Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Campise.
Hi Ashley, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up dancing competitively in a studio. After graduating high school it became apparent that I needed some sort of outlet but I didn’t want to attend the adult dance classes just yet. I found yoga in 2011 when my mom and I purchased a Groupon to a heated studio in Chesterfield. It was carpeted.. bleekkk.. I can almost still smell that room. haha. A heated yoga practice was and still is not for me but a seed was certainly planted that day. Fast forward to 2015 I found a sweet little (regular temperature) yoga studio in St. Charles and fell in love. I showed up on my mat almost daily and my life outside of the studio began to shift. I found something that resonated with my soul. I took the 200 hour yoga teacher training the studio offered and from there it was off to the races. A few years later I continued on a to complete a 300 hour teacher training with my now teacher in Tucson, AZ. There were times in my life I was running around town to 5 different studios teaching 15 classes per week. It was totally exhausting and not lucrative at all. I started to lead teacher trainings with a very dear friend and my running around town to teach slowed a bit. Fast forward to today I opened a yoga studio in St. Peters and it’s been a wild ride. I wouldn’t trade any of it in though. Each piece of the puzzle has been integral to this chapter I have arrived in and I feel wildly grateful.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’d say the road has been smooth then bumpy then pothole city back to smooth back to bumpy and so on. haha. Nothing in life is all smooth. But nothing in life is all bumpy either. It is both/and. I think there were times that I was burnt out but didn’t know it. There were times that it was hard to pay bills. But I always figured it out. There have been times throughout this journey that people I thought had my best interest didn’t. As much as a person might think that yoga practitioners are enlightened beings.. we are not.. haha! There have been many struggles on the path but I am certain now that each part of the path has prepared me for where I am right now. So, again, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am first and foremost a student of yoga. After that I am a yoga teacher. I specialize in making the practice of yoga accessible to every body. It’s something I am deeply passionate about. I’d say I am most “known for” that in the yoga world. I am most proud of opening hOMe Yoga, the studio I founded in St. Peters, Never in a million years did I think I would open a studio but the path lead me to that and I now see why. I am not entirely sure what sets me apart form others because I think we are all too vast to be put into boxes.. but I know that adding value to those around me is something that is very important to me. I want to see people and hear them. There is nothing more special to me than being seen and heard in this life.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Darren Rhodes. My teacher, mentor and friend. He saw potential in me when I certainly did not see it in myself. He inspires me every single day to step into being the person I am meant to be. He is deeply authentic and that is so rare in this day and age. My friend, Erin Schulte who is someone I am deeply inspired by. She and I were able to continue the yogahour lineage (influenced by our teacher Darren Rhodes) in St. Louis and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. She is a class act and an incredible yoga teacher. My husband, Steve Simonis. I am convinced that his heart is actually made out of gold. He is the kindest most loving man I have ever known and he is my biggest supporter and cheerleader.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.homeyogamo.com/
- Instagram: @ashleysimonisyoga and @homeyogamo
- Facebook: @homeyogamo
- Other: @ashleysimonisyoga on substack and Yoga Teacher Chats on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
