Discovering Your Heartlight: How Breathwork Heals and Opens the Heart – Rebecca Tambascia

What happens when the person who takes care of everyone finally lets herself be cared for? 

Becca Tambascia built her life around helping people feel beautiful in her Cape Cod salon and spa. But as she gave more and more of herself to her family, her clients, and her business, she stopped receiving from others and slowly closed her heart. Then an unexpected invitation led her to an online breathwork class. The first session felt like being hooked up to an electrical outlet, and she was certain she would never do it again.

With a friend’s encouragement, Becca gave breathwork another try, and this time everything changed. She trained as a facilitator, but instead of rushing to share what she’d learned, she gave the next full year to herself, healing her own heart first. Only then did she begin offering sessions to salon clients, without advertising and by word of mouth. Clients began having profound experiences, and Becca started receiving messages from their loved ones who had passed. As this side of her work grew, she had to face her fear of being truly seen. What she once kept hidden became Heartlight Breathwork, bringing together the outer beauty she created for others with the inner healing she finally found for herself.

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It was so great to meet you at the Sedona Ascension Retreat last year. Can you tell us a bit about your spiritual journey?

Becca Tambascia: Yes, and it was wonderful. Throughout my journey, I’ve felt that I’m continually being led toward different people. At the retreat, I connected with a woman who had a booth there and was leading retreats in Egypt. I can’t remember her name for the life of me, but I loved her energy.

It was probably Amanda Romania.

Becca Tambascia: Yes, that was her! We were talking, and she said, “Becca, you need to go see that man and woman over there. You need to talk to them.” That’s how we connected. I keep moving along this journey, meeting different people, and somehow it all works out.

That’s how it happens. Amanda is an amazing woman. But I’ve taken us off track, so let’s return to you and your story. Did you grow up with some form of spirituality or religion, or did that emerge later in your life?

Becca Tambascia: Spiritual experiences began coming through when I was very young. I was born with clubfoot, so my legs required corrective treatment. I wore braces and slept in a full-length cast every night until I was sixteen. It was quite a journey and a significant challenge.

I feel that my awakening began during those childhood years. I became able to intuitively see and feel who children and adults really were: whether they were pretending, whether they were genuine, and what might be happening beneath the surface. That awareness came very naturally to me.

When you’re born different, a lot comes with that experience. Looking back, I’m grateful for what happened because it made me sensitive to what other people were going through. If someone else was being bullied, I couldn’t tolerate it. Even though I was—and still am—an introvert, unless I know you well, witnessing something like that would compel me to speak up.

I also grew up in the woods, surrounded by the Earth’s energy. I was constantly among the trees, climbing all the way to their tops.

Where did you grow up?

Becca Tambascia: On Cape Cod in Massachusetts, which is where I live now. I’ve moved away several times, but I’ve always come home.

Did your family talk about God or spirituality?

Becca Tambascia: Absolutely. Both of my parents came from deeply religious families. My mother’s family was Catholic, and nuns educated her. My father came from a long line of Methodist reverends.

Becca with her Father and eldest son.

One of those ministers was Edgar J. Helms, the founder of Goodwill Industries, who was my great-grandfather. There’s an entire story behind that family connection. When my father’s parents divorced, his father disappeared from his life. My dad didn’t meet his biological father or the Helms side of the family until he was forty. They have since come back into our lives, which has been wonderful.

Despite their own religious backgrounds, my parents decided to raise us as Unitarian Universalists. Essentially, they encouraged us to discover what felt true to us, whatever that might be.

As a girl, I sometimes struggled with that openness. I wanted to know more and wished I had a little more direction. But standing where I am today, I’m incredibly grateful for how I was raised because it allowed me to remain open to everything.

There are many different forms of spirituality. Within my own life, I’ve experienced many awakenings connected with the angelic realm and a powerful sense of Source. As I’ve traveled through this journey, I’ve come to understand that everything is connected. It’s tied to our ancestry, our past, and the experiences—both good and bad—that we’re here to work through.

As you grew older, when did you begin having new experiences or ideas about spirit and consciousness? What moments felt pivotal for you?

Becca Tambascia: One pivotal period began when I was preparing to go out into the world. At that time, it felt as though I held the world in the palm of my hand. I also had a certain love for myself, and I channeled that love into my passion, which was—and still is—hair.

I became a hairstylist and opened my salon and spa at a very young age. I poured myself into building the business. Then I got married, had two children, and found myself giving to everyone except myself.

Sometimes, you really have to hit rock bottom before you can begin swimming back toward where you want to be.

I would never relate to that.

Becca Tambascia: Right! For me, the problem was that I wasn’t giving myself any love or care. I also wouldn’t allow myself to receive from other people. I was constantly giving and always trying to be the strong person in charge, but underneath it all, I was becoming incredibly depleted.

Over time, I shut down. I closed my heart to everyone—my husband and the people at work. My children were the only people I continued to give my love to. They became my entire focus, and I pushed everyone else away. I felt I had to do that to stop the momentum of the life I had created.

During that period, however, many magical things began happening. I kept telling my husband that I felt an incredibly strong pull toward something more. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I had to discover it.

Eventually, I traveled to Greece with some girlfriends for a yoga retreat. While I was there, I saw a necklace depicting the Phaistos Disc and bought it. I’m wearing that necklace today.

I feel that the necklace marked an opening for me—the place where this part of my journey truly began. Afterward, the universe started flooding me with things that seemed to fall into my lap unexpectedly.

Shortly before Christmas, I received an invitation to an online breathwork class. I wondered, “How did these people even get my email?” This was years ago, and I couldn’t understand how the invitation had reached me. But I took the class, and that was when things really started opening.

I eventually committed to a thirty-day breathwork challenge. Everything was online until I traveled to receive in-person training.

Tell us about your breathwork journey. What type of breathwork were you practicing?

Becca Tambascia: It was a powerful, diaphragmatic three-part breath: deep into the belly, up into the chest, and then release. After the first class, I never wanted to do it again.

I felt as though I had been plugged into an electrical outlet. The experience was extremely intense and frightening. The next day, I was exhausted, so I called my friend Sherianna and told her, “I don’t know what I did last night. I took this breathwork class, and now I’m completely exhausted.”

She asked, “Are you going to do it again?”

I said, “Hell no! I’m not doing that again. There’s no way.”

But Sherianna said, “Becca, it sounds amazing. It sounds as though you cleared out a lot. If I do it, will you do it with me?” That was how the ball started rolling.

I took the class again, and the second experience was completely different. By the third time, I felt like a teenager. I had energy for days.

From there, I got on a plane and flew into the middle of nowhere in Utah. I joined fourteen people I had never met for an intensive training. It blew my world open and helped me recognize many things I needed to release.

That was the beginning of the journey. When I came home, I was trained as a facilitator, but for the first year, I didn’t offer breathwork to anyone else. I devoted that time to myself—going inward, healing my heart, and learning to love myself again.

My heart is where my awakening truly occurred. It was an opening back into self-love. Unfortunately, all of us can become disconnected from that love, but opening the heart space is incredibly important. It’s at the center of what I now teach and how I connect with others.

After that first year, some of my salon clients became curious about breathwork. I quietly began offering sessions to a few people without advertising them publicly.

Your salon clients?

Becca Tambascia: Yes. That was when the magic began unfolding again because they were having profound experiences, and I was being shown different things during their sessions.

Sometimes their deceased loved ones would come through, and I would receive messages for them.

Had that ever happened to you before?

Becca Tambascia: My intuition has always been relatively strong, and it has helped guide me throughout my life. I simply hadn’t intentionally worked with it before.

I’ve seen spirits and experienced many other things throughout my life, but it wasn’t something I talked about. It was simply there.

Why didn’t you talk about it?

Becca Tambascia: That has been a significant part of my journey too. Allowing the world to see more of what I do was very difficult because I was trapped inside an old idea of who I thought I was. People need to find the courage to move through that fear and let themselves be seen authentically.

What were you afraid of?

Becca Tambascia: Judgment. I worried about how people would see me and what they would think.

When I announced my first Heartlight workshop, I shared it publicly on Instagram. I was in the salon at the time, and as soon as I posted it, I started crying.

One of my youngest stylists was in the back room with me. He hugged me and asked, “What’s wrong?”

I said, “I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what people are going to think.”

Looking back, that fear feels like such nonsense because this is a beautiful part of who I am—one that should and needs to be shared. Still, it has been interesting to observe the different moments when fear resurfaces along the way.

As I mentioned before our call, I’m an introvert, so showing up this way can be difficult. I become very nervous before an interview or before speaking to a large group. But I’m learning to channel that nervous energy into excitement and focus on the opportunity to connect with people and talk about something I truly love.

When I first began quietly offering breathwork, another aspect of my work emerged: energy. During sessions, I could feel an incredibly strong energy flowing from my feet and hands. I didn’t know how to process it and kept wondering, “What is happening?”

It felt as though another level within me was activating. I hadn’t received extensive energy-healing training. I had taken a Reiki Level One course many years earlier, but I hadn’t gone any further at that point.

Since then, I’ve become a Reiki Master and trained as an energy healer. But that training wasn’t where the connection began. My connection to what I experience as true Source light felt different—almost like a direct and deeply personal connection.

Around that time, I was gathering with a group of like-minded people, and a good friend hosted a well-known psychic. Don’t ask me her name—I’m terrible with names—but she was amazing. She offered each of us a short individual reading.

When it was my turn, she said, “You’re doing much more than breathwork during your sessions.”

I listened as she continued: “They want me to tell you that the energy coming through you may feel a little disconcerting, but you need to trust it and flow with it. This is a form of hands-on healing.”

I thought, “Wow—this woman is describing exactly what has been happening.” I hadn’t told anyone about it.

All these extraordinary pieces continued entering my work. Since then, I’ve followed the breadcrumbs, trying to observe, remain as present as possible, and notice where the universe is guiding me. That journey ultimately grew into the heart-centered breathwork and lightwork I now offer through Becca’s Bubble.

I want to ask specifically about breathwork. We’ve talked about how beneficial it has been for you and your clients, but how would you define it for someone who has never experienced it? What is breathwork, and what happens when someone consciously works with their breath?

Becca Tambascia: A great deal is happening. First, it can be very cathartic. We hold so much in our bodies—in our cells, our blood, and our energetic fields. It might be something hurtful that someone said yesterday, or it could be trauma from many years ago. Whatever the experience, we can hold different pieces of it within the body.

The ancient breathing technique I use is intended to reach deeply into the body. As the breath creates movement and flow, people may begin releasing the stagnant energy they’ve been carrying. It can be an incredibly liberating experience.

Breathwork meets you exactly where you are, which means every session is different. No two experiences are ever the same. That’s one of the things I find so amazing about it.

But breathwork offers more than release. My work has three central parts: heart-opening, lightwork, and the breath itself. While someone is breathing, I feel it’s important to weave in lightwork and healing support because the process can sometimes become intense. I use that energetic work to help soften and soothe the experience.

There’s a reason it’s called breathwork. I practice many forms of breathing that can bring people into deeply relaxed states, and I love those too. But with the type of breathwork I’m describing, you have to be willing to do the work to reach the place you need to go.

People can have profound experiences when they let themselves go. They may release thoughts or emotions they’ve stored away or pushed down. Once something has been released, space opens for something beautiful, perhaps something they had forgotten to return.

The breath can help people connect at a level they didn’t know existed. I believe we can access other dimensions or planes simply by learning how to work with it.

I know you offer private sessions as well as group sessions. Walk us through a typical session from beginning to end, including how the individual and group experiences differ.

Becca Tambascia: A one-on-one session is more personal. It gives the person an opportunity to talk with me about what’s happening in their life, what they may be holding, and what they would like to release. Some people don’t want to participate in a group; they need a private connection and someone’s undivided attention.

I guide them through the process in a safe space while focusing on what they’re personally experiencing. But I’m also a creative person, so I don’t necessarily do the exact same thing every time. I may bring something different into a session depending on the person and what they need.

Are those sessions online, or are they primarily in person right now?

Becca Tambascia: Until now, I’ve primarily offered them in person, but I’m also opening them to people online.

Do you visit someone’s home, or do they come to your studio?

Becca Tambascia: They come to the studio.

So no one is getting a perm beside them while they’re doing breathwork or breathing in perm solution?

Becca Tambascia: No, nothing like that! My previous salon had an entire spa downstairs, so it was a beautiful private space with no interference from the salon.

I’m currently going through a significant transition. Our current location is being torn down, and the new space I planned to move into is falling through. I don’t know whether that location will work out, but another opportunity has come up that could be a great fit.

It may let me keep doing something I love: helping people feel beautiful on the outside. But my deeper passion now is helping people feel beautiful from the inside out. Those two forms of beauty are truly connected.

I also recently lost my father on August 8, so a great deal has been happening in my life. I’m moving through it without fear. I’m remaining open to whatever appears before me and trying to choose the best possible way forward.

For private sessions, you meet people in an appropriate space, and I assume they lie down during the experience.

Becca Tambascia: Yes. Within the next few months, I’ll have an appropriate physical space for sessions again. But I can absolutely offer this work online as well. I already work with people online every week, so I don’t want to limit myself to one location or one way of doing things.

With groups, I usually create a theme. We move through a guided experience that includes everything someone might receive in a private session, but it’s offered to the group as a whole.

What I love about group work is the connection created by everyone’s combined energy. It’s amazing. People leave a breathwork session feeling different, and they also relate differently to one another afterward.

You may be lying next to someone you know or a complete stranger, and you have no idea what’s happening in that person’s world. We all carry our own stories and have our own processes to move through. When an awakening is occurring within several people at once, a connective energy emerges among them. It feels very supportive and very safe. I love this work.

You’ve named your breathwork practice Heartlight. What does that mean to you, and why did you choose that name?

Becca Tambascia: The name Heartlight came to me through channeling—or what I call my angel messages. Certain things have been shown to me throughout my journey. When you begin diving deeply into your own spirit and higher self, different openings reveal themselves.

The light within our hearts connects us to everything. I feel it is both our first and our final connection to all that exists. I was shown different ways to work with that light and use it to connect with the Earth and Source. Heartlight was the word that came through to describe it.

I remember one particular session with Marie, a wonderful woman who helps me hold space for much of this work. We were preparing to lead breathwork for two women who organized an incredible fundraising event.

I guided them through the process I had been shown for connecting with the heart’s light. Near the end, I felt that the mother of one participant had come through. I began writing down the message I was receiving because I knew I would forget it otherwise. Marie came around the corner and gestured for me to be quiet because I was crinkling the paper while I wrote.

After the session, one of the women looked at me and said, “Becca, I didn’t tell you this before, but I had a near-death experience. I died while giving birth to my child.”

She explained that the Heartlight connection I had channeled at the beginning of the session took her directly back to that experience. She said, “That is what happened to me.”

Then she told me, “Immediately afterward—before we had even begun the breathwork—my mother appeared. She stayed with me throughout the entire session.”

I said, “I know. I wrote down her message for you.”

Those are the moments that fill my soul. They are what inspire me and make me love this work so deeply. The people I work with bring an extraordinary amount to these experiences. People are amazing, and I learn from them every day—whether I’m standing behind a salon chair or guiding someone through a session. I’m deeply grateful for that.

You live on Cape Cod, where you also grew up. Do you find that people there are open to breathwork and intuitive experiences? What is it like where you are?

Becca Tambascia: Yes and no. There is a genuine community of deeply spiritual people here, but I’ve also encountered some resistance. I can feel people’s fear about taking the next step and opening themselves more fully.

Are they afraid of what breathwork might open within them?

Becca Tambascia: Yes, because it requires some work.

It can be somewhat psychedelic. As you said, breathwork meets you where you are, so you don’t always know where that will be or what it will open within you.

Becca Tambascia: Exactly. Think about my first experience: I didn’t enjoy it very much. I was exhausted afterward and felt as though I had been plugged into an electrical outlet. A lot was happening.

Many people here are in awe of the work once they experience it, but taking that first step can still be difficult. I do have a following, and I intend to continue growing it. That’s also why online sessions are so helpful: They allow me to reach beyond one geographical area and connect with more people.

But perhaps I’m here on Cape Cod because part of my purpose is to help open people’s eyes. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’ve been brought back here.

You’ve mentioned your online work several times. I believe you offer something weekly. Tell us about it. What does it involve, and how can someone participate?

Becca Tambascia: I tend to take on a lot. I’ve been leading weekly online training for a community whose members live in many different places, but I’m beginning to step away from that particular role.

I’m moving more toward live monthly sessions, both online and in person. I’m also offering prerecorded weekly practices through the Heartlight Circle. A new session becomes available each week, and members can practice with it as many times as they choose during that week before it changes.

These aren’t the long, intensive breathwork journeys we might do once a month. They are intended to help people maintain their flow and keep the heart and mind clear and open.

For me, breathwork can help open the prefrontal cortex and quiet the mental patterns that prevent us from living as we’re meant to live. We aren’t meant to walk around constantly overwhelmed by voices and chatter in our heads. We’re meant to lead from the heart and make choices that feel true and right.

If I can help people reduce the noise of that “monkey mind” so many of us experience, then it’s a good day.

The Heartlight Circle is a monthly membership that people can join through your website—is that right?

Becca Tambascia: Yes. It’s a monthly membership available through Beccas-Bubble.com, which is where people can find everything they need.

I’m also creating a free meditation for Awakened members. It isn’t an intensive breathwork session; it incorporates gentle breathing, meditation, and some lightwork healing.

Our next live online session will be on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. ET. I want to make sure everyone knows about it. Members of the Awakened community may use the code AWKNDBB to receive a discount on the session. 

That’s Wednesday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. ET or 4:30 p.m. PT. Will the session be approximately an hour to an hour and a half?

Becca Tambascia: Yes.

Would you recommend that participants lie down during the session?

Becca Tambascia: Definitely. I would also suggest using headphones or earbuds because hearing my voice and the music clearly helps you become more immersed in the experience.

I recommend not eating for about two hours beforehand so that your stomach is relatively empty. Hydrating is fine, but don’t drink so much immediately before the session that you’ll need to get up and use the bathroom.

We’ll link to that session in the show notes. What is the best social media platform for people who want to connect with you?

Becca Tambascia: Oh, my gosh, David, this is where I get confused! As I told you before, I haven’t traditionally been someone who uses Instagram or social media, so I’m still figuring it all out.

People are going to laugh at me because I may be the only person who doesn’t know how to find her own Instagram account.

I found it: @beccasbubble_heartlight.

Becca Tambascia: Perfect! Please visit, follow the account, and join us. I promise I’m learning how to use it.

This is all new to me, but people have already begun messaging me, and I do respond. I’m a responder! Whether someone contacts me through Instagram or my website, I’m here and will write back.

Becca, thank you so much for sharing your story and for all the wonderful work you’re doing. As you said, you help people look beautiful on the outside and feel beautiful on the inside. It’s all wonderful work, so thank you.

Becca Tambascia: Thank you so much, David.