Spiritual healers tell us that we’re spiritual beings having a 3D experience on Earth. While this concept resonates with many, few embody it as profoundly as Leif Bjelland, a holistic breathwork healer whose journey towards achieving deeper states of consciousness led him to help others transcend their physical and mental boundaries and access their inner intuition through his breathwork sessions.

But how did Leif end up becoming a breathwork healer specializing in holotropic style breathwork and founding his brand, Transcend Today? 

Let’s start from the beginning.

From Baker to Breathwork Practitioner & Healer: Leif’s Flow-State Journey 

Leif Bjelland’s path wasn’t always about breathwork and exploring consciousness. 

Raised in a small northwest Montana town, his early days were filled with building BMX jumps and making mixtapes for friends.

His journey towards mindfulness began with nearly two decades of demystifying sourdough bread for a new generation of bakers. Leif, an excellent and recognized baker, shared the art and science of French bread baking through his former community business, Le Petit Outre. In 2014, his expertise earned him a nomination for the James Beard Award for Best Baker.

In baking, he found peace and frequently found himself in a state of flow that allowed him to immerse himself completely in the act of baking. As he became aware of these states of flow, he began to look for them elsewhere, aside from baking. 

His pursuit of achieving flow-state led him to explore various sports, with cycling and snowboarding topping the list. 

After Le Petit Outre bakery, Leif started pushing himself physically. He began listening to podcasts about bio-hacking to enhance his performance in randonneuring, a French-style ultra biking. In 2019, he participated in Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) – a long-distance (1,200 km) cycling event that was initially run as a race in 1891. 

Yet, seeking flow states through outward pursuits like sports proved insufficient for Leif. Seeking inner recovery for body, mind, and soul, he learned Transcendental Meditation, enhancing the connection between his heart and mind, which led to radical changes in his physiology. Using an Oura ring to track his meditations, Leif noticed his heart rate drop and his HRV (heart rate variability) rise, leading to better sleep. 

This powerful experience shifted his focus from seeking flow states outwardly to embarking on an inward journey of self-discovery, connecting with his interests in the ancients, cosmology, and consciousness.

All of this led him to come across an ancient breathwork method that, as he puts it, “brings him to a blissful state somewhere between sex and paragliding.” This method – called Neurodynamic Breathwork – is a particular style of breathwork that tunes, balances, and harmonizes the mind, body, and soul.

What Is Holotropic Style Breathwork, Leif’s Expertise?

Leif got so intrigued by the benefits of the ancient Neurodynamic Breathwork method that he decided to study it further. He learned directly from the three founders of the Neurodynamic Institute, each with over 50 years of experience in holotropic-style breathwork.

Now, Leif specializes in holotropic-style breathwork, which is a therapeutic practice that supports healing and self-discovery. Rooted in the work of psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, holotropic breathwork involves rapid breathing, evocative music, artistic expression, and a secure environment to create a state of mind similar to psychedelic experiences.

Holotropic breathwork has shown benefits like reducing anxiety, overcoming phobias, and even improving physical symptoms like headaches and asthma. While the scientific explanations for the effects of this breathwork method are limited, its proponents believe they’re linked to unresolved emotional difficulties and bioenergetic blockages. 

As practiced by Leif, holotropic breathwork helps release this residual bioenergetic tension, contributing to a balanced and smoothly functioning body.

Transcend Today with Leif

Today, Leif helps people speed up their recovery and find a balance between their body, mind, and soul through what he calls Transcend Today Breathwork – a method that takes them out of their heads and into a deep, relaxed state where they can build their intuition, harmonize their nervous systems and build new neural pathways.

The reason why Leif’s Transcend Today breathwork method is so powerful is because it quickly takes people to a place that might take years with standard meditation. When practiced on a regular basis, this breathwork method helps people tune, balance, and harmonize their mind, body, and soul and strengthens their access to their unique inner intelligence and intuition.

If you’d like to work with Leif, you can join his breathwork sessions via his website or reach out to him via his Instagram account.