Summertime is about relaxation. Students out of school spend time working, playing and practicing sports, and decompressing from a long school year. Adults get to take vacations with their families and spend weekends on the Pamlico.

Beaufort County is quite serene on a sunny summer day. Harp Karate is aiming to teach local people how to channel that tranquility and make it a part of their everyday life.

Robert Harp has been using the art of karate to promote both mental and physical wellbeing in the county. The dojo also recently added yoga to its offerings, too. Instructor Sharon Owens has been practicing yoga for over 25 years and she’s been teaching it for five years. She specializes in Kripalu yoga, which is learning how to be fully present in the moment-by-moment experience of being alive.

“Stress reduction is what most westerners go to yoga for,” Owens said. “… It’s so much more. Once you get into it, most people love it.”

Owens said that during all her years doing yoga, she lived in many places and had many teachers. Her favorite teachers were Kripalu instructors, so she pursued a certification in that brand.

“They like it. I have students that go to other classes, as well,” Owens said. “They love this. … It’s good for any age. There’s a big movement for yoga for children and in the schools.”

She cited testimonials from students. One said, “Yoga is the best gift I can give myself.” Another said, “I feel like the tin man has just been oiled.”

Harp and Owens can both see the impact of what they do in the faces of their students when they come in and when they leave the dojo right off the waterfront.

Of course, karate has been playing a similar role in the area. Harp teaches the martial arts to give his students self-defense techniques, but so much of it is spent on stress relief and general wellbeing.

He said he sees more young students in the summer thanks to schools being out. Harp enjoys meditation because of the inner focus and mental relief that it brings. It’s something that anyone can benefit from, but he finds a particular enjoyment in teaching it to younger people.

“You know if someone is moving. You know how they’re breathing,” he said. “I sit there and I try to visualize facial expressions on parents because, when we sit there for a couple of minutes and their child is dead silent and not moving, they have to be wondering, ‘Is that my child?’”

Harp said he’s seen people with health issues ranging from degenerative back issues to foot surgery improve their quality of life thanks to karate and yoga. In the end, that’s the fundamental goal of each practice.

Both Harp and Owens have plenty of offerings to make karate and yoga accessible. Harp holds group classes and private lessons. Owens also teaches yoga outside of the dojo.

For more information, visit Harp Karate on 200 West Steward Parkway next to the new Ribeyes restaurant.