Spotlight.
LiYing Lim
INTRODUCTION
Based in Edinburgh LiYing Lim is a Ceremonial Leader and founder of When Still Waters Speak LiYing combines her background in luxury editorial and holistic wellness to design meaningful guest experiences rooted in the ancient art of Cha Dao, The Way of Tea. Her work bridges the gap between sacred ritual and refined hospitality, inviting guests into a state of calm awareness and inner balance. LiYing has also been featured in
Harper’s Bazaar, Holistic Scotland, Prestige Magazine, The Sun Daily, and Creative Mornings Edinburgh
INTERVIEW
How did you get into your creative practice? What initially inspired you?
I was working in my dream job at that time - I have gone from a role as Beauty Editor at the high fashion magazine in my home country, Malaysia at Harper's BAZAAR to working in Hong Kong with South China Morning Post - when I woke up to a sensation that there must be more to this life. I got an answer from the universe in the form of a media invitation to experience a tea ceremony at a newly opened holistic wellness location, and I immediately said yes to it, without thinking much of it.
That experience broke me open to an aspect of me that I had never experienced before. When I entered the room, I was struck by the stillness and beauty of it all. I was served tea in a bowl without a word. I took a sip and was transported to a place where al my grandmothers and women in my lineage sat with me. I saw my late grandmother calmly seated by a cauldron of tea, waiting patiently for it to come to perfect boil. And then I heard: "You must drop everything you know, and go and serve tea." That was the beginning of everything.
What themes do you tend to interrogate in your creative practices?
The core theme that comes up is something that I see weaves together a lot of the things that may seem normalised but absolutely not normal for a woman to face in daily life. Firstly, women who work with me in mentorship, as well as what I do in my own personal practice, come with a deep devotion to inner work. How to become a better person can be the starting point, but eventually, we go to a place where we realise that even that thought can be a self-serving loop that keeps us in a wounded, victim mentality.
So the key here is to free ourselves to have the freedom to evolve through life without egoic attachments to any kind of accolades, identification and material as well as spiritual standards. It is only through our deeper understanding of what life is from a divine being's perspective - where we come to experience and embody this knowing that we are born whole, unique and completely interconnected to a greater stillness within us - can we finally be free to be who we truly are, authentically and wholeheartedly. This is where we do not wait for the system to change. We are the change.
What is your favourite project you’ve ever worked on and why?
I am a person who loves to go where the soul leads, so when it comes to projects I choose to get involved in, I have learnt to really dial in on that instead of going into whatever based on what the mind thinks is beneficial. I love what I am working on now: it is called LIVING DIVINITY, and it is an upcoming 6-month mentorship that will go deep into the art of flowing to the divine within us here and now. It begins in June, but the energetic groundwork is being laid.
What advice would you have for creatives of colour looking to get into your creative practices?
I would say this: I have connected to my own roots, racially and culturally, through tea when I had previously grew up on such deep colonisation systematic beliefs, such as my skin colour does not give me the same advantages as another. So I would wholeheartedly love to share tea as a way into that deeper part in your being that you may not have ever shone light upon. I know we all did not come to this earth by accident. We all have gifts to share, and what we are born with is one of that.
What are you currently working on?
LIVING DIVINITY.