The Power of Breath to Heal and Transform Your Life – Interview with Breath Expert Remington Steele

In this powerful interview, breath expert Remington Steele shares how conscious breathing can transform lives, heal generational trauma, and empower young mothers. Through her journey from teen mom to spiritual teacher, she reveals how breathwork becomes a tool for self-awareness, emotional regulation, and lasting personal transformation.

Remington Steele, Intuitive Breath Practitioner, Emotional Wellness Coach & Philanthropist

You’ve dedicated your life to breathwork and birthwork. How did your personal journey as a teen mom shape the healing modalities you now teach?

“I was first introduced to the power of the breath during my pregnancy as a teen mom, when birthworkers taught me how to use it to support labor and delivery. As a young girl, I soaked up that knowledge and quickly realized how powerful and effective it was – not just in birth, but in calming my body and navigating intense emotions. Over time, I became more aware of how the breath could either support or sabotage me depending on how I used it. That personal discovery became the foundation of the healing modalities I teach today. I now use breathwork to encourage young girls to trust their bodies and themselves – not just in birth, but in life, in conflict, and in parenting. The breath becomes their anchor, their voice, and their guide.”

"You spent years climbing the federal ladder from a GS-3 student worker to a permanent role with ICE OPLA. What led you to make the courageous decision to leave that stability behind at age 40, and how did that choice reflect your personal values or purpose?"

As a former teen mom who intimately understands the pain of navigating life while feeling unseen, unsupported, and misunderstood, my work as a nonprofit leader is rooted in lived experience. I’ve faced depression, battled through the illusions of success, and struggled with the silence that comes when you’re expected to survive without the space to heal. For years, I climbed the ladder in federal government service – starting as a GS-3 student worker and ultimately earning a permanent role with ICE OPLA. But the higher I climbed, the more I felt the soul of my work slipping away. The institution was built around policies, power, and control – while my heart yearned to build something centered in compassion, humanity, and healing. Leaving ICE at age 40 was not easy, but it was necessary. I chose to walk away from structure and security to create the very thing I needed as a teen mom: a village. We Are The Village – Teen Moms exists because I believe we change the world not by enforcing systems, but by nurturing people.

As a spiritual teacher and breathwork guide, my purpose is to help others reconnect to the parts of themselves the world teaches us to ignore. The illusion of control, the pursuit of titles, and the pressure to perform once kept me disconnected from my own truth. Breathwork became my lifeline – my way back to self, to stillness, to wholeness. Now, I use the breath to guide others back to that same place of remembrance and healing. Whether I’m supporting a teen mom learning to regulate her emotions or helping someone release generational pain through conscious breathing, I show up with the same intention: to hold sacred space for transformation. The work I do now is not about enforcing order – it’s about restoring alignment. It’s about helping people – especially young parents – reclaim their voice, their power, and their path forward.

As the founder of We Are The Village – Teen Moms, how do you blend your roles as a breath coach, life coach, and spiritual guide to support young mothers in conscious parenting?

As the founder of We Are The Village – Teen Moms, I blend my roles as a breath coach, life coach, and spiritual guide by meeting young mothers where they are – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Breath is the first tool I use to help them reconnect with their bodies and create space between reaction and response, which is essential in both healing and parenting. As a life coach, I support them in setting goals and rewriting limiting beliefs, while as a spiritual guide, I help them explore deeper self-awareness and alignment with who they’re becoming – not just as mothers, but as women. Together, these roles create a holistic support system that teaches conscious parenting through presence, regulation, and radical self-trust.

You’re a doula, birth educator, and doula instructor – how do you integrate mindfulness and breathwork into labor support and education for both moms and birthworkers?

As a doula, birth educator, and doula instructor, I integrate mindfulness and breathwork by guiding both mothers and birthworkers into a deeper relationship with themselves—teaching them to listen to their inner dialogue and observe the natural dance of breath and sensation in the body. I help them slow down, tune in, and understand how their unique breath patterns can inform and support them through the intensity of labor, birth, and holding space for others. When we understand our bodies, we can better operate them – responding with presence rather than panic. This embodied awareness empowers moms to trust their instincts and birthworkers to serve with deeper compassion, clarity, and confidence.

Your article Decoding the Breath’s Language speaks deeply to the body’s wisdom – what’s one breath truth most people overlook that you wish everyone understood?

One breath truth I wish everyone understood is that when you consciously match your breath to another person’s, you can instantly build deeper connection, communication, and presence.

Most people overlook how powerful this simple act is – it’s not about control, it’s about compassion. Matching breath helps you feel what the other person is experiencing beyond words, whether it's your child, a partner, a client, or someone in conflict. It allows you to meet them where they are emotionally and energetically, creating a space of trust and safety. When we breathe together, we understand each other better, and that changes everything.

You’ve worked as a family mediator and coach – how does understanding breath help people navigate conflict, trauma, and family dynamics more effectively?

Understanding the breath is a game-changer in navigating conflict, trauma, and family dynamics because it gives you access to what’s unspoken but deeply felt. In family mediation, most people are speaking from defense or pain, not from clarity and the breath reveals that instantly. When someone is breathing shallow, holding their breath, or exhaling with force, it tells me more than their words ever could. By bringing awareness to the breath in these moments, I help families pause and tune into their emotional state before continuing the conversation. This creates space for self-regulation, which is often the missing piece in cycles of misunderstanding, blame, and hurt. Breath helps people shift from reaction to reflection, allowing healing and resolution to become possible.

As a family coach, I also teach individuals how to notice their own breath in moments of parenting stress, emotional overwhelm, or when reliving trauma responses. Once they learn to use the breath as a tool – not just to calm down, but to reconnect with their values and voice – they begin to parent, speak, and respond differently. The breath becomes a bridge between intention and action, between past wounds and present choices. It gives families a chance to rewrite generational patterns not by force, but by awareness. When you understand the breath, you don’t just communicate better – you relate better, and that changes the entire dynamic of the home.

Your book Breathe With Me: See Yourself Through Your Breath was recently released through Balboa Press, a division of Hay House. What inspired you to write it, and what do you hope readers experience through it?

Breathe With Me was born from lived experience, not theory. After years of studying breathwork, mindfulness, yoga, and human behavior – and navigating my own seasons of reinvention, grief, leadership, and healing, I began to recognize a consistent truth: the breath never lies. It reveals what we suppress, what we fear, what we avoid, and what we are ready to transform.

I wrote this book to help people see themselves clearly. Not through personality tests, not through external achievements, but through the rhythm of their own breathing. When we are anxious, the breath constricts. When we are disconnected, it becomes shallow. When we feel safe and grounded, it expands naturally. The breath is both diagnostic and restorative. It shows us where we are and gives us a pathway back to regulation.

What I hope readers experience is awareness without shame. Many of us are living in survival patterns we don’t even realize we’re repeating. Through breath, we gain access to choice. And choice is where personal power begins.

Interestingly, Breathe With Me has also laid the groundwork for my upcoming memoir, The Game of Life: The Cheat Code Included. If this first book teaches you how to see yourself through your breath, the next explores how that awareness changes the way you navigate identity, leadership, adversity, and purpose. One teaches perception. The other teaches strategy.

And both begin with the same place – a single conscious breath.

As a student of Buddhism and a teacher of mindfulness, how have these practices influenced your approach to healing generational trauma and supporting youth?

My study of Buddhism has profoundly shaped my approach to generational healing. I am currently studying to become a Buddhist teacher within the New Kadampa Tradition, and that formal training is refining how I understand the relationship between mind, suffering, and liberation.

Buddhist philosophy teaches that the mind is the forerunner of all experience. Generational trauma is not only inherited through behavior – it is inherited through unexamined mental patterns. Mindfulness allows us to observe those patterns without becoming fused with them. When working with youth, especially through my nonprofit initiatives and coaching practice, I focus on helping them separate identity from conditioning. They are not their parents’ pain. They are not their past decisions. They are awareness capable of choosing differently.

Through breathwork, meditation, and compassionate inquiry, I teach regulation before reaction. When a young person learns how to steady their breath, they begin to steady their perception. When perception steadies, choice expands. And expanded choice is where generational cycles begin to break.

This is not abstract spirituality – it is practical liberation. And it is transferable across generations.

What inspired your second article, Emancipation Rights Needed for Teen Moms, and what systems do you believe need to radically shift to better support young mothers?

What inspired my second article, Emancipation Rights Needed for Teen Moms, was the repeated heartbreak of watching young mothers fall through cracks in systems that were never designed to protect them. One story that will never leave me is that of a 14-year-old mother of two, living with her grandmother, the only person supporting her. When her grandmother suddenly passed away, this child, now the sole caregiver of her babies, continued working to survive, navigating the world alone with no support from her biological mother. Eventually, after months in a neighborhood that drew frequent police attention, her situation came to the attention of Dallas PD. A compassionate individual involved with the case reached out to us for help – but here’s where the system fails. Because she was 14, the law required that she and her children be placed separately – her into a group home with other minors, and her babies into foster care. The gut-wrenching reality? Once she entered into the system she wouldn’t be legally able to reunite with or petition for her children until she turned 18 – two years too late. This wasn’t just about separation; it was a quiet erasure of her motherhood, built into a system that unknowingly punishes instead of protects.

Another teen mom I encountered was 16, pregnant with her second child, and had been homeless since age 11 after her mother’s husband began abusing her, and her mother chose him over her. She was surviving on the streets, doing her best for her first baby, when she was involved in a car. The accident caused her to lose the pregnancy and left her with multiple injuries requiring emergency surgeries. Because she was a minor, the hospital couldn’t operate without a guardian’s consent and her mother was unreachable for two full days. This young girl, in immense pain and trauma, had no legal voice in her own care. And now being disabled, yet still a minor, she is left to wait until legal age to request disability support that could create security for the young mother. These are just two examples of why emancipation rights for teen moms aren’t just a legal issue – they are a matter of life, dignity, and generational healing. In both cases, there was no mental health support given, despite the apparent need. These girls are now raising children with unresolved trauma and invisible wounds. We must radically shift how we view young motherhood – from shame and punishment to protection, empowerment, and support. Without these shifts, we’re not just failing young moms – we’re failing entire generations.

You teach, write, coach, and host retreats – how do you stay grounded while holding space for so many others in such transformative ways?

I stay grounded by fiercely protecting my alone time – it's my lifeline. Whether I’m reading, meditating, sitting quietly in nature, or simply breathing in stillness, that solitude allows me to return to myself. It’s where I refill, reflect, and reconnect to my purpose without the noise of the world. While I love teaching, writing, coaching, and hosting retreats, I’ve learned that I can’t hold space for others unless I first hold space for myself. My alone time isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity that keeps me rooted, clear, and spiritually aligned.

If someone is just beginning their healing journey – whether through breath, birth, or belief – what’s the first truth you’d want them to hear from you?

"The breath is not just air – it’s the body’s first language, the soul’s rhythm, and the mind’s anchor. When you learn to listen, it teaches you everything." – Remington Steele

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