Introducing Jing Palace method of head-loaded moving meditation

Do it once to feel better, regularly to look younger, and for a lifetime to live longer.

How to get started with Jing Palace

Anyone can start and go at your own pace through the following progression:

Level One: Breath, posture & mindset reset, 5-15 minutes per day for 30 days.

*See video above for a visual example of how to do Jing Palace, Level One*

• Seated, use purging exhales out of open and relaxed mouth to release 100% of air before silently inhaling through the nose, receiving breath rather than taking it, as you feel the belly expand in all directions, then fully exhale again out of an open mouth, releasing all body tensions.

• Place a weightless ball, like a basketball, or a lightweight medicine ball of no more than 5% of your body-weight on the crown of your head. Spend five minutes doing purging breaths as you feel the cervical spine stabilize and lengthen under the weight and challenge upon the crown of your head.

• If you are able to stand, you can also try this while standing, as seen in the video. Do this daily for at least five minutes for four weeks before moving on to level two.

• For an added challenge, you can flex and extend the cervical spine as seen in the video.

• Focus in this first session on feeling the body, and noticing what you feel.

Levels 2-5: There is a short description of these levels at the bottom of this post. Continue reading to learn more about the method, feel free to leave a comment, and remember that annual and founding member subscribers work with me 1-on-1 online quarterly, monthly, or more often if desired. Anyone is welcome to a free phone consult if you contact me here on substack.

What is Jing Palace method?

Jing Palace is a method of moving meditation based on loading the head to challenge the neck, expand the skull, perfectly align the entire body, deeply engage the core, and so much more. I began developing this method a few years ago when I had excruciating wisdom tooth pain on my left side. I used all of my experience over 20 years in healthcare, mostly the past decade as a certified Holistic Health and Medical Qi Gong Practitioner (especially leaning on my several thousand hours doing bodywork) to create these protocols that I call Jing Palace.

Why do I call it Jing Palace?

The head is known as the ‘palace of the jing’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Jing means physical body, basically, and the idea of a Palace is with regard to health assessment, in the sense that we can get a good assessment of a kingdom by looking at the condition of the ruling family’s home, or Palace.

Knees are palace of the tendons. If a person has knee-pain, they likely have tendons in poor condition globally, or body-wide.

Lower back is palace of the kidneys. Pain in the lower back indicates kidney dysfunction.

The head is palace of the Jing, or entire physical body. Dysfunction in and around the head indicates global dis-ease.

If the head is in poor condition, with bad posture mis-aligning the skull as it sits above the spinal column, with under-developed soft tissues all over and around it, wrinkled skin with bags under the eyes, etc…this suggests that the entire physical body has symptoms.

The condition of the head, and neck, is clearly paramount from this perspective, and that is why Jing Palace method centers on perfectly aligning, and then progressively challenging the function of, the skull and cervical spine. We do this by incorporating full-body movements through all planes, and including yin and yang styles of yoga, Dao Yin practice, walking meditation, primal movement, plyometrics and speed-work…and more.

I walk 3-5 miles per day with 8-40 pounds on the crown of my head…I call it a ‘Yogi’s Dream’.

What are the results of consistent practice?

In the past three years, I have personally felt the following transformations:

1. Wisdom tooth pain that was excruciating is 100% gone

2. My TMJ pain is gone, and my lower jaw is now perfectly aligned

3. My upper jaw, maxillary arch, expanded to make more room for my tongue

4. My sinuses are clear

5. My jawline is more chiseled, and my airway is more open

6. My vision is now 20/20, and my eyes are more symmetrical

7. I am almost 1 full inch taller…standing at full height with perfect posture

8. My neck, upper back and entire core are much stronger, more stable and mobile

9. All my joints are stronger, less prone to injury, and better range of motion

10. Brain fog, fatigue, and other such symptoms are easily preventable & manageable

And more…

How does Jing Palace method affect our anatomy?

The eight-minute video below has some images that might help you understand why Jing Palace method is so powerful; continue reading after you watch the video to be well on your way to becoming a Jing Palace enthusiast.

Jing Palace is a method of moving meditation, AKA yoga, or functional medicine based on the idea that the head is the Palace of the Jing, or physical body. This means that the entire physical body can be assessed by observing the head, and especially how the skull aligns with the spinal column.

Anatomically, this is where the brain becomes the brain stem, and then becomes the spinal cord. Posture-wise, this is perhaps the top priority for the entire body to keep aligned. In other words, mis-alignments will occur throughout the body to compensate for any mis-alignments at this junction of the head and spine. For example, if the head is tilted laterally 10 degrees to the right side, then the hips will tilt in the opposite direction to keep the head most aligned with the horizon while we are standing.

Why do we need Jing Palace method?

Facial Collapse Theory of Human De-Evolution

My theory is that we stopped loading and using our heads in the past few hundred years as we developed running water, backpacks, etc…Since then, we have been slowly devolving into what I call ‘facial collapse’ whereby the full body curls up into a modified fetal position that, over time, pulls the head so far out of alignment that countless symptoms correspond.

Fortunately, now that I realized how humans evolved to use our heads as tools, to carry weights and perform complicated functions with ease, I have found that performing these functions is the fountain of youth because it enables our entire structure to have the most integrity, alignment, and performance.

Jing Palace method REVERSES Facial Collapse!

In short, this function of loading the head reverses facial collapse! It does this mainly by correcting the postural-alignment of the skull above the spinal column, and by actually expanding the skull itself from within.

This results in more blood with more oxygen flows to the brain; nerves become un-impinged; cerebro-spinal fluid, lymph and other aspects of Qi flow more freely throughout the whole body…and we strengthen ourselves from the core of our center axis with each movement, as the skull expands from within in response to the challenge of the weight atop the parietal bones.

Jing Palace Levels 2 & Beyond

Full videos for Levels 2-5 and beyond will debut soon, and each will have a separate detailed post here on Substack. The 90-second video above contains one of the peak movements of Jing Palace level two.

Here is a teaser and brief overview of each level:

Level Two: Standing expansion, Jing Palace Joint-Opening Protocol, Grounding & Purging exercises, optional cold therapy module (my morning cold shower routine) Medicine Ball Ballet (full-body core grounding exercise); dancing for health.

Level Three: Yogi’s Dream (walking while head-loading); Vision exercises, Heliotherapy (sun exposure), sprinting and speed-work for pain-free health, and writing as a purging exercise.

Level Four: Jing Palace Yin Yoga (Floor sequence of mostly Yin poses), concept of stretchercize, or resistance stretching, and self-myofascial release; Animal Movements, twisting worm and dung beetle; introduction of singing and voice development for health; focusing on resonance from within, and learn strengthening breath.

Level Five: Jing Palace Yang Yoga, Speed & Agility, Isometrics, Asanas and Animals: bear and frog; focus on reading a passage from the Inner Canon or bible of Traditional Chinese Medicine; learn balancing breath, and self-healing meditations.

Please begin with a ball or other weight that is either nearly weightless (like a basketball, or bag of beans) or no more than 5% of bodyweight, and remain at Level One for at least four weeks! This will ensure that you strengthen and stabilize the upper cervical spine, and junction of the skull atop the spinal column, so you can then safely begin to incorporate more movements while seated, standing, walking, even jumping and sprinting, along with yin and yang yoga sessions, all while loading the head to maximize the effectiveness of everything you do so you can live longer, look younger and feel better in the most efficient way, if you ask me, in the world.

~Doc Smith, Certified Holistic Health & Medical Qi Gong Practitioner; creator of Jing Palace Method