Christina Mae Wolf has shifted her popular yoga classes to the virtual world with Zoom, a video and audio conference platform that allows her to continue teaching her customers daily.
Embody Movement and Wellness Center offers 35 classes, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., serving over 200 members. Class size attendance online is comparable to what Embody had in its studio before the stay-at-home orders, ranging from about four people on the low end to around 30 or more on the upper end.
Christina Mae Wolf combined her background in movement and dance, yoga, wellness and business to create Embody in 2013 with the desire to build a new community-centered model of connection.
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As all non-essential businesses have been shuttered under Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order on March 25, one Centralia business owner has adapted and embraced these new times.
Embody Movement and Wellness Center owner Christina Mae Wolf has shifted her popular yoga classes to the virtual world with Zoom, a video and audio conference platform that allows her to continue teaching her customers daily.
The holistic fitness center is focused on yoga and nia and offers 35 classes, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., serving over 200 members. Class size attendance online is comparable to what Embody had in its studio before the stay-at-home orders, ranging from about four people on the low end to around 30 or more on the upper end.
“Our students have been so grateful for the opportunity to maintain their normal routine and see and connect with each other online before and after classes,” Wolf said.
Wolf celebrated her birthday on March 31 and her class that day had almost 80 people.
Early Beginnings
Wolf, a Chehalis native, grew up dancing in the community and took her first yoga class when she was 18 years old. She moved away for eight years and attended business school. While there, her 20s became an evolution of learning about what it meant to live a holistically healthy life where she was caring for her body in healthy ways — not judgmentally.
“I began to learn and understand that there was another way to live that felt a lot better,” Wolf said. “That meant taking care of myself. Not just my body but my mind and building connections and communities. Going a little deeper than the surface.”
When she returned to Lewis County in 2011, she realized there was a local need for a more holistic approach to health and well-being. There was no alternative to working out in a gym. So she combined her background in movement and dance, yoga, wellness and business to create Embody in 2013 with the desire to build a new community-centered model of connection.
“I just had this calling that I was supposed to do this, and I can’t really tell you why other than I just knew that with my passion, skills and experience that I could be the one to bring this unique space and offering to our community,” Wolf said.
Located at 115. S. Tower. Ave., in Centralia, Embody also has a boutique that offers yoga apparel, mats, cosmetics and skin care, as well as massage therapy. It was designed to be a one-stop shop for all things that support people living their healthiest and happiest life.
The Payoff
When the on-site studio was still open, people would come in because they wanted to be healthy, they wanted to feel better, lose weight, all the things that spark people to seek out a fitness program. But what’s kept people staying at Embody is they’re not only receiving a physical workout but they find it helps calm their mind, level their emotions and they walk out with a greater sense of peace for the rest of their life, Wolf said.
So as she watched the news of COVID-19 spreading worldwide, she anticipated the closure that would likely follow. And she knew not offering classes and abandoning the community when they needed it most was not an option.
“Our community relies on our classes — not only for their physical health — but for their mental and emotional health, as well,” Wolf said. “I knew that they would need us now more than ever and that I needed to find a solution to continue to serve.”
So she wasted no time in adapting and preparing to bring her classes to the virtual world.
On March 13, Embody was open for business in its studio, and on March 14 it had officially moved all of its classes to Zoom. The transition went so well that Embody didn’t miss or cancel a single class.
Embody has been able to run its full class roster and schedule with all its teachers as it did before the stay-at-home order. Basically everything is the same as before, other than instead of customers coming into the center for classes, they do it virtually from their homes. And the online video format has helped the business grow to reach people from around the world, including Israel, China and Italy.
Still, most of the contingent consists of locals, Wolf said, as the classes have become popular in Lewis County, many of which are embracing the online format.
“Attending zoom classes with Embody is allowing me to have a small piece of my familiar daily routine that I treasure and miss so much,” said Brynn Sas of Centralia. “Creating the space and time to share in joyful movement with my friends and community makes me feel better, and that ripples to everyone living in my house.”
Sherry Nickerson, manager of Book ‘n’ Brush in Chehalis, has been having an equally rewarding experience with the online classes.
“Tapping into digital workouts is not very new, but seeing and interacting with people you know from your own community and meeting people from afar is pretty special,” Nickerson said. “My emotional self loves seeing these people(and) verifying that they are still feeling healthy by joining this platform for an hour.”
For anyone interested in joining, they can sign up on Embody’s website at www.embodycentralia.com. A single online class is $9. One week of unlimited online classes is $19. One month of unlimited online classes is priced at $79.
More Information on Embody Movement Studio
Online class schedule: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., daily, on Zoom
Location: 115 S. Tower Ave., Centralia
Phone: 360-330-2639
Email: Christina@EmbodyCentralia.com
Website: www.embodycentralia.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/embodycentralia
Instagram: www.instagram.com/embodycentralia
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Reporter Eric Trent can be reached at etrent@chronline.com. Visit chronline.com/business for more coverage of local businesses.
