front of people.”
And Chaukei admits the idea of competitive yoga seems contradictory to the message, even though competitions in India go back a hundred years. “To most people in the West or in Hong Kong, it’s about someone else losing, and that doesn’t sound like yoga at all,” she says.
Chaukei strikes that perfect balance between Goop-style wellness prophet (without being asinine) and ambitious businesswoman – though one who staunchly refuses to give herself an ulcer. She does work with brands such as Adidas, and she’s a serious social media influencer.
“I have to find a balance between that and working with the brands I do. If you asked me three years ago, I wouldn’t teach for Adidas,” she admits of the free classes the company offers staff. Chaukei can take ‘selling out’ if the ends justify the means.
“If people get into yoga because they want to show off their Lulu Lemon outfit or they want a tighter butt… it doesn’t really matter,” she finishes. “Just as long as you get people into the class.”
FIND IT:
• YogaUP, www.yogaup.com.hk
Images: Baljit Gidwani – www.evoqueportraits.com
Tags: chaukei ngai, exercise, spirituality, yoga
