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When Jacquie Hill was working as a nanny, and training to be a yoga teacher, she found the two began to integrate. “I didn’t pick to teach yoga, I think yoga picked me.” In her years of business with Body Bliss Yoga, she has found that close personal attention, combined with the intimacy of her downtown Camas yoga studio, has helped give rise to changes in her yoga students’ breath patterns, posture, movement, sleep habits, ease and confidence levels.
Jacquie has been personally involved with yoga for the past decade and served as a yoga instructor for the last seven. She lives in the Crown Park area of Camas and wanted to work in a more centralized area. When she purchased Body Bliss Yoga (in December 2018), she was “way out in Washougal, and I knew business growth wasn’t going to work and we weren’t going to do well there. Then, everything kind of fell into place. The lease was up on the Washougal location and I found out Paul Cheek of Rushing Water Yoga was going to no longer be open, the location in downtown Camas would be available.” She opened her studio in Downtown Camas in May 2019.
There have been challenges faced to get to where Body Bliss is today. “Honestly, the biggest challenge for me was change,” Jacquie said. “I bought Body Bliss Yoga which was already an established yoga community. The previous owner had it for seven years and part of the challenge was the unrest with the owner change and moving locations added to the challenge within the Body Bliss Yoga community. I had to follow my heart and intuition versus the noise within the community to make the move. Now, knowing about the pandemic we’re experiencing, if we had been in the other location, we wouldn’t have survived. Also, I had parents who owned a bakery, so I had some business knowledge. They also offered advice and understanding. All is well today because ‘the only constant in life is change.’”
Of course, with yoga, there’s a learning curve. “Many times I have people wander in and ask, ‘what do you do?’ I explain and invite them to a class. I always introduce them to regulars within the class. They can see and hear first hand about this yoga community,” Jacquie explained. “Prior to COVID-19, I had a discussion with the Camas Hotel to offer drop-in or a week-long pass. Again, part of my business philosophy is to help other local businesses, because when we all thrive, we all survive. And in discussion with the other health and fitness businesses in Camas, we looked to offer a ‘Summer Park fitness class’ with other participating businesses. We were having this conversation and then March (the pandemic) happened. When we get back, we will talk more about this fun possibility.”
A year in for the downtown Camas yoga studio, and Jacquie finds many common qualities of her clients and students, with the focus always on health and wellness, the overall physical/mental/emotional wellness. “And the thing I hear the most is Body Bliss Yoga is so community-focused. We are more inclusive in the fact that yoga moves are for anyone with a body. We do yoga for ANY body. If someone comes in and says ‘I can’t touch my toes, yoga isn’t for me,’ that’s not the case here. Our yoga philosophy, for anyone regardless of age or ability, is that we want people to feel welcome, safe, to be themselves and to be able to discover their strength and benefits of yoga.”
She said one major community focus for Body Bliss Yoga is to foster business connections and support other downtown businesses. “I said that if I ever had a business where I could give a leg-up to other businesses, I would,” Jacquie said, “So here at the studio, I often invite other artisans to showcase their goods.”
She stressed the fact that Body Bliss Yoga Studio is a community-based yoga and movement studio, with some of the largest selection of classes in the Camas and Washougal area. They are proudly located in historic downtown Camas, and the studio is focused on creating a healthy space for the whole family to move with experienced instructors. In addition to daily yoga classes, Body Bliss Yoga also offers workshops to deepen yoga practice, retreats, adventures, community building events, yoga teacher training with Fly High Yoga School, and children’s programming with Little Warriors Yoga School.
And yes, yoga has been proven to rejuvenate the whole body in many different areas. So what is one yoga pose Jacquie would recommend for beginners that would have the maximum benefit?
“Probably the best one would be the child’s pose. It’s good for grounding, you feel your heartbeat, breathe in and out and block out all senses. It stretches the muscles of the lower back, as well as the inner thighs. It promotes flexibility, stress relief and helps circulation to the muscles, joints, and discs of the back.”