Breath · Presence · Psychology · Yin Yoga
Our Method: Breath as Practice, Presence as Compass, Psychology as Insight
Breathwork as daily practice (The Presence Process), presence as compass (The Power of Now) and psychology as insight (The Big Leap). Three pillars that form our coaching method — with yin yoga as supporting practice. Not a one-time program, but a lifestyle that deepens.
What is the Spiriators method in short?
Change is lifework, not a one-time resolution. Three pillars — breath (The Presence Process by Michael Brown), presence (The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle), psychology (The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks) — with yin yoga as supporting practice. This is a way of life, not a program you complete.
Table of contents
The Philosophy — Change is Lifework
Transformation doesn't come from one session, one weekend, or one resolution. Real change requires a way of life — no quick fixes, no "30 days to a new you". At Spiriators, we work with three pillars that you don't apply once, but that you live. Day in, day out. Not because you have to, but because it deepens.
We start from a simple but profound truth: you are already whole. It's not about fixing — it's about remembering. About making space for what lies beneath the noise, the stress, and the old patterns. This isn't a spiritual ideal — it's the foundation of how we work. And it's also how we live our own lives: not as perfect examples, but as people who practice daily, sometimes fail, and then begin again.
Our coaching method builds on three pillars: breath as daily practice (Michael Brown's The Presence Process), presence as compass (Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now), and psychology as insight (Gay Hendricks' The Big Leap). Three books, three teachers, one thread: depth comes from living it, not knowing it. You can read The Presence Process and understand it, but if you don't breathe daily, nothing changes. You can summarize The Power of Now, but if you don't practice seeing through your ego, it remains theory. You can name your upper limit problem, but if you don't dare to stay when it feels good, you keep sinking back.
Yin yoga plays a supporting role here. Sometimes you need silence to hear what the breath opens. Sometimes you need long holds to feel where tension sits that your mind can't name. Yin isn't a main pillar — it's the space where the other three can land. Tessa's yin yoga classes and our nomadic retreats use yin not as a "bonus", but as a vessel: the place where the work of the three pillars can settle.
Breath
Daily practice, not a crisis tool
Presence
Your compass in the now
Psychology
Insight into your patterns
Yin Yoga
Silence to land
Breath as Lifestyle — The Presence Process
Michael Brown's The Presence Process isn't a book you read and put away. It's a blueprint for a way of breathing that changes your life — not because it's magical, but because it's consistent. The 10-week process Brown describes is not a course you finish with a certificate. It's the beginning of a new way of life.
Here's how it works: over 10 weeks, you practice daily with conscious connected breathing — a continuous rhythm of breathing in and out without pause. Each week has its own theme, its own layer that's addressed. What begins as a physical exercise slowly becomes a way of being. The breath opens doors your mind had closed. Old emotions move. What was stuck begins to flow.
But this is where it doesn't stop. After 10 weeks, you're not "done". The breath you practiced in those weeks becomes the breath you carry. The rhythm you built becomes your new normal. This is exactly the difference between a tool and a practice: a tool you pick up when needed, a practice you live. Connected breathing isn't a pill you take when stressed. It's a ritual you live.
- What is connected breathing?
- Connected breathing is a continuous breath without pause between inhale and exhale. Active inhale through the belly, passive exhale through relaxation. It activates the vagus nerve and opens access to emotional layers that conscious thinking cannot reach.
At Spiriators, we use connected breathing as our core practice. Not because it's the only form, but because it's the most direct path to your nervous system. You can't direct your heartbeat. You can't control your digestion. You can direct your breath. And through that breath, you directly influence your heart rate, blood pressure, immune response, and emotional state. This isn't esoteric — it's psychophysiology.
In our own life, this practice is woven into our days. Twice a day — upon waking and before sleep — we take 10 to 15 minutes for connected breathing. Not as discipline, but as ritual. It's the moment the day begins and the moment the day lets go. What came up during the day is allowed to be. What was stuck is allowed to move. Sometimes it's quiet, sometimes it's intense. Always, it's needed.
Want to start breathing yourself? Our free breathing timer helps you get started — with preset rhythms for connected breathing, right in your browser.
Connected breathing — also called rebirthing or circular breathing — activates the vagus nerve, helps release held tension, and has been scientifically linked to reductions in stress, depression, and PTSD symptoms Little (2025). But science tells only half the story. The other half you feel only when you do it.
Presence as Compass — The Power of Now
Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and A New Earth aren't spiritual self-help books. They're manuals for waking up. Presence — being in the now — isn't a concept to discuss. It's a way of life you choose anew every day. Not as achievement, but as reminder: am I here, or am I in my head?
Tolle's core message is radically simple: you are not your mind. The voice in your head that judges, compares, postpones, and fears — that's not you. That's your ego. And the ego isn't an enemy to fight, but a pattern to see through. The moment you see it, it loses its grip. The moment you're no longer it, space opens. That space, that's presence.
- What is the pain-body?
- The pain-body is the accumulation of old emotional pain that surfaces whenever it's triggered. It's not who you are — it's an energy field that moves through you when it's fed. Recognizing it is the beginning of breaking through.
Another core concept from Tolle is the pain-body: the accumulation of old emotional pain that surfaces whenever it's triggered. The pain-body isn't who you are — it's an energy field that moves through you when it's fed. Recognizing it is the beginning of breaking through. Not by analyzing it, but by seeing it without merging with it.
Mindfulness-based training — the scientific backbone of presence — shows significant reduction of stress and burnout in meta-analyses Fend et al. (2025). In our coaching, we don't translate Tolle's teaching into theory — we translate it into practice. How do you stay present when your partner triggers you? How do you recognize the pain-body when it flares up, instead of going along with it? How do you stay in the now when stress increases? How do you recognize the ego's voice without fighting it? These aren't rhetorical questions — they're the questions we ask ourselves daily and bring into coaching.
And here too: we're not perfect. We catch ourselves regularly back in our heads, reacting from ego again, going along with the judging voice. But that's exactly the practice — not preventing it, but noticing it. And when we catch ourselves, we can usually laugh about it. That laughter is presence. That noticing is presence. The breath that brings you back to the now is presence.
Presence isn't a destination. It's a compass. It doesn't point to "someday when I've achieved this" — it points to here, to now, to this breath. And the compass only works when you consult it. Daily. Moment by moment.
Experience It Yourself
Feeling helps more than reading
The three pillars we describe here aren't theory — they're a way of life we practice ourselves daily. Schedule a no-obligation introductory call — we'll listen, ask questions, and see together if our method fits where you are now. No sales pitch, no pressure. Just a conversation.
"It wasn't about fixing. It was about coming back to what was already there."
— Spiriators cliënt
Psychology as Insight — The Big Leap
Gay Hendricks' The Big Leap introduces a term we actively use in our coaching: the upper limit problem. It's perhaps the most uncomfortable insight there is: you don't sabotage yourself when you fail, you sabotage yourself when things are going well.
Here's how it works: we all have an internal thermostat that determines how much success, love, happiness, and connection we allow ourselves. The moment we rise above that threshold, we feel discomfort. Not because something is wrong, but because it's unfamiliar. And so we unconsciously find ways to sink back to what's familiar — picking a fight, getting sick, doubting, procrastinating. That's the upper limit problem.
Breaking through your upper limit isn't "being brave once". It's restructuring your life. It's recognizing when you feel discomfort because things are going too well — and choosing to stay instead of sinking back. That sounds simple, but it may be the hardest thing there is. Because your upper limit feels like safety. Going back feels like home. Staying feels like getting lost.
Our research shows something remarkable: there are very few coaches actively using this term. That's no coincidence. The upper limit problem is uncomfortable because it confronts you with your own resistance to happiness, success, and depth. It's easier to work on "more self-confidence" or "better boundaries" — that stays within the familiar thermostat.
Research confirms what Hendricks describes: self-sabotage occurs precisely at the approach or attainment of success, not at failure Kim et al. (2019). In our coaching, we don't work on symptoms. We work on recognizing your upper limit — and daring to cross it, again and again, until it becomes the new normal. With small steps. Not “make a big leap” — that's exactly what triggers the upper limit problem. But: stay in the discomfort just a bit longer. Breathe through it. And notice you don't fall. That's how you raise the thermostat step by step.
- What is the upper limit problem?
- The upper limit problem is the internal thermostat that determines how much success, love, and happiness you allow yourself. The moment you rise above that threshold, you feel discomfort and unconsciously sabotage yourself to sink back to what's familiar.
Hendricks also introduces the concept of the Zone of Genius — the place where your unique talent and your deepest contribution meet. Most people live in their Zone of Competence (where you're good) or Zone of Excellence (where you excel), but avoid their Zone of Genius (where you're irreplaceable). Why? Because that zone lies beyond the upper limit. To get there, you have to move through the discomfort.
This isn't theory for us either. We recognize our own upper limit, notice when we shrink back, and bring ourselves forward with small steps. Sometimes an old pattern laughs around the corner. Sometimes it's scary. But the breath helps — you can't breathe through an upper limit and simultaneously sabotage yourself.
How the Three Pillars Come Together — as Lifestyle
Breath opens the door. Presence points the way. Psychology explains the blockage. Three pillars, one movement: depth.
In practice, it looks like this: you start with breath — the most direct entrance to your nervous system. Connected breathing opens what's stuck and brings you back to your body, out of identification with your thinking. Then comes presence — the art of staying in the now when it gets hard. Recognizing the ego's voice (Tolle), seeing the pain-body without merging with it, returning to what's here now. Then psychology — the insight into why you feel resistance when things are going well. Recognizing the upper limit problem (Hendricks) and raising the thermostat step by step.
This isn't a linear process — it's a spiral. Breath makes presence possible. Presence reveals that you are not your ego. That insight makes it possible to recognize your upper limit. And as you breathe through your upper limit, your presence deepens. They reinforce each other.
Yin yoga is the facilitator. Sometimes you need silence to hear what the breath opens. Sometimes you need long holds to feel where tension sits that your mind can't name. Yin isn't a main pillar — it's the space where the other three can land. In our nomadic retreats, yin yoga is therefore the daily counterpart to breathwork: where breath opens, yin lets it settle.
Our daily flow looks like this in practice: we begin the day with 10-15 minutes of connected breathing. That's the moment the day begins — not with a phone, not with a plan, but with breath. Throughout the day, we're continuously aware of our "voice" in our head, of our ego wanting to judge, compare, defend. We don't live the life of our ego — though it certainly doesn't always work. But when we catch ourselves, we can usually laugh about it. That laughter is presence. That's the practice. And when things go well — too well even — we recognize that discomfort as what it is: our upper limit coming up. We breathe through it. We stay. Step by step.
In the evening, before sleep, again 10-15 minutes of breath. Letting the day go. What came up is allowed to be. What was stuck is allowed to move. This isn't discipline — it's a ritual we need, like drinking water. And it carries through everything: when we recognize our upper limit problems, we can look at them with more calm. We raise them with small steps, always further up. Not through big leaps, but by staying in the discomfort — just a bit longer than yesterday.
This isn't a program you complete. It's a way of life that deepens. Not "10 weeks and done" — but 10 weeks as the beginning of a lifestyle that carries you when things get hard. The three pillars reinforce each other: breath makes presence possible, presence makes insight possible, insight makes breath deeper. It's a spiral going inward, not a line arriving somewhere.
Yin Yoga: space to land
Isn't this too woo-woo?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & scientific authority
Michael Brown — The Presence Process: A Healing Journey into Present Moment Awareness (Namaste Publishing, 2009).
Eckhart Tolle — De Kracht van het Nu / The Power of Now (New World Library, 1997).
Eckhart Tolle — Een Nieuwe Aarde / A New Earth (Penguin, 2005).
Gay Hendricks — Waag de Sprong / The Big Leap (HarperOne, 2009).
Scientific evidence for breathwork: Little et al. (2025) — PubMed.
Meta-analysis mindfulness & stress: Fend et al. (2025) — PubMed.
Self-sabotage at success: Kim et al. (2019) — PubMed.
We only reference sources we have personally studied and that are relevant to the practice we teach.
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