We recently connected with Keely Galetka and have shared our conversation below.
Keely, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I dont think imposter syndrome is something you ever completely overcome but is something that you can befriend and alchemize into your biggest flex. Everytime we do something that scares us or is out of our comfort zone you quiet it down a little bit but it never goes away. It has a purpose, it’s our ego just trying to keep us safe. Finding peace with it and an inner knowing that if the feeling of imposter syndrome comes to surface, its my higher self guiding me to my next opportunity to rise and awaken to meet myself in my highest timeline.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I recently took the BIG step of opening up a yoga and wellness studio in Brigham City called Inner Body Yoga Studio. We offer at the studio hot yoga classes and non heated yoga classes, Breath Workshops, Sound Therapy, and coming soon hot mat pilates! I wanted to create a space that connects us back to our body and mind, the inner world that so many detach from, and also the other humans around us. We were meant to come to earth to experience everything this beautiful world has to offer and not do it alone but with the humans that are around us too. We have drifted far apart from this due to many reasons and it doesn’t resonate with me. I felt a inner calling to take steps to change that.
I have always been a mover, literally, starting off in my youth i was active in many sports, a social butterfly always running around with friends in the neighborhood, later finding myself in jobs as a teen and adult that were on the feet and the opposite of a 9-5 cubicle job. Waitressing tables, working behind a chair as a hair stylist, and the oddest one for my personality, working on a production line at Proctor & Gamble that produced paper towels and toilet paper. In my interview with Proctor and Gamble I still laugh remembering the two interviewers asking if i was aware of the job I had applied for because of how dressed up and
“girly” my apperance and demeanor was. I am a soul of big curiousity, and genuinely love exploring everything.
I am a highly emotionally driven person, who feels all the feelings of not only myslef but others around me. I have learned in my adult life to really appreciate this trait but growing up as a child emotions were often misunderstood or pushed aside by the adults around me. Any uncomfortable emotion was either not accepted or completely avoided. The only emotion that was allowed and desred to be expressed were all the happy and easy ones to process. I often felt alone and misunderstood as a child, so i think thats where i became to know myself so well and my inner world. Thankfully we’re starting to see a change in emotional intelligence and the nervous system, and how everything is connected. Its a whole system that needs expression and regulation. Life is messy and has moments of pain and sadness along with the joyful and happy times. It is just fake and unachievable to be only in a joyful happy state all of the time unless your disassociated from yoursleIf and numb to the the world around you. All emotions are valid and meant to be felt through expressing them and allowing yourself to feel them then release them. I believe its actually when we open up and express ourselves in the harder times of what is going on can true intimacy be felt between two people. I didn’t always have this open channel of communication with others and I was often left to manage my own emotions and as a result i avoided my emotions through numerous things as a kid into my teens and early adulthood. I went through a time in my life where i felt disconnected from my true self. I never allowed myself to sit still long enough for that discomfort to come up.
Being a highly sensitive human, I am very sensitive to the environment and people I am around and am internally affected by it. Looking back on my younger life i was just naturally attuned to the energy around me but had no one around me to help me reconize that then put words to it. Through study of energy in the body and all the things around us in the world it came easy to understnad and reconize it in me and others. We are all in a constant exchange of energy and once aware of this i was then able to managel mine and connect to the things that helped me stay in high energy or low.
Movement is a form of healing you can use to process and move emotions and energy through and out of the body. It helps open up channels of stagnant or blocked energy and brings a feeling of alignment. I do not thrive mentally or physically staying still too long and just intuitively knew to keep my body moving in many different forms of exercise or jobs which did greatly benifit my mental and physical state. Somethng was missing until i found movement that connected the mind with the body and when i found yoga and pilates thats what clicked for me and was the missing puzzle piece. my body needed the movement but also needed an intentional mind connection to it.
I found yoga in 2010 and did it at home randomly but didnt really resonate with it until later in life. In 2015 I found a Reformer Pilates studio that offered not only reformer classes but also mat pilates and yoga classes. I remember the first time i tried yoga at the pilates studio i started to gently cry in savasana, it caught me off guard. I didnt understand why until years later.
I deep dived into the pilates classes and It became my go to form of movement. I stayed with pilates off and on over next few years and then found myself in a hot yoga class in 2019. It sparked something deep within me, I was hooked immediately with hot yoga, the studio set the whole vibe and my soul resonated with all of it. Since then yoga and pilates have been part of my daily life.
2020 came and like everyone it was a challenging year mentally, but also physically, for my body that craved movement and the energy created in a studio class, I was at home alone a lot as a stay at home mom with two young children, one of them being a baby who wasn’t yet sleeping through the night. Being a present mom came naturally to me and being emotionally present and calm for them meant avoiding anything I was feeling and just pushing through and avoiding uncomfortable feelings. I think this is very common when you look around at our culture here in Utah. To add to all of that I was also experiencing deep greif that year from losing 3 family members. My grandpa, grandma, and cousin all passed away months apart from diferent things over the late part of 2019 and into the middle of 2020. My body was in fight or flight mode and nervous system completely overwhelmed. I was in an unhealthy marriage with an emotionally and physically absent man. I didnt have many people who i could open up to and ask for help. Thankfully I listened to myself and seeked change and it came. I found a studio for movement, books for studying the mind and how the concious and sub concious mind worked, and together the hard time i was in began to change. Not at a linear line but i learned to ride the waves of both.
I felt connected back to myself and my internal world. As I became a avid yoga student, I started to study the philosophy behind it, and how it helped the body and mind. The heated classes became my go to for detoxifying my body and mind. As my journey unfolded as a student, I started to feel the desire to teach it and share with others the benefits of yoga and specifically in a heated room at the studio. I pushed back this desire, telling myself I was good enough to teach it or be able to pursue it as full time stay at home mom to two beautful daughters.
In 2023 I decided to join a teacher training, and work through my imposter syndrome of being a yoga teacher. I knew in training I wanted to create a yoga studio that could offer a safe, serene place to others that loved yoga too and also others who hadnt experienced the practice but were curious to it. I was told in my teacher training the worst thing you could do with this certificate was go out and open a studio, i was beyond shocked and sad because in my opinion you dont experience the same effect from a yoga practice done at home vs a practice done at a studio. Also I thought it was crazy to be certifying all these people if they had no where to go to share the gift of yoga. I wanted to change that and create a space that could be a place that not only i could share my gifts but others could too. There are many healing modalites and paths to explore. For yoga I believe that the 5 senses play a big role in the effect it creates in the body and mind and into your life off the mat. There is an energy created in a studio through the space, with the teacher, and other students in class that you can feed off of and let assist you in achieving the higher state of mind in a yoga flow.
Alongside my yoga journey I became a daily meditator and found creative visualization as a manifesting tool to create my life the way my my mind could see it. I knew that to create a studio that would resonate with others it had to have all the key components of healing and alignment. The setting has to be set and connect with all senses a human can connect with. It had to have al the puzzle pieces, the smell, the music playing, what the eyes saw visually through colors and textures, how it felt in the body when you walked in and layed on your mat, the voice of the teacher guiding them and the words they shared, all of it is important and brings it together in the mind and through the body.
One afternoon in March 2024 I layed down to meditate on my journey of owning a studio and what my dream studio would look and feel like. In my meditation i found myself in a beautiful building with red brick walls, wood floors, big open windows, an exposed ceiling, essential oils filling the room, the sound of water running in a fountain, and myself walking on the floor looking up and all around in awe. I saw a beautiful room that would be full of students and myself walking through them and happily guiding them through a yoga flow. I came out of this meditation and immediately grabbed some paper and began creating this studio i saw in my vision by putting it down on paper. Every last detail. I started to follow my inner compass and found the building, came in contact with the right humans to help guide me each step. Some parts of the story I found but also a lot of it found me and fell into my lap effortlessly.
When I go back my journal of that day and read my entry, I am in shock how close Inner Body Yoga Studio is the one i meditated about saw in my mind and is the studio i brought to life. It has almost every little detail I saw in my mind and felt in my body. In the few weeks of being open i have enjoyed when people validate back to me the feel of the place and the intention they can feel was put into it. We are truly meant to create with intention and to live life intentionally. We are all creators and have the ability to co create with a higher state of intention.
At Inner Body Yoga, we are not only teach yoga, we are teaching others how to connect to their truest self, the soul that lives deep within them, the person they truly are before all the layers of armour are put on due to life and the circumstances around us. I believe through movement, breath, sound, and stillness we are able to access parts of ourselves that are in need of healing and being seen. Through awareness to our body and mind we are met with deep inner healing and acceptance.
We offer two other profound healing modalities, breathwork and sound baths. In our breath work shops which we hold monthly, people are able to use the power of their breath to process old emotions and pain stored in the body and mind and reach higher states of the mind and connect to their truest and highest self. In our Soundbaths, held monthly, people are able to come and lay down on their mat while the frequency of sound vibrates through their whole body and bring the body into alignment and flow. In all of these tools, yoga, the breath,sound, and stillness in meditation there is deep alchemy in the mind and body.
We are all greatly in need of it due to the way we have been taught and conditoned to live our lives on auto pilot and in disassociation. So many humans are living lives that they feel disconnected from and are in relationships that they dont truly align with. There is beauty in lving a connected life and taking the steps to achieve that. Following what lights you up, connecting with others that align with your heart, and staying true to the real inner you,
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say my first skill is my visionary intuition. I have a unique gift for sensing what people need before they can name it. This intuitive knowing and spiritual depth has allowed me to create a space that feels not only healing but is meant for them too. I designed the studios classes, the environment, and experiences that would align with something sacred and unseen, yet profoundly felt. Not everyone will be ready or align with it but I do believe the right people will on their own timeline. Well, and for the people who dont, i have faith in protection and not rejection.
Intuition is something we all have but first has to be brought to our attention and then developed like any skill. You really have to get to know yourself, the parts you like and the part you dont, and then accept all of it. You have to slow down, tune inward, and trust your inner voice. Create the space and time in your day to do this and allow yourself unstructured time in your week to listen and follow what your your inner voice says and wants to do. The more i did this and acted on my intuition is was refected back to me the truth in it. Whether it be from another person I shared something with saying “wow i needed to hear that today” or by lining up at the perect time to receive something or avoid something, and just by feeling the state of joy in my body and mind when i followed who and what i was. Little by little it grew and became my biggest compass.
Second skill would be I embody grounded leadership and safety. I lead with authenticity, warmth, and a steady presence. When I am guiding a class, or hanging out with others, I have the ability to make others feel safe to soften, explore, and transform. I do life in this state of energy and by doing that others around me feel it too. You have to embody the same energy your trying others to feel or be in, if they are ready to align. On the flip side It can be a trigger though for others that dont wish to embody that same presence and thats where you will be met with projections or a wall. That is the moment you have to be okay with everyone is not meant to be on the same path with you and thats ok. We dont want to self abandon in order to keep people in our lives, we should stay true to ourselves so we can meet the right people meant to be in our lives and on our path. Again though you really have to know yourself and like yourself to do this. Practice SELF LOVE and ACCEPTANCE not putting so much effort into being perfect.
My last skill would be my devotion to healing and growth. I have had many people in my life that refuse to grow or heal from their pain or trials and choose to stay in a victim mentality and live in denial. I chose different and started from there, a choice. I didnt always live in the energy of ease and flow but longed to get there, and I set out to do so. My personal journey of healing, emotionally, physically, and spiritually has shaped the soul of Inner Body Yoga. I have turned my own transformation into a pathway for others by showing up consistently with love, through my vulnerability and by being me, and my dedication to others and my life. I think through this dedication to myself i have been able to create that in the studio through every detail put into it.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Universe has your back by Gabby Bernstein
In the The Alchemist the biggest take away for me was the quote “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times,” We all set out with goals and dreams and are so focused of the end result of achieving them. I have realised though while embarking on this studio ownership path is enjoying the journey and the people i have met along the way. Its been 2 years in pursuing t`his dream and i collected a lot of cool stories along the way. All of the milestones, pushing through the doubt, and just being vulnerable along the way will stick with me way more than the day the keys were handed to me. Also I think more people would conquer big dreams if they were detached from the outcome. Knowing that true joy was all about showing up for yourself and truly believing in yourself and not on the outcome of success. And giving zero energy to the people that doubt you.
In The Universe has your back it teaches you to transform your fear into faith in order to live a divinely guided life with confidence. We will live more fulfilling lives if we believe things do work out for us, and if we look for the signs and nuggets along the way, they will be revealed. We find them through unexpected road blocks, guidance through meditation, allowing things to happen easily, and in a inner deep knowing that the moment we let go is the moment the universe can get to work. We just have to be patient enough to see it all come together.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Inner Body Yoga Studio
- Other: You can find the studio and classes and workshops on the MINDBODY app
Image Credits
on instagram as @itsmesydneeshey Sydnee / Family & soul-led photos
