Isabele Sanden: Founder of Breathe Pilates and Nominee for Boss Babes Magazine
Isabele Sanden
Founder and CEO
Business: Breathe Pilates LLC – Health & Wellness
Website: www.breathepilates.studio
Instagram: @breathepilatesllc
Facebook: Breathepilatesllc
LinkedIn: Breathe Pilates
A Journey of Healing, Strength, and Purpose
Boss Babes Magazine proudly recognizes Isabele Sanden, Founder and CEO of Breathe Pilates LLC, as a nominee for her inspiring leadership in the health and wellness industry. Through resilience, compassion, and a deep commitment to helping others reconnect with their bodies, Isabele has created a space where movement becomes a pathway to healing.
Before opening her Pilates studio, Isabele’s career began in medicine. She worked with a division of Johnson & Johnson as an anti-infective and analgesic specialist, collaborating with orthopedic surgeons, infectious disease physicians, hospitals, and primary care providers. Her work focused on helping patients recover from serious infections and manage pain. In the pharmaceutical world, healing often came through prescriptions and medications.
While the work was meaningful, life eventually led Isabele down a different path.
When her third child was born, she stepped away from her career to focus on raising her children and being present for her family. During this time, she also faced significant personal challenges, including leaving an abusive marriage and rebuilding life as a single mother of three.
As she navigated that difficult chapter, an unexpected invitation changed everything.
A friend invited her to try a Pilates class at a small studio in Seattle.
“That first class was transformative,” Isabele recalls.
The movement was precise and graceful. The breath was calming. The reformer provided both support and challenge in a way that awakened strength and awareness throughout her body. For the first time, exercise felt not just physical, but deeply restorative.
But the transformation went far beyond the physical.
Pilates helped restore confidence, calm, and resilience during one of the most difficult periods of her life. In that moment, Isabele realized there was another powerful path to healing—one that did not rely solely on medication.
She had spent years helping people heal through medicine. Now she had discovered another extraordinary tool: movement.
That realization inspired her to become a Pilates instructor and eventually open her own studio.
Creating a Sanctuary for Wellness
In 2018, Isabele founded Breathe Pilates, a studio intentionally designed to help people reconnect with their bodies, rediscover their strength, and find calm in a busy world.
What began as a personal journey has evolved into a vibrant wellness community. Clients come seeking strength, pain relief, or stress reduction—but many leave with something even more powerful: renewed vitality, confidence, and balance.
One moment that deeply affirmed her mission came from a client who shared that she lives with sensory sensitivities. Most gyms and fitness spaces feel overwhelming due to loud music, crowded rooms, and high energy environments.
But when she entered Breathe Pilates, everything felt different.
The client described the studio as calm, quiet, and safe—an environment where she could finally focus inward and connect with her body without feeling overstimulated.
She told Isabele, “This place feels like a sanctuary.”
For Isabele, moments like this are the true measure of success.
If given unlimited resources, she says she would expand that vision—creating a permanent studio space intentionally designed as an oasis where people can breathe deeply, move freely, and reconnect with themselves.
“Pilates is more than a workout,” she explains. “It’s a place where people rediscover calm, strength, and clarity.”
Strength Forged Through Adversity
Isabele’s journey has not been without profound challenges. She has endured an abusive marriage, battled breast cancer during the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, undergone back surgery, and navigated years of legal battles to protect her children.
Through it all, she discovered that strength is not something we are simply born with.
It is something we uncover.
Raised in the Quaker tradition, Isabele grew up learning about the concept of an “inner light”—a quiet wisdom that lives within each person. During life’s most difficult moments, she turns inward, pausing to breathe and listen for that guidance.
“It’s about trusting the inner voice that leads us toward courage, clarity, and the next step forward,” she says.
This mindset has helped her navigate life’s storms with resilience and grace.
Leadership Rooted in Purpose
Isabele draws inspiration from many women who have shaped her path—from teachers and mentors who nurtured her curiosity, to global leaders like Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Rachel Maddow, whose voices uplift and inspire others.
What she admires most about these women is their commitment to using influence not simply for success, but for service.
“They remind us that leadership isn’t about standing above others,” she says. “It’s about lifting people up and helping them see what is possible.”
That philosophy is reflected in the community she continues to build through Breathe Pilates.
Daily Rituals That Keep Her Grounded
Despite the demands of running a business and raising a family, Isabele remains grounded through simple daily rituals.
Each morning begins quietly with a cup of coffee and a few moments of stillness before the day unfolds. She follows this with gentle self-care—skincare and a light lymphatic facial massage to stimulate circulation and awaken the body.
It’s a small act of intention that reminds her to begin the day with presence and self-respect.
Her grandmother once shared a similar philosophy, saying she never walked out the door without her lipstick—not out of vanity, but as a way of honoring herself.
For Isabele, these rituals represent something deeper: small acts of self-love that strengthen the foundation from which we care for others.
“Because when we feel strong and centered within ourselves,” she says, “we are better able to give that same strength and care to the world.”
Moving Forward with Purpose
Today, through Breathe Pilates, Isabele Sanden continues to inspire others to reconnect with their bodies, reduce stress, and discover strength from within.
Her nomination by Boss Babes Magazine celebrates not only her professional accomplishments but also her extraordinary resilience, compassion, and dedication to empowering others.
And for Isabele, the mission remains beautifully simple:
“When people feel strong in their bodies, they move through life differently.”
