BETH CAMPAGNA POSES inside her new Hockinson yoga studio, Yoga Life and Wellness, where she teaches private and semi-private yoga classes and offers wellness and Ayurveda lifestyle consultations.
BETH CAMPAGNA, SHOWN here in a Warrior One pose, is a yoga instructor, wellness coach and Ayurveda lifestyle consultant. Campagna’s goal is to help her clients find peace within themselves through physical yoga postures, breathing techniques and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Something interesting happens when you cross the threshold of a yoga studio. You may not feel it immediately, but it’s there, like a blanket of calm on your shoulders, shielding you from the stress of the outside world, making you exhale your worries away.
At Beth Campagna’s new Hockinson-based yoga studio, the calming effect is nearly instantaneous. Maybe it’s the heater that Campagna’s turned on, the soothing peach colored walls or the stacks of neatly folded blankets atop chocolate brown yoga mats. More likely, it’s Campagna’s own tranquil energy making everything feel floaty and peaceful.
The 57-year-old yoga instructor wears her calm well. Once inside the small studio space she recently opened in the Hockinson Market building, Campagna gracefully lowers herself to the floor and takes a deep, centering breath.
“Everyone is looking for peace and calm,” Campagna says. “And yoga helps you still the mind and find that balance within yourself.”
A former legal attorney, Campagna understands what it’s like to be completely stressed out and harried.
“Before I started to practice yoga in 1990, I was known as a hyper person,” Campagna says. “But now people tell me I seem calm and relaxed.”
An ongoing commitment to yoga has also helped Campagna cope with the pain, fatigue and mood disorders associated with her fibromyalgia diagnosis.
“It’s all about the breath,” Campagna says. “Sometimes, instead of reaching for coffee for a pick-me-up, you can take a breath and sit tall. It’s energizing.”
Unfortunately, thanks to modern work demands and urban lifestyles, most of our bodies aren’t so quick to energize with a deep breath. In fact, Campagna says a modern phenomena known as “computer body” leads to rounded shoulders, aching necks and a diminished capacity to breath deep and flood our body with a needed oxygen energy boost. Yoga can help reverse the damaging effects of daily life on the body, mind and soul.
“Yoga is based on the idea that the mind and body are one,” Campagna says. “Yoga can improve health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress.”
The way Campagna sees it, if we can just lower our daily stress levels, we can start to heal our physical, emotional and spiritual beings too.
“Stress takes a toll on every part of the body,” Campagna says. “So helping people decrease their stress is probably the number one goal of my yoga instruction.”
In addition to teaching private and semi-private hatha yoga classes out of her new Hockinson space, Campagna also helps people live healthier, more balanced lives as a certified wellness coach and Ayurveda lifestyle consultant.
“Ayurveda is a holistic system of healing originating in India … and is the sister science of yoga,” Campagna explains. “Ayurveda’s goal is to help us help ourselves find balance and restore health.”
Ayurveda’s emphasis on the individual fits nicely with Campagna’s approach to teaching yoga. When clients sign up for her private or semi-private (maximum of two students) yoga classes, Campagna assesses each student’s personal and unique needs before planning her specialized yoga practice. Likewise, with Ayurveda, each client’s personal mixture of physical, mental and emotional qualities play into their unique health care plan.
Campagna’s approach to yoga and Ayurveda matches her gentle, calm personality. Breaking old habits is tough, she says, and people need to be good to themselves, to not beat themselves up over every health misstep.
“Those grooves we get into take a while to get out of,” Campagna says. “I like to think of taking penguin steps. Have you ever seen how penguins walk? It’s small steps, but think about how far they get! We all need to be gentle on ourselves and realize that life is stressful and that old habits are hard to break.”
Campagna tries to practice what she preaches. That means daily yoga practice and not beating herself up if she skips a day or doesn’t make the most healthful choice for her body. Taking care of herself also means getting bodywork from other healers. In fact, one of those healers – massage therapist Melody Vorce – led Campagna to her Hockinson yoga studio.
Vorce, who practices in the Hockinson Market building, along with Cheri Hill of 4-H Auto, another business in the Hockinson cooperative, urged Campagna to check out one of the building’s empty business spaces. She did and the rest, as they say, is history.
A resident of Fisher’s Landing in east Vancouver, Campagna is just getting to know the Hockinson community, but says so far she’s been pleased by the response.
“I love this area,” Campagna says. “The people here are so nice. It’s a wonderful, close-knit community. Melody and Cheri were so supportive … and my husband, Antonio, he’s been my biggest supporter. If he didn’t say ‘go for it,’ I might have hesitated. But he’s been so encouraging. It’s wonderful.”
Campagna’s Yoga Life and Wellness studio is located at 15814 NE 182nd Ave., Brush Prairie, inside the Hockinson Market cooperative. She is available for private and semi-private yoga lessons, wellness consultations and Ayurveda consultations by appointment. To learn more about Yoga Life and Wellness, visit www.yogalifeandwellness.com, email YogaLifeandWellness@yahoo.com, or call Campagna at (360) 608-6980.
