Tucked away in the higher floors of Kuala Lumpur’s G-Vestor Tower is Sages, the newest wellness hub, meditation studio, and event space, that welcomes you with a clean and calming interior design. Sages is the brainchild of Allyson Yeo and Michael Teh, a husband-and-wife duo who aim to empower others with the right tools, techniques and insights into unlocking their true potential.
Though both Allyson and Michael are in the wellness space now, the start of their careers couldn’t be more different. Michael started his career as a mechanical engineer before moving into investment and entrepreneurship, while Allyson worked in the finance sector. They first met while they were both working in Singapore in the early years of their career, juggling work and family in tough fields and a city not exactly known for being work-life balance friendly.
Finding peace and the path to Sages
Michael found his calling on an enlightening trip to Nepal in 2019, which sparked a year of deconstruction and reconstruction as he found his way back to his true self. Prior to that, he was fully on the path of wealth creation, working hard to make money and achieve financial freedom.
“Throughout 10 years of building an investment portfolio and founding a business, I also went through failures with the business and partnerships. There was a lot of stress and anxiety that [built up] from all the responsibility that I was holding for myself, my wife, and my family, which I did not realise at the time,” he shares.
Michael’s friends sent him on a short seven-day meditation workshop, which served as the “seed of realisation” for him to feel what it was like to be in a peaceful state. He went seeking for more through daily practice and his spiritual travels, which led him to the aforementioned Nepal, as well as Hawaii, India, and Indonesia.
“I want to be able to share this, teach others, and help them evolve their consciousness and change their life too.” – Michael Teh
He explains, “In that year, I found my calling. I was truly able to embody what it’s like to be in a state of peace. I told myself, if that workshop can change my life, I want to be able to share this, teach others, and help them evolve their consciousness and change their life too.”
What followed after is the founding of I Am Michael Teh in 2020, as a platform and brand for Michael to start hosting workshops and guided meditation sessions for others. From hosting in their condo’s function room, the programmes soon outgrew the space, and eventually led to the decision to build Sages as a dedicated wellness hub for meditation and beyond.
For Allyson, the trigger point came when she had her first child. “I had my first baby in 2015. Michael decided to be an investor, and I decided to quit my job. We came back to Malaysia, and life is so different here. We have space, and I get to connect with my kid. Now with all this free time, I started to think,” she explains.
Allyson naturally picked up more and more books in her pursuit, but after a while everything started to sound the same – and so her search continued. “I needed to read something else to really excite me more. So I went to the philosophy section, and I thought ‘please give me something, tell me what is there more to life than just work.’ So, I searched,” she continues.
Through her reading, she found the term ‘sustainable happiness’ which gave a new meaning to her search for purpose. Ever the logical one, she made lists to identify what could truly bring her sustainable happiness, and one thing stood out: education and knowledge.
“It wasn’t just sustainable happiness that I was searching for, it was peace.” – Allyson Yeo
She goes on to say, “Education stays with you for life. Nobody can take away what you have studied, your knowledge. Education is the thing that could change the world.” It would take a few years before this discovery took true form, and it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that Allyson naturally came to the idea of Sages.
“It wasn’t just sustainable happiness that I was searching for, it was peace. Because of my natural curiosity for life, Sages is a very natural thing for me to do. So I ventured onto this path to provide knowledge, education and to serve the world through this way,” she shares.
“I think life has a funny way of bringing us together. I always thought that we were destined to be together to do this,” Allyson says of Sages and both their journeys to finding the way here.
Sages Voice and bridging wellness with technology
Building Sages has been a few years in the making for Allyson, who heads the operations as CEO, and Michael, who fronts all workshops in his capacity as Meditation Coach. But Sages is more than just a wellness brand, it aims to provide unique and holistic programmes in the space of individual empowerment and corporate wellness. They offer curated packages for team-building to fit both short and long sessions, as well as open workshops for individuals covering topics like The Art of Letting Go, as well as a full 2-day Unlock Your Potential Workshop.
Aside from Michael’s programmes, Sages has already made itself a choice venue for exclusive wellness sessions by international coaches, like Singapore’s The Sirius Sound who were on-site for the grand opening event on 22 April.
Another speciality of Sages lie in Sages Voice, a state-of-the-art, AI-driven vocal biomarker software that can give you a comprehensive report on your emotional well-being and physical health – with just a short recording of your voice. Sages Voice analyses voice patterns like tone, pitch, and rhythm and brain frequencies and turns it into an 18-page detailed report with insights on your stress levels, potential health risks and more.
On how the software works, Allyson explains, “There’s a quote by Nikola Tesla, which is ‘if you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.’ So Sages Voice is able to detect all those health markers from just the sound of your voice. With things like sound healing and sound baths, we know that sound can affect us, but it can also reveal the emotions you are experiencing inside.”
Quick, easy, and non-invasive, Sages Voice can be done anywhere as long as you have a microphone and a quiet place to record from. The software requires at least two minutes of your voice recording for accurate analysis and makes it accessible to have an accurate starting point on your wellness journey.
“People always say they’re stressed, but Sages Voice can quantify the level of stress and put a number to it, and even with your things like your chakra energy levels. The AI does machine learning and continuously learns from every piece of new data to produce better reports every time,” Allyson continues.
The Sages Voice Emotional Health Screening package is currently priced at RM399 and comes with a one-on-one personal consultation session with a Sages Coach to help you understand the report which advising you with actionable insights. “My ultimate goal is to eventually bridge spirituality with science. I’m really passionate about that, but it requires a lot of research, so we will slowly get there,” Allyson shares.
Looking ahead for Sages
Fresh off their grand launch but already a ground-breaking wellness space for the scene here in Malaysia, Sages is off to a good start in rethinking how wellness can be taught and shared. And from here, there’s more on the horizon for Sages, Allyson and Michael.
“In the very near future, we’re going to launch Sages City Retreat, a one-day programme which will include some of Michael’s courses, as well as other things like journalling and self-reflection moments. We’re also looking into inviting many different wellness professionals and teachers to collaborate on the retreat,” Allyson reveals.
The main area of Sages is the transformative space, open and available to change depending on the needs of the workshop or event.
Sages welcomes you with a clean and calming interior, open and accepting of the transformations waiting within.
The reception area is also equipped with a little pantry, perfect for day-long workshops and team building programmes.
Consultation and meeting rooms are also available for private, one-on-one sessions and discussions to support your wellness.
Michael continues, “With this space and our connections, our strength is in curating the right programmes and people to teach, and with Sages City Retreat we want more people to come to this space for healing and transformation. So we’re going down that route of empowering different teachers, and coming up with more programmes to bring value to the community.”
Aside from Sages City Retreat, the duo is looking into providing certification through Michael’s courses, in order to produce more meditation coaches to amplify their impact. “For this, I’ve had to jump back into the corporate world, writing formal emails and seeking documentation,” Allyson laughs, but she assures me it’s a challenge she enjoys and one that all her prior experiences have prepared her for.
“The funny thing is though we work in wellness, it doesn’t mean we’re meditating every day. We’re still living a normal life,” she continues. Michael agrees, adding that “We’re still human beings navigating human life, just that we’re more aware and conscious, we have the tools that can help us transcend the pain and suffering. And we would like to share these tools with as many people as we can.”
Learn more about Sages and the wellness programmes on offer on their website and stay tuned to their Instagram page for announcements on future workshops.
Images courtesy of Sages.