WELLNESS

Restoring your health

Betsy Belk finds peace practicing, teaching yoga

Story and Art by Gracie Byrne

We all wear an array of hats, and Betsy Belk is no different. She is many things, but when yoga is concerned, she is a teacher.

She didn’t always teach yoga. Belk had always been someone who was physically active, taking kickboxing and spin classes as part of her routine. But her body had changed and needed something different.

After the birth of her third child in 2011, she began suffering from back pain that prevented her from participating in her normal routine. Belk expressed concern to her mom, and she found herself in a yoga class with her mom in a woman’s home that taught yoga.

This changed Belk’s body for the better. Her back pain began to subside and she felt inspired.

“It felt like fitness and it helped with my back pain, so I knew it was good,” Belk said.

Belk didn’t know it yet, but yoga was what her mind and body needed. She began practicing yoga and her back pain began to subside. It was a year and a half later when she decided she wanted to do more than simply practice yoga, but teach it too.

“I felt like I wasn’t just getting fit, but that I was restoring my health,” Belk said. “I was passionate and I knew I wanted to offer this to the community.”

In order to become a yoga instructor, Belk had to go through a program and be certified. She completed the Holy Yoga program, which focuses on how yoga can bring someone closer to God.

“Prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God,” Belk said.

Four months after earning her certification, Belk opened her studio. Belk didn’t want to teach in a gym or at a civic center. She wanted yoga to be the focus of wherever she taught.

“You don’t ‘do’ or ‘attend’ yoga, you practice it,” Belk said.

Nestled in downtown Brookhaven, Stillwater Yoga Studio exudes a calming atmosphere with its cream-colored walls, rich hardwood floors and natural light pouring in through well-placed skylights. Belk and two others instructors currently teach classes each week.

Belk chose the name for her studio based on how yoga makes her feel. She described how yoga brought her to a feeling of stillness, and how it reminds her of Psalm 23:2-3.

“Every time I practiced, I felt that I was being led to stillness,” Belk said. “Yoga

just gives you the opportunity to slow down. You intentionally connect with your body.”

“He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

She’s owned her studio for six years now, and has had more than 20 instructors in that time, not to mention the variety of classes that have been taught at Stillwater.

Betsy Belk’s studio exudes feelings of peacefulness for herself and her students. It’s a place to learn and grow for both the beginner and the veteran yogi.

Belk prefers to keep her classes at a dozen or less. For a class, she generally has eight.

There are different levels of classes offered at Belk’s studio. For example, one class is “Hot Yoga,” which involves the heat being turned on while the class is going on.

“It’s all about growing,” Belk said. “The heat just adds another element.”

She has seen students with conditions such as knee pain, back pain and high blood pressure reduce their symptoms to either avoid surgery or no longer require medication.

“It really is completely different than other fitness options,” Belk said. “It’s very peaceful, very calming.”

As of now, Belk teaches two to three classes a week and works full-time in advertisement sales. And with the outbreak of COVID-19, she can’t teach in a normal classroom setting, so she found an alternative.

“My students are devastated because of this,” Belk said about not being in the studio due to COVID-19.“It’s completely different.”

While other yoga instructors she knows are charging for videos, Belk doesn’t feel the need to. Belk has begun making free videos for her students to watch on YouTube.

It not only gives her students something to look forward to, but to her as well.

When asked about the videos, Belk said she wanted to give back.

“I just wanted to provide something for people to have during this time,” Belk said.

“Incomes are changing right now, and so I just wanted to do something for my students,” Belk said.

While she doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable in front of the camera, she

knows it will benefit those at home in quarantine. “I just have to visualize my students,” Belk said.

With yoga, she often runs into different stigmas and explained how neither are true.

“People always say ‘It’s either for the flexible or that it’s not a challenge,’” Belk said. “Those two are probably the biggest misconceptions.”

Belk said she constantly tells people that flexibility isn’t the main focus of yoga.

It’s more about seeking to connect the mind with the body and spirit.

“A lot can be missed from not listening,” Belk said. “Yoga is more than a physical practice, it can change your life.”

Yoga is important to Belk for a number of reasons. She enjoys both the physical and psychological benefits, but she believes that yoga changes people.

“It’s not about your background or body type,” Belk said. “Yoga makes people better people,” Belk said.

Finders Keepers

Modern updates highlight a mid-century home’s staying power

Story By Kim Henderson Photos By Hannah Henderson

When Michael and Melinda Said moved back to Brookhaven in 1994, they found few available houses on the market. The brick rancher they toured on McNair Avenue wasn’t exactly their dream place, but the nine-foot ceilings sold Melinda. “My furniture would fit,” she recalls.

Over the years the Saids’ appreciation for the home’s good bones and choice neighborhood grew, even as its metal blinds and pink tile came down. In time, they decided to settle in for the long haul and make it their own. Sort of.

“If you grew up here and you’re over 50, it’s the Reel Home,” Michael laughs, referring to the original owners, local dentist Anton Reel and his wife.

They built the structure in 1948, and it still features some of their construction choices – handmade parquet floors, Tennessee fieldstone, and extensive swamp cypress paneling from a Louisiana mill operated by Reel’s family members.

The Saids have worked hard to preserve the home’s natural charm even as their every-so-often updates brought it into a new era. A decision early on to use Sherwin Williams’ Accessible Beige paint color has helped maintain a cohesive look throughout the house, while live plants keep it homey and family heirlooms keep it real.

As the design eye behind Melinda’s Fabrics/Interiors, Melinda stays up on what’s popular with buyers. When she and Michael install custom window treatments, they often visit homes that are staged to perfection. But by her own admission, Melinda isn’t overly concerned about what’s trending as far as her own furnishings are concerned. “We like what we like,” she says, pointing to the family’s eclectic mixture of mahogany antiques, contemporary lamps, and Oriental rugs. For her, it’s about authenticity. “Too far one way or the other, and the scales are going to tip.” Their dining room reflects that independent streak, with a traditional 8-seat table at its center, topped by an expanse of signed ceiling art. The framed gold-and-red checkerboard design is the work of Madison artist Sarah McTaggart. An unexpected light fixture with bold lines contemporizes the scene.

At the heart of the floorplan is a living room with a wide bank of windows and a stone wall surrounding an original fireplace. This is the only area where the dark paneling from 1948 remains.

A pool, fireplace and many other features make the Reel Home feel like a real home for Michael and Melinda Said.

“We didn’t debate changing it in there because we felt like it needed to stay,” Michael explains. “Dr. Reel went to the effort. I’m going to leave him a room. Part of me feels like it’s still his house.”

In 2008, the home’s footprint enlarged to nearly 4,000 square feet with the addition of a new west wing master en suite for Melinda’s mother. Michael and Melinda now enjoy the space, with its jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower. Their bedroom features a bay window outlined with elegant geometric print drapes. A tufted headboard, the work of their own hands, provides a backdrop for the Saids’ bed and its layers of fine linens from Melinda’s shop. They include a set of monogrammed shams and a custom duvet. Just off the master bedroom, there’s a sitting area complete with a fireplace and cowhide rug where the couple’s son, Austin, likes to hangout.

In 2017, the family opted to install a pool in the backyard and enlarge the patio area. Melinda calls it “Mike’s mid-life crisis,” but they couldn’t be happier with the outdoor improvement. “It’s just right for floating,” Michael says. “I love taking care of it.” The Saids describe themselves as yard people. She’s a master gardener, and he delights in watching his sprinkler system in action. Married 35 years, they say one of their biggest disagreements is over hedges. He’s for shaping them, she’s not.

“It’s a Northern thing,” she smiles, casting a glance at her transplanted husband.

More recently, the Saids have kept Brookhaven builder Kevin Hux busy with upgrades. His custom bookcases have made the family den Melinda’s favorite room. The shelves offer a view of their lives – gardening books, LSU memorabilia, photos of Austin – while wide windows at the rear of the room offer a view of the pool. Mike says the breezy space has everything they need: “Technology, entertainment, and each other. Plus, we’re allowed to eat in there and make a mess.”

Last fall, Hux oversaw a major renovation for the Saids. For 25 years, Melinda had prepared meals in a galley style kitchen. She was ready to bump out some walls and beef up the area.

The couple’s friend, veterinarian Greg Howell, helped them with the new kitchen layout, which is characterized by clean lines and lots of natural light. Michael says the best part is everything has its own place, thanks to lots of pull-out, accessible shelving. “I’m not on my hands and knees getting a pot,” he laughs.

Neutral cabinetry and tiling in the kitchen invited Melinda to inject color in other ways. She chose a navy island like she’d seen in a client’s home, and she topped it with white quartz. The four-seat addition is the real star of the renovation and has become command central for the whole family – a gathering place where they can cook together and watch the news while they eat. The room’s unique window architecture also stands out. Melinda decided to showcase the street-side views but maintain privacy by hanging café curtains. She selected a bold floral fabric in navy and cream, accompanied by custom rods.

During the demolition work, Michael and Austin made some discoveries inside a wall. Apparently, a construction worker in 1948 left behind a half-smoked cigar and a page from the local phone directory. A few of the hand-written entries on the paper underscore the home’s rich history and how the Saids are now intertwined with it.

“That’s back when phone numbers were just four digits,” Melinda explains. “We actually know some of the residents listed.” /////

C A TERI N G

Church architecture

Photos By Gracie Byrne Brookhaven’s unique houses of worship