Exploring Life & Business with Tsvetelina Mitseva -Chechi of Bendis Breathwork

I was born and raised in Bulgaria and wondered quite a lot throughout my life. Lived in 16 different cities around the globe and eventually ended up here in San Diego, which I finally can call home. All that came with rich experiences that shaped my outlook on life. While growing up, my parents raised us with generous amounts of love and support, yet money was often tight. They used to tell us that they want to give us both roots and wings, so we feel a sense of belonging and still feel free to fly on our own when wanting to explore the world. Around the age of 15, I started feeling the travel bug, and my girlfriends and I would take the country bus to some small towns, spend the day there wondering, and make our way back before dawn. As soon as we turned legal age, my sister and I started moving to different cities for a summer jobs and returning home at the end of the season. At one point, Bulgaria became small, and I started making my way out. Coming to the United States was not easy. My sister and I left behind our family and friends, looking for a better future. Moving to a new country and starting from nothing was humbling; our English was far from ideal, and with a total of $800, we had to make a living, yet we were young and optimistic, which helped. When you move to a different country, you start from scratch and feel like a toddler learning how to speak again; when you can’t articulate yourself properly others naturally assume your level of intelligence which had a huge impact on my self-esteem.  However, these experiences were a big catalyzer for improvement which pushed me to start reading and self-educating. The experience of hardships seems to naturally lead you to notice the struggles of others. That set me on my path of learning more about trauma. I started volunteering serving food in a homeless shelter and cheering up kids in Nicholas Children’s Hospital which was extremely rewarding. In those days, we lived with very limited resources, so I became aware of many other people who struggle, so feeding the homeless and playing with children who were ill and bound to a hospital bed helped me be grateful for having a roof over my head and still being healthy. There was one question that constantly crossed my mind. ”Even though my sister and I were close to living on the streets, we somehow had the resilience to overcome it, work hard, and build a stable life. And what happened to those people I met in the homeless shelters who stayed trapped in that vicious cycle and couldn’t seem to get out?”. Over the years, I briefly studied early childhood development, which put some light on that question and how the first years of life shape our outlook on the world. At that time, I knew I wanted to support people who face difficulties, yet I had no idea how, so I embarked on a self-exploration journey that lasted about two years and led me on a hot September day at my mentor’s yoga studio for a breathwork session. At that very same session I discovered that breathwork was the tool I was seeking on my mission to serve others. My goal since then has been to acquire tools that have helped me so that I can share them with the people I work with to help them overcome trauma and live their best lives.

It has never been smooth, yet at a very early age, I learned that I do not thrive on comfort, and the biggest life lessons come from experiencing difficulties and learning how to overcome them. One of my biggest lessons was ending up in a foreign country away from family and friends with no money and no place to stay. On that day, I learned that life can turn upside down in a matter of hours, and you can either take it as a punishment or as an opportunity to test your strength, grow, and gain a different perspective. I started my business at the beginning of Covid with very small funds and no idea how I will make it work; I have never been a business owner. The one thing I knew for sure was that I trusted the practice of breathwork with my life and knew that it will change a lot of lives as it did change mine. At that time, I was new to San Diego, so I did not have too many friends or connections, so I spent a few months reaching out to organizations, businesses, yoga studios, and people without getting any leads which dampened my drive. It was humbling, yet I knew that it was just a matter of time. With time I started getting more clients who became regular at my events and got hired to work in a mental health facility supporting veterans in overcoming PTSD with the practices I do alongside their regular therapy. Overall, I just try to see every bump in the road as an opportunity to learn more about my limitations and strengths and ways I can improve myself.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Bendis Breathwork?
I specialize in Therapeutic breathwork, which I combine with Reiki, Yoga, and a few trauma-informed therapies to support people on their journey to full recovery. It’s a holistic body/mind/spirit concoction!

When I started my practice, breathwork was mostly known in the yogic/spiritual community. Most of the people who were doing it were relatively healthy and integrated individuals with years of personal growth and alternative therapy. Hence those were the majority of my clients. All that was great; however, once I started to apply the work with clients who had compromised mental health and sense of safety, I experienced a different reality. A lot of them were never exposed to any kind of holistic healing not to mention that even yoga was a foreign term. So, I had to educate myself further, so I make sure my clients get what they need and feel safe along the way. That led to pursuing further education that was tailored for professionals who work with trauma and mental illnesses, which helped me cultivate a well-rounded approach to healing trauma that holds both scientific/medical and spiritual understanding of mental illnesses and trauma.

I am extremely proud that I have the opportunity to support individuals overcome conditions they have been struggling with for years, while creating a significant shift from a deep state of disconnection to being able to feel and experience life in its full zest. Seeing combat veterans who for years have been numb to the world, while experiencing hell on earth, regain their autonomy over trauma and become fully alive is truly magical.

I don’t see health conditions as a problem that needs to be eliminated. Instead, I see them as messengers that the body/mind generates to communicate stored trauma or imbalance. Through my practice, I try to stay curious about what is driving the condition without killing the messenger so the issue can be addressed at its root. Once that process is completed, the symptoms lose their strength, and the system returns to equilibrium. At the moment I’m working on a few projects that are aimed at supporting military/vets and first responders in reducing occupational illnesses and creating resilience to stress and trauma.

What do you think about happiness?
Spending time with my loved ones, being out in nature, bonfires, witnessing random acts of kindness, serving underserved people, traveling, live music, seeking new adventures, and good gelato.