47. When Life Leads the Way: Synchronicities, Yoga, and Purpose with Lindsay Helt

What if the moments that quietly lead you to your purpose are also the easiest ones to say yes to? 

Lindsay Helt didn't join the gym to transform her life. She was looking for childcare at a gym and some relief from the hard days of early motherhood. But that one small yes set off a chain of events that led to two thriving yoga studios, a community built on real connection, and a life that was never part of the plan. 

In this episode, Lindsay gets honest about the years before it clicked. The purposelessness, the bouncing, and the weight of motherhood hitting harder than she expected. And then an unexpected encounter with yoga changed everything. 

In this conversation, we talk about the difference between forcing a path and following a thread, the micro decisions that quietly change everything, how teacher training through COVID cracked her open, and how Wild & Free Power Yoga came together through a series of moments that have synchronicity written all over them. 

We also talk about the practice of yoga itself - how it so often finds you instead of the other way around, the importance of the pause in leveling our reactivity, and how a supportive community makes all the difference. 

Find Lindsay online at https://www.wildandfreepoweryoga.com/ and on Instagram at @wildandfree_poweryoga

If this episode spoke to you, it would mean the world if you took a moment to leave a review or share it with a friend who needs it. And make sure you hit follow so you never miss an episode of Conditioning to Consciousness.

You can connect with me on Instagram @jesscallahan_, join my Substack community at conditioningtoconsciousness.substack.com, or explore more of my work at jesscallahan.com.

My Back in the Body Nervous System Healing course is now available! Find it here.

Thanks for listening — I’m so grateful you’re here.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Lindsay

Jess Callahan 0:01

Hey guys, welcome back to the Conditioning to Consciousness Podcast. I have been so excited to record and share this conversation with you for such a long time. So I'm here today with Lindsay Health, and she's a studio owner. She's a yoga teacher. She owns wild and free power yoga in Hershey and Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. And Lindsay has just been such an inspiration in my life. And, you know, Lindsay personally, but also this practice and the studios that she has brought to our community genuinely has just transformed my own life. And so in this conversation, we talk about, we talk about Lindsay's story, we talk about how, as is often the case with yoga, the practice really found her versus the other way around. And how, you know, when you follow life synchronicities and when you're following the path that's really meant for you, it shouldn't feel like it comes with force. It should, of course, always take hard work, but it should also feel like it's coming with a level of ease. And that is just, you know, Lindsay's Lindsay's story, you know, following the synchronicities that led her on this path. But we also dive into the practice of yoga itself and how just truly transformational it can be. So I'm just really excited for you to learn more about Lindsay, to learn more about this practice that she brings to the world. And so let's dive in. I'm so excited to find that we're doing this interview. I'm here today with Lindsay Helt, who is my yoga instructor and a dear friend, and someone that I just um think the world of. And so thank you for being here, Lindsay. Thank you for inviting me. I'm just excited to have this conversation. I want to just start by asking you a little bit about your story. How is it that you got here? And you you choose, you know, long version, short version.

A Life Without A Calling

Lindsay Helt 2:06

Yeah, so I think it's important to start um by embracing the idea that my whole life were a word that people would use to describe me is purposeless, non-committal, um flaky. Um, I had trouble keeping jobs because I would pursue a job and decide very early on that I was bored out of my mind and it just wasn't enough. And I would leave and then I would try to find something else that sparked my excitement um enough to stay. So I changed my major six times in college, um, graduated with an advertising degree because my advisor said graduate with this degree or stay extra semesters. So um I graduated with an advertising degree. I worked renting cars and just jumping around a lot. Um, I feel like I never found the thing that called to me. I was just bored all the time, always searching for like the thing that lit something inside me. So I felt a pull to stay because I never wanted to stay anywhere that didn't excite me because I just think that there's more to life than that. Um so fast forward, I I got a job. Um, I found a job working for Penn State and doing academic advising. And I I found that of all the things, that was the thing that held my interest the most so far. So I stayed there for a few years, um, but always still seeking and searching. And um in the in those time periods, I had a few babies. And um, if you're familiar with the motherhood journey, it can really rock you in all the in all the ways, good, bad, beautiful, ugly. Um and I I I had three babies in four years, and that became an identity shaper, but I didn't feel called to be a stay-at-home mom, but I also didn't feel called to be a working mom. And um I think I felt again passionless, purposeless, just a little lost, I think.

Jess Callahan 4:59

Um it's so interesting because I've known you in this role. And so as you as you started like throwing those words out, I was like, not you. It's so it's yeah, it is what a um floating, I think is a good word to use.

Lindsay Helt 5:16

I floated.

Jess Callahan 5:17

Floated, yeah. I like I feel sometimes I use the word untethered. I love that. It's yeah, I but it's it's such an interesting w way to associate you with that. Because but I get it because I think like until until we find the thing that like anchors us a little bit by lighting us up, we're we're told that there's like supposed to be this part of us that lights up when it's right.

Lindsay Helt 5:42

And so when you don't find it, like it has to be there somewhere. So like if I stay rooted in this place that does nothing, then I will continue to feel nothing forever. And I'm not okay with that, you know.

Jess Callahan 5:56

But good for you also in having that like inner knowing that like it was what you had, like it just wasn't enough. You know, it just wasn't good enough. Like there was something else that still required more pushing, more openness, more something, right?

Lindsay Helt 6:11

Okay, so

The Class That Brought Her Back

Lindsay Helt 6:12

so what was it then that so then um it I can point it back to uh when a gym opened locally that offered child care, and it was the only gym around that did. And I would go and put my three kids in the childcare room and just lay on a mat for one hour. I didn't do anything, I wasn't on the treadmill, I wasn't doing crunches, and it was just an hour that I didn't have to be home in the monotony of what I felt being a mother in the early years was. I didn't I didn't as a separate side note, I I think that there's this push as a mother of young children to enjoy every moment. And I never felt like that. I most of my moments were found in this pull to have some alone time or not be needed. Um, but then I felt like there was something wrong with me because I why don't I want to be with my children all the time? And anyway, I found this gym and they took the kids for an hour, and I started to have glimpses of myself again. And it just randomly a yoga class was scheduled at that one hour. I was there the one day, and I felt my body, I felt my breath, I felt me for the first time in dare I say ever. Wow.

Jess Callahan 7:50

You just the yoga, you just saw that yoga was happening and you're like, meh, I'm just gonna have been lying here on this mat for weeks now.

Lindsay Helt 7:58

Let's just maybe make it a little more purposeful. Wow. Um so really the typically with yoga, the practice finds you. Um so I wasn't searching for it. Wow. But once I found it, then I started, it became a routine and I would go every Monday, Wednesday, and um I started to get stronger and I started to feel more like myself. And I I just thought if this thing that I'm doing two hours a week can help me to feel more like a living, breathing human person, then I I want more, I want to learn more.

Hot Yoga Community Changes Everything

Lindsay Helt 8:41

Um, so that was the those were the beginnings, but then I I was on vacation and wanted to keep my routine, and I just simply Googled um yoga studios in the area, and I found a studio that just there's no other way to explain that other than it just lit me on fire. Like it was hot yoga, it was fast, it was fun, it was um, you know, people high-fiving each other in the middle of class. They were playing Snoop Dogg, and it's nothing like the yoga that I ever had in my brain as being yoga, yeah. But it I felt I felt lit up like this is this this is what I've been looking for.

Jess Callahan 9:32

Wow. How didn't how was that similar or different from the yoga that started you in that gym?

Lindsay Helt 9:38

It just the community feel the connectedness, feeling connected to other people. It was it was the first time I've ever practiced in a heated space. So I was dripping and feeling like cleansed and um just alive, I think for the first time in a really long time. And in the middle of class, all I wanted to do was leave because it was really hard. And I was like, what the? What is this? Um, but after I left, all I wanted to do was go back. And then it became this like heavy fixation to just find more. And I started, it was three hours away. I started driving three hours one way just to take a single class. And then I was I was spending a lot of money on hotels because I just couldn't get enough. And I I came home and was looking for something similar around this area, and I couldn't, I just couldn't find the right feel, the right community, the right energy, um, the right music, the whole thing, the whole thing.

Jess Callahan 10:48

And it is, I mean, really like it's an experience. Yeah, but okay, so so we'll get there. So you um I I'm like kind of surprised that I had I really had no clue that this is how it all happened. It's so cool to have like, like you said, that the practice defines you. I do, I find so much truth in that. And really, like to get you driving three hours away for a single practice is like wild. So, okay, so you decide then at some point that you're going to become certified, right?

Micro Decisions And Life Synchronicity

Lindsay Helt 11:25

Yeah. So shortly after I found the space that I had been practicing in and I was I was frequenting um the classes there, they announced that they were hosting their first teacher training. And it was like the order of events happened really organically. Um, the timing was right, and I was like, oh, I didn't, I didn't set out thinking that I wanted to teach, as most people do. Um, but I knew that I wanted more. Whatever it is that is making me feel this way, I want more of it, and I want it to fill me up. Um so I signed up for the teacher training just to learn more about the practice, to learn more about the the style, to learn more about yoga. And um, yeah, that's kind of when it all began. But it's funny, it's these major life changes can be traced back to really micro moments, like micro decisions. Like I've I've noticed as going through this that these tiny little decisions where I could have gone one way or the other have monumentally changed the course of my life.

Jess Callahan 12:44

Like, okay, how so? What's an example of one?

Lindsay Helt 12:48

So even just Googling where should I go to class that day on vacation? Like a bunch of studios were listed, and I could have gone to any of them. Um but in this this micro decision to go back to this particular one has set off a chain of events that has completely changed the course of my life. Um, and how things could be could have been different if I chose a different uh space or um, you know, choosing to to take that teacher training, even though I didn't want to teach. At the time, it didn't feel like a big decision. I didn't put the kind of time and effort into the decision that I do for actual major life decisions, but but it kind of it was ultimately a major life. It was a major life decision hidden in a really minor moment.

Jess Callahan 13:50

But but you had three kids at home and were were you working at that point? Like you had a full-time job. So to be able to fit in something like a yoga teacher training like that, like that's not that's not an easy thing. So like it was um, it's almost like the decisions were like like easy in some ways.

Lindsay Helt 14:14

Like there was never a point where I sat down and really thought hard about it. It was like for me, it was like a well, yeah, yeah, obviously I'm gonna do this. Like there was no other option. That was the next right thing.

Jess Callahan 14:29

Do you think that do you feel like you were like guided, or do you feel like it was just pure coincidence in making those choices?

Lindsay Helt 14:37

Hmm. I don't know. I don't know. I I don't think much is coincidence. Yeah. But I also the timing, and as we talk more about my story, the timing feels very coincidental, but to me, I what's a coincidence? What's a coincidence? Yeah. And yeah.

Jess Callahan 15:00

I've noticed the same like in my own life when we've made big moves. Like um, there was a point that I wanted to move to Baltimore, and I should have known it was like the wrong move, but the path was just like blocked, nothing was going my way. And I shifted to like moving to DC to like get my first job in PR. And I say, like, the it was like a path laid in gold, like a you know, gold-laid pathway. It was just like easy, like everything just happened. It just like unfolded before me and it like it, it just happened exactly how it felt like it was supposed to.

Lindsay Helt 15:34

Yeah, I guess you could find that lens for anything, but it's also teaching me though, that things that are meant for you won't require the effort to convince yourself. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I feel like anything that has been meant for me up to this point has always been a non-decision. Like it has always been, well yeah. This is the way.

Jess Callahan 16:02

Yeah. I I feel that completely in my own life too. It's like, and it doesn't mean like if I if I come up against something that requires extra effort, you know, it's like sometimes if I just take a step back and wait, it will represent itself later. But like it doesn't mean that, so it doesn't mean it's a no, but it's just like you shouldn't have to force. Like you shouldn't have to force.

Lindsay Helt 16:26

If you feel like you're forcing something, it's probably not the way.

Jess Callahan 16:30

Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Even like when I left real estate, like it was like I was pushing hard to grow in a way that like I knew I wasn't supposed to grow, but it was just like ceilings and limits. And yeah, it's just um sometimes it's hard. I think we get so caught up in our own thought loops that we can't see that there's a block. But then when you feel that ease, that like I'm just gonna fit in a 200-hour yoga teacher training in the middle of my not busy at all life.

Lindsay Helt 17:05

Because that's just it's the only way. It's the only decision.

Jess Callahan 17:09

Yeah, yeah. You can't, you have it's like you can't see anything else. There's like like everything else just falls away.

Lindsay Helt 17:14

Absolutely.

Jess Callahan 17:15

Yeah, that's so interesting. So, okay, so now you're getting your you're getting your certification.

Lindsay Helt 17:21

So I'm

Teacher Training Through Covid Fear

Lindsay Helt 17:22

getting my certification and I go through the training. I fall in love with the studio and the the practice and the music and all of it. Um and I feel really at this time that it was right around COVID. So I started my teacher training, went the first weekend, and then the next weekend was March of 2020. So that first training actually was things were delayed and some things were virtual, and the whole dynamic shifted, but it also gave me access to these virtual classes. So I was no longer needing to drive the three hours because now it was it was in my house, and I got to maintain a regular daily practice and learn how the daily practice of yoga completely transforms your life and um fast-forward.

Jess Callahan 18:24

But wait, I want to pause there quickly because that's such an interesting shift that we just have this whole conversation about the road being essentially paved in gold. Yeah. And then you just like casually throw out that like March of 2020 was part of that. And so that's like a mindset shift, too. That like that you could have had a totally different perspective. It could have been canceled, you could have seen it as like really hard, but you just told this whole story about how it was just like beautifully laid out, just and it just happened to go through COVID.

Lindsay Helt 18:52

Like, it just happened to and then it actually extended the program. And I think maybe some others that I was with like were just ready for it to be over because it was it was extended and extended. And I felt really grateful that it was just more of it, more, more, more longer and um more community at that time, maybe too. And I wrote in my journal during teacher training, I don't know why I feel so nervous to be here. I know I will never teach a class, which I think is really that to me is an interesting space because I was negating the validity of my ability to teach yoga before I even tried. Um, it was self-preservation, I think.

Jess Callahan 19:41

Yeah. Wow. Um do you think, okay, if you go back to when you wrote it, can you remember writing it? Or do you okay? Can you like do you remember when you were feeling like crippling anxiety?

Lindsay Helt 19:54

Yeah, crippling anxiety the whole time because it was so outside of anything I've ever done. I've yeah, so outside of anything I've ever done. Um and I just I felt anxious and I felt unsure and I felt out of my league, and um I felt that through the whole training. Wow. Yeah. Huh. So I never thought that I would teach. Um, but then I something kept pulling and pulling. And after I graduated that training, I ended up, I I heard through the grapevine that there was a studio opening in Hershey, a new studio, and that the owner was looking for instructors. And I thought, um, I thought to myself, I should do this. And then I have one more quick story. So I was at home on my computer and I saw on Facebook that the people who owned the CrossFit Gym in Hershey renovated and created a studio upstairs of CrossFit. And it had hardwood floors and this beautiful barn tour. And it, if I could pick a space to teach yoga in, I was like, this is the space I want to do it in. And I typed this whole email to the owner of the CrossFit Gym because they were looking for someone to teach some classes in there. And I, this whole email, I spent hours on it. Um, and then I deleted it and never sent it. Wow. And then fast forward like a year, and I heard that they were opening a new yoga studio in Hershey, and the owner was looking for instructors. And without even thinking, I sent her a message on Facebook saying, I'm trained, I'm certified, this is the studio, this is the space, would love to chat. And she sent me a picture of the space, and it was the same studio.

Jess Callahan 22:01

Wow.

Lindsay Helt 22:01

Yeah. It was sh, I guess she was taking over the that space in the CrossFit gym. And um that felt a little full circle. Yeah.

Jess Callahan 22:11

Wow. What a cool thing to receive back and like just validation that like this, like you're going out on a limb to teach for the first time, and that's what comes back to you.

Lindsay Helt 22:23

That felt a little bit universe working, it's magic there.

Jess Callahan 22:26

Yeah. Like there can't be a clear sign that like this is for you.

Lindsay Helt 22:31

You wanted to teach in that space, you missed that opportunity, but it it didn't want to miss you. So now it's circling back in this other way. Yeah, it just found you. It just found you again. So just do it. Let me see.

Jess Callahan 22:42

So that was like a year after you finished your training?

Lindsay Helt 22:46

Yes.

Jess Callahan 22:46

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was trying to remember when that studio opened. 2022.

Lindsay Helt 22:52

2022. February of 2022 was my first official yoga class. And on the way there, I pulled the car over and started dialing the owner's number to tell her that I could no longer do it because I wanted to throw up. Wow. I don't know when I took your first class, but I know that it changed my life. And I it had to have been one of your very first classes. Yeah. Um, because I started at that studio as soon as it opened. It was great. And um I never ever sensed that from you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just started and but as soon as I had that first class under my belt and it was no longer new and no longer felt threatening. Um I just I knew, I knew that we were onto something.

Jess Callahan 23:48

The anxiety that you had been feeling was just not a factor as much anymore?

Lindsay Helt 23:54

No. It felt I felt like I had found my home in this practice. And

Finding Her Voice As Teacher

Lindsay Helt 24:02

all I wanted to do was share it with others and have them hopefully reignite something that has that had gone missing. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess Callahan 24:15

Yeah. I mean, I do I remember going to those like early classes and just thinking like, like I think probably a similar experience as you had when you were going, you know, before you became certified. Like, what was that? Um, I hadn't had a practice for a while. Like I was when I was living in DC, I had a really great practice. I moved home and there was, I there was like a probably a seven or eight year span where there just was not yoga offered in in the immediate area. And so, like, yeah, to walk into one of your classes, especially with the the power flow and the heat and the message. And I want to talk about that then too, but just like all parts of you. I think you leave feeling like like you got a good, I mean, an incredible work. I mean, you're literally just like sweat is pouring out of you, but nurtured and you feel like just a little bit more whole every time you walk out of there. And I mean the the music, like this, like all of that stuff.

Lindsay Helt 25:17

It taps into emotion I don't think we access very often.

Jess Callahan 25:20

We don't have we aren't taught to feel it. We don't have words for a lot of it. And so when you can move your body in like a meditative flow to really awesome music, whether it's like music that has a message that's like reaching you or it's hitting you on like a nostalgia level or something, like I it's really powerful. Yeah, yeah.

Lindsay Helt 25:42

Okay, I felt that too, and that that's I couldn't find it around here. And even talking just for a minute about the sense of community, I was going into yoga studios and you know, no one would make eye contact, and you'd sit in the the studio and wait for the instructor, and there was no conversation and no, and I felt when I felt something different than that, I felt really confused why it wasn't commonplace. Why is this not the way? Why is it not normal to communicate and laugh and be imperfect and feel seen? Like it's a practice that's so deeply personal, but we're not allowing anyone to see our person. And and I I struggled finding that and in my body knew that if you can't find it, you have to become it, create it. And that's when that's when I started feeling excited about possibility.

Jess Callahan 26:54

Yeah, so I think what you're like describing, the feeling that you're wanting, I'm like thinking about just like how my own practice has shifted being in there. And I think like it's like self-acceptance, acceptance of each other. Like, I I know I've told you this before, but like during my hardest times, like coming into the studio, though like that's the place that I've always just been reminded of like who I am and that I can keep going. You know, it's like there's just something in the messages that you guys offer. And the support, it's really just even if no words are ever exchanged, there's just this powerful support. But I think the other piece to it is like the cultivating of like self-love that happens. Like I remember early on, because it's sweaty, right? Your mat like shows your sweat. And like I've had body image issues my whole life. And I remember sitting on my mat the first time and being like, wow, I left all that sweat there. I can't believe I made a mark that big. You know, like that's the first thought was like, I don't want other people to see how big my like butt mark of sweat is. And like I would have never worn a shirt that, like, you know, would have shown any of my like midra for anything. Like, but like it's it's a community that just empowers women to any anyone actually empowers everyone to just come in and drop all of that. And like you don't just leave it behind on the mat. Like it's changed my whole life in and out of the studio. Like I think about that first like reaction to my sweat, is it's the first time that I've thought about that in years. And it, I think that just speaks to like the transformation that happens, the self-love that you adopt, where it's just like you're just fully encouraged to just love yourself exactly as you are. And so even if it's not like those words that like you do speak those words some days, some days it's a it's a different way about the message, but it's always there, it's always like shifting us, and it's just like yeah, it's really powerful.

Lindsay Helt 28:58

Thank you. I love that trans because the transformation, you can't pinpoint it to a specific day that it changed, but over time, I'm sure the thought of the sweat on the mat dissipated, yeah, no longer a a worry. And I think that that's the the ultimate dream, right? Is to meet women, men, humans, and say that who you are and how you are, and showing up in the world fully. That is that is what we were put here to do. And it's the fixation on our imperfections and and saying that I am less than because of this A, B, or, C. You know, we convince ourselves that that is a measure of who we are as human beings. And I think that ultimately the my dream and vision of the space is to have people feel so seen and supported and loved and valued externally that they begin to feel it internally. And then I mean, love in all forms changes the world.

Jess Callahan 30:12

So it it really does. It is about it, it's about love in it's always the answer, it's always the path, it's always the destination.

Lindsay Helt 30:22

It's but it has to begin in it has to begin inward, yeah, yeah.

The Sweaty Pause And Real Life

Jess Callahan 30:27

And even just as you're talking about showing up fully, it's like there's just something so previously triggering about that. Because you say, you know, you think like showing up fully means having to get over the fullness of that sweat marker, the you know, it's like it's such a contradiction. But you know, when you say transformation isn't, you can't like mark it to a day or a specific point. But I do think that there is a point in a yoga class such as yours where transformation happens fully. And it, and I've talked about this on the podcast multiple times. I've talked about it to my kids. I talk, I talk about it to basically anyone that will listen. I say you go to one of these yoga classes and you sit in that sweaty pause and it will change your life. It will change your whole life. And for anyone who doesn't, you know, hasn't heard me talking about it before, it's just this moment where you're doing these sweaty flows, right? It's power vinyasa class at like 100 degrees or something like that. So you're sweating and you're in the zone and you're just like your heart rate is up and you're just moving. And then you say, Okay, stop, stop what you're doing, meet me at the top of the mat, sit down, find a comfortable, comfortable position, and don't reach outside of yourself, right? Like you're not, do not fix your hair, don't drink the water, don't fix your shirt, sit down. And it's breathing through that moment that teaches you to sit with discomfort. It teaches you to go inward and that you have all of the tools that you need to for whatever you need, really. Like you have them inside of you. You have them. Yeah.

Lindsay Helt 32:02

You have to practice using them.

Jess Callahan 32:04

But nobody practices it. It's like I really think that our willingness to sit in discomfort is one of the biggest challenges that we face, like like in the world right now. And that in that moment, you're teaching people to sit in discomfort. And that extends so far beyond the mat. Absolutely.

Lindsay Helt 32:25

It's like the most important work. It's the hardest and most important work of the of the class is this ramping yourself up so that you can sit in it.

Jess Callahan 32:40

Yeah, intentionally. I I like will think about it in the class. There are times that I like at the beginning, it was really hard. Like I'd feel the sweat like dripping down my hairline and then down my face, and like it. Yeah. And and that is like that is meditation and presence, right? That is bringing your awareness to that mindfulness, right? Bringing your awareness to just that stimulus, right? And I would start to imagine like this is my kids arguing at home, and I'm like maintaining my composure. This is like the dog, you know, we've had a rough morning and we're late getting out the door, and now the dog just threw up. And, you know, but like I'd start to visualize it, and then I'd start to see in real life, I'd picture, you know, I pick I'm in um the huge like sports complex in Lancaster that all of us go to, and I'm losing my shit because it's so over stimulating when we're playing indoor soccer. There's 75 games, and I'm like, I can't, and I just I picture myself sitting on that mat with the sweat going down my face, and I'm like, go inward and practice the pause.

Lindsay Helt 33:43

Yeah. It's that space between the trigger and the reaction. There's always that space in between. And if you can practice pausing to really be in that space in between, then you allow your response to be intentional instead of reactive.

Jess Callahan 34:04

Um, yeah, that's at that moment, is it's everything. Like there have been times that I've like my kids are very open to like all the random stuff that I come up with. Yeah. They just they're like, yeah, sure, mom. Um, so yeah, we've done like jumping on the trampoline to get their heart rates up and then sit down. We've tried to like find different ways to like uh because I think that there's just so much use, like even if somebody can't like do a whole power flow class, although you don't need to at your studio, you can literally lay on the mat. It just lay for an hour. That's what you need. Yeah, but it's just really

Energy Pie And Going All In

Jess Callahan 34:41

valuable. Okay, so I want to go back at this point in in the story, you're just teaching. You're just teaching.

Lindsay Helt 34:48

Um, but it was very evident very quickly how much the community needed yoga. Um, and it started to build and the the people started to come. And I, you know, the more the more it caught on, the more excited I got to create this community. And I would go out and just I was just teaching everywhere. I was teaching at other studios, I taught at the rec center, I was teaching private events, I was going to people's houses, I was trying to just expose as many people as I could to this practice that had changed my life so dramatically. And momentum started to build. Um and it started to become the only thing I could think about. So I was working still at Penn State, but while I was working, I am, you know, supposed to be doing these reports, but instead I am creating sequences and I'm Googling all the things yoga and finding trainings, and I'm reading my yoga books, and I'm supposed to be reading my advising books. And it started to be all consuming. Like there was no part of me that had space for anything but yoga. And it was an obsession, I think, of a fixation.

Jess Callahan 36:16

Um but fueled by a genuine need. I mean, it's like that's like a a really powerful thing when you have that two-way like give, yeah, give and take.

Lindsay Helt 36:28

And the more I I put out, the more I wanted to put out. Like I wanted all this free time and space to share. Um, but the turning point, I can pinpoint, I read it was a book that I read called The Great Work of Your Life. And it was a specific chapter that talked about our energy supply and how we have this finite circle of energy. And for everything we give our energy to, it's taking energy away from something else in that circle. So at this time, I was working, I was working for Penn State, I was waiting tables, I was a mom, I was a wife, I was teaching yoga here, here, here, here. I was doing private. So my list of responsibilities was taking up this full circle. And the premise of the book was that when you start to pull back some of the things you are giving your effort and energy to, you then get to filter that energy into something else. So it's like if you think of it almost like a pie chart, right? And you you slice up the pie. If you if you remove one of the slices, it blends into another slice. So I was like, okay, if I can remove some of these things, then I have more energy to give yoga. So if I take away teaching at this one place, now I'll have extra energy that I can pour into this other thing. And it was this constant reevaluation of where am I intentionally placing this very limited supply of energy that I have. And the idea was that if you have something that you feel is your dharma or your purpose or your calling, and you are not giving it a hundred percent of your energy circle, then you will never fully know what can become of it because you are not giving it everything it needs to thrive. So it felt limited. The way I was doing it felt limiting because I would never know how expansive it could be because I was never giving it everything it needed to expand, if that makes sense.

Jess Callahan 38:44

Yeah, that it makes a lot of sense. It's um, I think if you look on that bookshelf, I think you might find that book. But I bought it. I think we must have talked about this before, and you sold me on you. I'm listening to this, and I'm like, this sounds like this makes so much sense. But I didn't, I never read it. And now as you're talking about it, I'm like, now that I know the origination of why this book is sitting on this bookshelf, I absolutely have to read it. Like it really does make so much sense. We stretch ourselves so thin. We say yes to all the things because we think that it's what we're supposed to do, or you know, for any like number of reasons, but all of those yeses are are limiting you if they're not the right yeses.

Lindsay Helt 39:24

And it's not putting the value into the thing that needs the value, right? It's almost devaluing some of the work that you're doing because you're not able to give it everything that you could if you re realigned and re-refocused. Wow. Yeah.

Jess Callahan 39:42

So a perfectly timed book, too. Was it was like owning a studio in the back of your mind at that point?

Lindsay Helt 39:50

Not even for a minute.

Jess Callahan 39:54

Wow. So at this point, you're still just wrestling with like like you, I think you said you were waiting tables working at Penn State and then teaching in 540 different places. Well, because money.

Lindsay Helt 40:05

Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, yeah. We have three kids and my husband has a job, but also like I needed to financially contribute in some way, and the kids were in daycare, and you know, daycare is I was paying money to have them in daycare.

Jess Callahan 40:18

But then you got that time that you didn't have to drop them off at the gym daycare to lay on the mat, right?

Lindsay Helt 40:23

Like, I mean, you still have a board. It's not the most financially lucrative job choice. So yeah, it's really easy to burn out trying to generate feasible income. But I don't do things for the money, much to my husband. We had a lot of financial conversations. Um, because I saw the bigger picture and I I've always been somebody that I feel like if you continue to lean into the way that life is directing you, then the fruits of the effort either come or even if they don't come, it doesn't matter because you're le you're living your life the way you're meant to be.

Jess Callahan 41:08

You're not like seeking to fill it. What like you just feel supported and fulfilled. And maybe it's not like the dollar amount, for example, that you had previously thought you needed to feel fulfilled because something else is like filling that bucket. Right. Yeah, yeah. I get that. Yeah. Yeah, I know that's it's a hard one in the world we live in today for sure. But I I think that the more of us that can sort of reclaim that knowing and just know that like there are other ways to fill that bucket, you know, because like who knows what paths will open.

Lindsay Helt 41:44

Yeah.

Jess Callahan 41:45

Yeah.

Lindsay Helt 41:46

You have to be open to it. And that's where we got to a point. My husband was supportive, but I got to a point where I said, I'm I'm stretching myself across all of these different spaces. What would happen if I took all of it and poured into this yoga world business, whatever, however, you want to explain it. And I I just did I quit everything except for yoga. So I quit my job at Penn State in November of 22. Was my last week. I quit my waitressing job. I quit at one of the other places I was teaching. And I just said, I'm I'm going to launch my own brand. So it was called Lindsay Helt Yoga. And I said, I'll bring in money doing private events. I will just blast my brand wherever I can. Let's just see. But I want to give it this opportunity. I want to give it some life force. Um quit my job in November and December. I got a phone call from a good friend of mine that a space had become available and they needed someone to take over the front half of the building. Um, so we went and looked at the space. And by January, we had signed the lease for what would become our first location in Etown. Wow. So I quit in November, and by December, a lease was placed in my lap.

Jess Callahan 43:31

And you so you quit in November, still with no intentions of having a studio. Yeah. So and and the the space that your friend needed somebody to take over didn't just happen to be like perfectly laid out for the most part as like a yoga studio or anything, right?

Lindsay Helt 43:48

It just like It was just a big empty open room.

Jess Callahan 43:53

Right.

Lindsay Helt 43:54

And my my girlfriend was taking their the building, it is cut in half, the back is a commercial kitchen. And the front was just an open space. And she was looking for a commercial kitchen to launch her business. And it just happened to be that the commercial kitchen was in the back. We made the front, the yoga studio, and we signed the lease in January, got the key in February, and we opened in March.

Jess Callahan 44:20

Wow. Yeah. Path paved in gold. Okay, we've talked previously about the day that you toured that business. And it's one of my favorite, just like, I don't know, little like things about like what I know of your journey.

Lindsay Helt 44:38

And I'm wondering if you could talk a little about that. Yeah. So I should first lead off by saying that in order for this space to have come to fruition, we both needed to be a yes. So I needed to be a yes for the yoga studio. They needed to be a yes for the commercial kitchen. And if we both were a yes, then we would sign the lease. And I had everything in me, though I knew it was the right yes, was like, I hope they say no. I hope they say no. I hope they say no. And I remember standing in the shower waiting for their phone call, just hoping with everything in me that they would decide not to do it, because then the decision wouldn't be on me. And they decided to say yes. And because they said yes, then I had to say yes. But you know, life would be easier if other people made the decisions for you.

Jess Callahan 45:32

Yeah, yeah, seriously, it would be.

Lindsay Helt 45:34

But yeah, that you were not getting any outs. So I they said yes. So then I said, I want to go in and look at the space. And I knew I knew, no one else knew, but I knew that if we opened this space, what I would call it. So I've I'm drawn to the Tong Petty song Wildflowers. It just talks about this liberated life of um, you know, playing in a field of wildflowers, but feeling so free and liberated. I knew that if I were ever to own something, it would be called wild and free. Just this space of freedom and full self-acceptance and wildflowers, all of that. So I knew, but no one else did. And I got to the space, what would become the studio, on the day where I was making the decision.

Building Wild And Free Power Yoga

Lindsay Helt 46:24

And I said, in order to make the decision, I need to stand at the front of the room and look forward and picture what it would look like to teach a class in this space, that I could really feel it. Do I feel myself in this space? And I was really back and forth on the yes or the no. Um but then I went in and before we took it over, the space was a a shop of gifts, like a little gift shop uh selling trinkets and pictures and anything you can imagine to buy for a gift was in there. And I stood up at the front of the room and there's just gifts everywhere displayed. And I look out and I look down, and there was a framed piece of art right at my feet that just said live wild and free. And I was like, Well, I guess this is a yes. Yeah, it's the universe just screaming at me that this is the way, this is where it's supposed to be, this is when it's supposed to happen. And um it just it still gives me full body chills because no one else knew that. And then to see it so visibly framed in front of my face as I'm making this decision from the point from the place that you can do. From the place where do I stand. So we have the we have the picture framed and hanging at Utown. Oh wow.

Jess Callahan 48:03

That is wild, and it is wild. It's actually Oh my. And the rest, I mean, not the rest, it's the I mean the you guys opened in February, you said in March of 23.

Lindsay Helt 48:18

Wow. And then it was just building. It was a building, build, it's been a building phase since then.

Jess Callahan 48:27

So, okay, I wanna I wanna get to part two in a second, but so okay, after you open the studio and you start to build this community, like I guess I'm curious about just like how it how it has like filled your cup, but also like the hard parts. Like, what have been the like the best parts and also the hardest parts of business ownership?

Lindsay Helt 48:56

Yeah, um, the best parts, there's just so many. I love the autonomy, I love not being on anyone else's schedule, I love a blank canvas. Um, I love, I mean, from a I I still genuinely love to teach yoga. Like that is what I want to do all the time, still. And the the coolest thing about teaching yoga is that we are all teachers are students first. So the practice and and diving in as a practitioner and learning the things that I want to learn and taking trainings, and that still lights me up. Um, I think it's confusing to have your job be your hobby because work is play and play is work, and there is no defining line. And we my husband and I talk about it because it's like I get home, and and most jobs you want to be done working, but I never want to be done working. Like I want to get home and I want to take online trainings and I want to, you know, play around with my sequences and I don't want to turn off. Um, but that can be tricky when when seeking balance because you do have to turn off. Um but usually I turn off so that I can do yoga. So I turn off and just do yoga. It's it's the line can be confusing. Yeah, it sounds a little blurry, but it's really fun. Like I love what I do, I have fun. I I still feel like sharing the practice is so impactful. And I love introducing yoga to people for the first time. Like yoga as I know it, I love introducing it to people who have never done it before. So that is a really fun moment to have new students. Um to meet students on every walk of life and be able to hold space for that. Um you know, people join us on good days and bad days for celebrations, for it's to hold them in sadness. And and we just have the the spectrum of emotion. And I think that that's so powerful to to have a space that holds all that energy and um yeah, to just be a part of that is really special.

Jess Callahan 51:31

Yeah. I mean, as a community member, it's it's really special. And it's um it is it is really powerful to come to class and know that there are people there, just knowing the walks that people have journeyed that that are being held in that way, but but at the same time, someone might be celebrating at 400th class and and it's all of it, and both. It's like all of it.

Lindsay Helt 51:56

Well, Mother's Day is a really great example. We, you know, Mother's Day, it's such a beautiful day at the studio. And I had created the space originally to offer mothers, current mothers, a tap out from life and to come in and feel the feel themselves and hear themselves. And um, but it's also a really difficult day for people to navigate and they're holding the range of emotion there. Um that's a really good point.

Jess Callahan 52:26

Yeah. And you have to be, you have to be prepared to to hold all of it. So when you're pouring into everyone else, how do you pour into yourself? How do you make sure you stay cupful?

Lindsay Helt 52:39

That's a good question. Um, I think self-awareness is really important because I think when you're pouring into other people in a way that also feeds you, it it requires some deep internal work to notice is am I feeling this way? Am I feeling this way because someone else was feeling this way? Am I how am I acting how am I actually feeling inside? And then just knowing what is needed. I think for me, I'm an introvert. And as much as I love being in the community and surrounded by people and having fun and dancing and laughing and playing, in order to recharge, I have to be fully alone in the quiet, tapping out, um, tapping in, I guess is the better, the better word. Sensory deprivation, yeah. Alone, aloneness is important. Um I think just knowing when I am depleted and and being intentional about charging and maintaining my personal practice is wildly important. Yeah, I try to get into as many classes as I can. Um, but there's still a level of feeling like I'm working when I'm doing that.

Jess Callahan 53:59

Yeah. Yeah. Do you practice at home then too? Yeah. Or like by yourself in the studio?

Lindsay Helt 54:04

I practice by myself in the studio a lot.

Jess Callahan 54:06

Yeah. Then you get the the heat and the whole stuff. Yeah. That would be, that would be fun. Yeah. So okay, before we wrap up then, I feel like we need to go full circle one more time. Okay. To because you've you've grown in the last I guess it's just over a year now. A year and like a couple months, which time just keeps flying. Okay, so tell us a little bit about that.

Lindsay Helt 54:32

Cause yeah, so um, no intention of opening a second location. I was good with one, um, but I I received a phone call that a lease was available, and the space just so happened to be the same space that I had previously taught in, that I had previously crafted an email for. Um, and the space was available and it was again just handed. And I think that when doors swing wide open, sometimes you just have to step through, even if it's not in the plans. So it was an easy again, an easy yes. It didn't, it was not a sit down and think real hard. It felt like the right, the right way. So wow.

Jess Callahan 55:27

That same studio that you got the picture of that said, here you're supposed to teach.

Lindsay Helt 55:32

With the barn doors. Wow. Yeah. So what's that's where we are now?

Jess Callahan 55:37

What's next?

Lindsay Helt 55:39

I don't know. I never really know what's next.

Jess Callahan 55:42

Even as I'm asking that, I'm just day to day.

Lindsay Helt 55:45

We are definitely stepping into some retreats. I was having this conversation with a a friend recently about I love sharing the practice of yoga, but I also am feeling called to seek depth within that space. So teaching in its very first form, but then now there's layers. Let's go a little deeper. And I think the opportunity to do that right now is through retreats, community-building, connection-driven retreats, and then long-term planning is developing curriculum for a teacher training. So those are my short-term, long-term goals, but no pressure, always Yeah.

Jess Callahan 56:34

I mean, as so I I was like, knew that I wanted to ask you that question, but as the words started coming out of my mouth, I'm like, oh yeah, I don't think she's gonna be able to answer that because really it's like, yeah, I mean, you just you seem to know when you know, and when it's a yes, you know it's a yes.

Lindsay Helt 56:52

But that's a really cool way to follow your path. And I think the dreaming never stops. Like I don't wake up one day and say, Let's dream something up today. I think it's just always on my mind. And I think when you talk about something enough and begin to feel fueled by it, it naturally starts to take shape.

Jess Callahan 57:16

You're like holding it somewhere, somewhere at some point. And then when the door opens, it's like it's all already there and ready to go because it's been you've been dreaming it. Yeah. Wow. Oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for asking the question. I've learned so much and just like it's just so inspiring to just keep like following your path and trusting that you know, that you're gonna go where you're supposed to go once you're, you know, when you are aligned, you just keep opening those doors, walking through the open doors.

Lindsay Helt 57:51

Yeah. The more you do it, I think the more you gain faith in the process. Yeah. Like the more experience you have saying yes and leaning in, and the more experience you have throwing caution to the wind and and trying things on and not being afraid to fail. And I think you you build up a a little bit of a tolerance, and it doesn't feel as terrifying.

Jess Callahan 58:18

Thank you. Thank you.