Mindfulness for Posing: Dzogchen Principles & Reality Switch in Practice
Better lines aren’t only muscular—they’re attentional. When breath is steady and awareness is wide, quarter turns feel like choreography instead of panic. Even a single session of slow, diaphragmatic breathing can lower state anxiety and shift heart-rate variability (HRV) toward a parasympathetic, steadier state—exactly the nervous-system setting where posing looks calm and controlled (Magnon, Dutheil, & Vallet, 2021; Ma et al., 2017).
The performance goal
On stage you want clean shapes and calm transitions. Two levers move everything:
Interoception + proprioception—feeling joint position and internal signals (e.g., ribs lifting without lumbar sway). In neuroscience terms, interoception is the sensing, interpreting, and regulating of internal bodily signals—a perfect frame for what competitors call “feel” (Chen et al., 2021).
Arousal regulation—breath-driven calm so hands don’t shake and lats don’t shrug. Slow-breathing protocols are associated with acute anxiety reductions and favorable HRV shifts that support steadier attention (Magnon et al., 2021; Ma et al., 2017).
Dzogchen, in one sentence (and why it helps)
Dzogchen (“Great Perfection”) points to recognizing an already-present, panoramic awareness—less about tightening attention and more about relaxing into clarity. For performance, that feels like widening the frame (seeing the whole room) rather than staring down one judge (Deroche & Sheehy, 2022; van Schaik, 2016). For readable context, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s The Crystal and the Way of Light sketches the base-path-fruit arc in approachable language, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep outlines awareness-continuity practices that I’ll likely cover in a dedicated post on dream yoga benefits for posing (Norbu, 1999; Wangyal Rinpoche, 1998/2022).
Reality Switch (a mental model that clicks)
Andrew Gallimore characterizes the brain as a world-building machine, able to shift “reality channels” by changing how it constructs experience. In posing terms: alter state (breath/awareness), and the world you perform in changes—from narrow/scary to wide/playful. I use this as a coaching metaphor to make state-shifts tangible (Gallimore, 2022).
Why the “in-between” matters (motor learning)
Experts don’t just hit poses—they flow between them. Motor-learning research shows skilled practice reduces unhelpful variability while channeling useful variability to explore and then stabilize efficient movement solutions—exactly what we mean by transitional grace (Sternad, 2018; Dhawale, Smith, & Ölveczky, 2017).
A 6–8 minute pre-posing stack (paste into your warm-up)
1) Boxed Exhale (90 sec)
Inhale 4, hold 2, exhale 6–8. Keep sternum tall and pelvis neutral; feel the exhale lengthen without collapsing posture. This biases parasympathetic tone and steadies hands before you pose (Magnon et al., 2021; Ma et al., 2017).
2) Open Monitoring (2 min)
Stand tall, eyes soft; notice sound/space/body without narrowing. Think “panoramic,” not “laser”—a practical nod to Dzogchen’s emphasis on wide, already-present awareness (Deroche & Sheehy, 2022; van Schaik, 2016).
3) Metronome Transitions (2 min @ 60 bpm)
Step-pivot-set on counts 1-2-3, exhale on 4. You’re training the in-between where most athletes leak composure; over time, you’ll channel variability into stable, efficient patterns (Sternad, 2018; Dhawale et al., 2017).
4) Interoceptive Ping (60 sec)
One hand on lower ribs. Inhale laterally (ribs expand), exhale long. If lats vanish on camera, it’s often because ribs collapsed or scapulae shrugged—this quick drill tunes the inside-out linkage we want (Chen et al., 2021).
On-stage whisper cues (what I say to myself)
“Ribs float, hips stack.”
“Elbows breathe out” (lat flare without shrug).
“See the room, not the judges.” (panoramic awareness)
“Exhale long.” (locks steadiness into the shape via breath-driven arousal regulation; see Magnon et al., 2021)
Want this wired into your routine? Book a 30-min 1:1 or fold it into the 16-Week All-Inclusive so we can refine breath, awareness, and flow alongside your mandatories.
References
Chen, W. G., Schloesser, R. J., Arensdorf, A. M., Simmons, J. M., Cui, C., Valentino, R., … Langevin, H. M. (2021). The emerging science of interoception: Sensing, integrating, interpreting, and regulating signals within the self. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 129, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.07.032Deroche, M.-H., & Sheehy, M. R. (2022). The distinctive mindfulness of Dzogchen: Jigme Lingpa’s advice on meta-awareness and nondual meditation. Religions, 13(7), 573. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070573Dhawale, A. K., Smith, M. A., & Ölveczky, B. P. (2017). The role of variability in motor learning. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 40, 479–498. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-072116-031548Gallimore, A. R. (2022). Reality switch technologies: Psychedelics as tools for the discovery and exploration of new worlds. Strange Worlds Press.Ma, X., Yue, Z.-Q., Gong, Z.-Q., Zhang, H., Duan, N.-Y., Shi, Y.-T., … Li, Y.-F. (2017). The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 874. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874Magnon, V., Dutheil, F., & Vallet, G. T. (2021). Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults. Scientific Reports, 11, 19267. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98736-9Norbu, C. N. (1999). The crystal and the way of light: Sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. Shambhala.Sternad, D. (2018). It’s not (only) the mean that matters: Variability, noise and exploration in skill learning. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20, 183–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.01.004van Schaik, S. (2016). Dzogchen. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.178Wangyal Rinpoche, T. (1998/2022). The Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep. Snow Lion / Shambhala.
