An Interview with Chun Shim Nim, the first Dahn Yoga pioneer in the Greater Boston area.
Chun Shim Nim is a master healer, workshop trainer and mentor to many of the Boston area Dahn Yoga instructors
Chun Shim Nim (center, with pink scarf) pioneered the first Dahn Yoga Centers in the Boston area in the late 1990's. She is pictured here with Shim Sung graduates from Honor's Haven Resort and Spa, where she currently works.
and trainers. She came to the area in 1996 and was one of the first group of instructors who introduced Dahn Yoga to the US. At that time, there were no Dahn Yoga Centers. Now, fourteen years later, there are four centers, and many off-site classes or franchise centers run by members that started in Boston, including in such far-off places such as Sweden and Israel.
In this interview, David Sholmenson (who is using his spiritual name of Chun Yool- CY), asks Chun Shim nim about her arrival here, what she accomplished and her dreams for the future.
Chun Yool (CY): Can you tell us about your journey from Korea to the USA and how what happened when you got here?
Chun Shim (CS): Like everybody else, after living and searching for something uncertain, but at the same time certain, for over thirty years, I met Dahn Yoga and the Shim Sung workshop. (In Korea) During the workshop a voice of someone in my heart shouted out “live your Soul!”, which I hadn’t experienced in books or lectures before. Since then, I became an example of hope, because if, even I who was not special at all, could feel this voice of my soul, then I believed everybody could do it. I became an instructor, and after awhile, the Dahn Company headquarters asked me and my husband (who was also an instructor) if and where we wanted to go abroad to teach because of our prior experience travelling in Europe. We decided to come to the USA because energetically this country has the hugest impact on the world. If something healthy happens in this country, it will influence all other countries.
When I really trusted the voice in my heart without fear and doubt, it took care of everything we needed to get to the USA successfully. What happened when I got here? I think it is what ET experienced when he came to the earth: cultural shock, making friends, connection, learning, understanding, healing flowers and human’s 3 bodies, longing for the Souls. A member asked me long ago “Don’t you miss your family and country?” –I answered, “What I really miss is your Soul.”
CY: Tell us how you went from teaching from your living room in a small apartment in Somerville, MA to opening 10 centers in the New England region.
CSN: The first place was a one bed room apartment in Arlington. If you want me to talk about the whole process, I can write several books about it. Awakening experiences everyday! Anyway the start was $400, a deposit for rent. We had to create everything from nothing. But everything was here already. Souls in everybody! When we made just one focus, everything just happened, neither too much nor less : “Attraction of Mind!” Then my husband moved to the main office of Dahn Yoga after 3 1/2 months. Since then I have lived for/with the voice, one vision, help everybody live their Soul. It has been total experience of creation, “visualization of invisible power”. People came when it was meant, material came when needed, places showed up when needed. Some people left and some people came like tides when I held just one life guard within, my Soul’s wish. What I did was/is just one thing, keeping my Soul’s wish, ‘Soul’ which is beyond everything, nationality, gender, age, belief etc.
CY: What is your dream for the USA and all the world?
CSN: When Dahn Yoga came here, the beginning was like when a little boy found the ET in the closet in the darkness. So different. But soon they become friends. My wish is to see that the boy and ET fly together on a bike in the huge full moon night. I believe Shim Sung workshop is a great tool for this vision.
(Editor’s note: In February of 2009, Chun Shim Nim left the Boston area twelve plus years after arriving. She travelled and worked in various parts of the country eventually making her way to the Honor’s Haven Resort and Spa in Ellenville, NY to manage the Wellness Department there. )
CY: Now that you are at Honors Haven, what is your vision for the Wellness team? What would you like Honors Haven to become and represent to the world?
CSN: my vision for the wellness team is: 1. To create one mind and one vision in Honors Haven. 2. To grow the True Self (Shim Sung) workshop at Honors Haven. The True Self workshop means finding your true self, finding your true strength, self healing and more. By that I mean that so many people will come here to join the True Self Workshop that we have to make a waiting list 3. Invite similar-minded people (like Deepak Chopra, Caroline Myss, etc) to Honor’s Haven and have them give lectures, workshops, etc, be a partner with Yoga Journal, and be part of a big healing community. 4. Help make Ellenville to make it “Wellenville” through the growth of Honor’s Haven. 5. Become a healing chakra for the world, meaning that people come here to learn and experience how to become ‘hong ik in gan’ and then go out and do good things. (Hong ik in gan means people who can create peace within themsevles and then live to benefit all around them.)
For more information about Honor’s Haven and the Wellness Center, please visit: http://www.honorshaven.com and click on the ‘Wellness’ Tab.
Chun Yool, or David Sholmenson, is a Dahn Healer School graduate and instructor at the Brookline Dahn Yoga Center. He has also travelled all over Northeast of the US and even to Switzerland with Chun Shim nim as a music trainer for the True Self workshop.
