Ten years ago when Alix Schmitt-Gupton was diagnosed with macular degeneration, an incurable eye disease that left her legally blind, she decided to take her first restorative yoga class.

“Yoga didn’t heal my eyesight but it allowed me to cope,” said Schmitt-Gupton, owner of Bella Yoga and Wellness in Richmond. “I was no longer grieving and I felt more empowered.”

Schmitt-Gupton went on to become a certified instructor through the Yoga Alliance, the largest nonprofit yoga association for yoga teachers in the U.S. After she was laid off from her corporate oil and gas job in 2016, she decided to pursue her passion and opened Bella Yoga and Wellness off Plantation Drive in Richmond. She is celebrating one year of business this November.

“I wanted to create a space for community [and] for people like me that may have felt different, for whatever reason,” Schmitt-Gupton said. “I wanted to create that nurturing environment.”

Bella Yoga and Wellness is a small boutique studio that offers a variety of services, such as gentle, restorative and flow classes as well as specialized workshops and community events. Schmitt-Gupton said her classes have a smaller feel to allow for more personalized attention. She said no one class is more popular over another since she encourages her students to mix up routines to stay in tune with the needs of his or her body.

“It depends on what the student is feeling,” Schmitt-Gupton said. “One of the things I tell [my students] is, ‘Listen to your body, what is going on in your body today? Maybe you need a gentle class, or maybe you’re feeling kind of sluggish so you need a flow today.’”

While there are only two other yoga studios in Richmond that she knows of, Schmitt-Gupton said yoga is a competitive business because of large gyms that offer classes and the free classes that can be found online.

“The industry is just saturated: It is saturated with teachers; it is saturated with studios,” Schmitt-Gupton said. “And people are intimidated by yoga, too.”

Schmitt-Gupton said she thinks the Instagram fitness accounts and yoga videos she sees online might contribute to why people are intimidated by the practice, but she urges people not to let that influence their decision to try yoga.

“It’s more than physical postures, it is about wellness of mind, body and spirit,” Schmitt-Gupton said. “Anyone regardless of physical ability, regardless of flexibility—anyone can do yoga.”

While she agrees that yoga has become more popular, Schmitt-Gupton argues it is not a trend but more of a lifestyle choice people are deciding to make.

“I think people are realizing that yoga is extremely beneficial,” Schmitt-Gupton said. “It has the ability to calm you, it has the ability to energize you, it has the ability to strengthen you, you gain flexibility. There are so many benefits to a solid yoga practice.”

Schmitt-Gupton said she is hoping to develop her studio into a school for her students who want to continue their practice with more specialized training.

She said she will start searching for a director and hopes to put a 200-hour program in place sometime later next year.