The Vital Force Archive

Cristina Minelli adapts Italian meditation teacher Andrea Magrin's WhatsApp pairing system for TCC, where practitioners post a request like "10/10" and video call a partner, each leading half the movements.

Sue Kenney notes that most TCC groups gather similar people, and challenges teachers to carry the practice into mental health clinics, public housing projects and drop-in centers, raising funds to pay teachers when students cannot.

Nancy Frost's four-hour drive to a Cape Cod church for Jessica Lewis's weekend retreat ends among nearly 30 practitioners, where teaching each movement seated first becomes a new awareness.

Lisa Stroyan describes offering suggestions rather than corrections in ongoing classes, from a nervous newcomer discovering effortless rise in Light at the Top of the Head to catching her own unrolled right wrist in Bass Drum.

An open call from the teacher trainers inviting experienced teachers to apply as Teacher Prep Coaches, with the application form posted under the Resources tab at tcccommunity.net.

Jessica Lewis pushes back on the claim that only specialists can teach Veterans, giving three reasons T'ai Chi Chih suits students with PTSD and advising class-wide suggestions rather than individual corrections.

Anita Vestal, Jessica Lewis, Adam Lacey and Greg Berg report on their Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale survey of over 400 practitioners, and an abstract submitted to the 2026 Osher Center conference.

Marie Dotts uses the pearl formed from an irritant to describe how her longstanding struggle with the forward and back weight shifts, and the gripping tension it caused, became her deepest gift to students.

April Leffler recounts her travels to meet UK, Italian, Dutch and German teachers, the UK conference presentations that drew accreditation candidates, and the EU teachers' monthly Zoom practices open to Americans.

Shelley Nielsen's letter to her library foundation recounts joining Marie Dotts's weekly class in January 2022, easing arthritis pain and hearing strangers stop their cars to say she looked at peace.

Linda Braga lists how nutritionists, neuroscientists, astrophysicists and others define human beings, then cites Justin Stone's claim that regular TCC practice can speed up evolution and heighten awareness.

Linda Braga read a podiatrist's brochure on plantar fasciitis and found its recommended lunge stretch and heel-walking exercises already present in the Six Healing Sounds, Anchor Taffy and Rocking Motion.

Thirteen accredited teachers, among them Michelle Sarubbi, Pam Towne, Barbara Kristoff and Shirley Cross, name what teaching T'ai Chi Chih has given them: grounding, community, patience, creativity and companionship through grief.

Bonnie LeBlanc describes how four Cape Cod teachers sustain a TCC community through Sunday Zoom practice reaching Ireland and Florida, library and church drop-ins, weekly teacher workshops and regular coffee hours.

JJ Johnson describes how instructor Marie Dotts located the Bubbling Spring point below the ball of the foot, and how rooting the weighted leg before stepping out changed the start of every movement.

Dorene Krause invites the reader into a moment of ordinary silence, breathing into the soles of the feet, releasing the heaviness of the heart and letting stillness calm the mind.

Gregory Berg notices how seldom the body moves sideways in daily life, from supermarket aisles to the Pecos River, then follows that thought into Carry the Ball to the Side, where the margin becomes the new center.

Steven Huskey teaches a weekly 45-minute seated class for brain injury survivors, emphasizing weight shift felt through the sit bones, upright torso, and compact hand movements in the side-to-side movements.

Jessica Lewis recounts how a painful condition in three right toes converted her from dismissing seated TCC as "TCC light," and argues for starting all students, especially veterans, in a chair and adding seated training to accreditation week.

Gail Terriff describes the self-care habits that keep her replenished, from journaling and singing aloud to her morning T'ai Chi Chih practice, and quotes Thich Nhat Hanh's book Anger on mindfulness as the energy of being present.

Marie Dotts traces her grounding from the soles of her feet to the t'an t'ien and the vertical core, describing how a level pelvic floor and slower pace deepened her root.

Laurie Jacobi, quoting Waysun Liao and teacher trainer April Leffler on thinking, works out how to cage the monkey mind by turning attention to feeling the weight shift millimeter by millimeter.

Carmen Brocklehurst breaks down the hip swivel used in the side-to-side movements, from the slight curve of the hips to Justin's reminder "nose to the front" and grounding the Chi.

Guy Kent, a Vital Force board member, makes the case for recurring monthly donations to the T'ai Chi Chih community, noting the 2017 tax law's effect on itemized charitable deductions.

After 26 years of practice, Laurie Jacobi questions a rule she thought sacred and begins dropping her hands between movements, finding it releases wrist tension and helps ground excess energy.

Tina Wells devoted a class to resting longer between the 19 movements, and the group concluded that pausing lets chi settle, grounds the feet, and mirrors nature's cycles of activity and stillness.

In a letter addressed to Justin Stone and then to colleagues, Sherry Corson asks whether the hip swivel is something teachers do or simply allow, finding it arises from relaxed hips and full weight shifts.

A letter to future students from one of Donna McElhose's students, K. L., who began T'ai Chi Chih in 2005 after a breast cancer scare and urges beginners to persevere through the awkward first weeks.

Lisa Stroyan describes how seated T'ai Chi Chih amplifies awareness of the t'an t'ien and feet, with guidance on soft seated weight shifts, chair choice, and letting students sit, stand or rest as needed.

Marie Dotts gathers reflections from the fifteen candidates accredited with Sandy McAlister at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Colorado Springs, on inner sincerity, finding the t'an t'ien, and community during a divided pre-election week.