The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister opens her continuing classes with a circle of good news and questions about softness and favorite movements, and tells of a reclusive student whose balance class led to friendships and a first cruise.

Sandy McAlister links a Bay Area synchronicity workshop and two retreats she led, drawing on Linda Braga's Seven Qualities of Movement to show how moving as one unit produces harmony and beauty.

Sandy McAlister argues that nit-picky corrections and rigid insistence on one correct form are driving good teachers away from community events, and calls for tolerance, softness and self-discovery instead.

Sandy McAlister lays out how she runs a weekly class where students range from 17 years of practice to one day, from the opening "good news" circle to slowed-down Pulling Taffy and one-hand Working the Pulley.

Prompted by David Parrish's conference talk on brain imaging research, Sandy McAlister asks her students whether TCC is a mindfulness practice, and finds that relabeling her class sign "Moving Meditation" stopped the interruptions.

Sandy McAlister warns that a wandering mind lets the Chi rise, bringing headaches and giddiness, and describes keeping attention below the waist to stay grounded; pyramid poems on six movements follow.

Sandy McAlister describes her own pre-practice ritual of standing still, rooting into the ground and letting muscles release, then treats the stillness between movements as a chance to start fresh.

Sandy McAlister reports the decision to alternate teacher conferences with combined community conferences, announces the June 2017 Boulder teacher conference, and describes three $200 Foundation grants for promoting TCC.

After 33 years of practice, Sandy McDonald describes paring each movement down to two or three key points, using Daughter in the Valley as her example, and quotes Justin Stone on teaching without rote or dogma.

Sandy McAlister reports survey results from 120 teachers and 50 students, with 99 teachers favoring alternating the teacher conference with a T'ai Chi Chih Community Conference starting summer 2017.

Sandy McAlister urges TCC practitioners to join World Healing Day at 10 a.m. on April 30, practising with an intention of compassion rather than directing energy, citing the Global Consciousness Project.

Sandy McAlister quotes Justin Stone on the need for TCC to evolve, then proposes holding the teacher conference every other year with a community conference for students between, and asks teachers to answer a survey.

Sandy McAlister brought Justin Stone's 1993 conference remarks on Ahimsa to her classes, met mostly silence, and found her own revelation while cursing other drivers in traffic.

Sandy McAlister recounts the third annual Folsom State Prison retreat and banquet day, where exonerated former inmate Franky Carrillo spoke of forgiveness, and links the men's outward and inner change to Chi.

Sandy McAlister's senior students named world peace as a New Year's wish, prompting her to watch her use of the word hate and, after singing Red River Valley to Bedouin hosts in Jordan, to ask practitioners to send peaceful vibrations outward.

Sandy McAlister reports the conference session on T'ai Chi Chih's future: teacher training fees rising to $525 in 2015, new scholarships for teachers who fully audit, and talks on attracting men, younger students and greater diversity.

Sandy McAlister cites Justin Stone's insistence that no breathing technique belongs in T'ai Chi Chih, describes a class experiment in matching breath to movement that students found distracting, and notes her own exhalation as she sinks into stillness.

Sandy McAlister opens with a 17-year student who found fuller weight shift by moving her underneath hand an inch farther in Pulling Taffy, then argues Justin Stone's photo text and DVD should stand unchanged.

Sandy McAlister recounts walking barefoot through the pagodas of Myanmar, where flashing electric halos behind Buddha statues and footprints in the earth led her to ask what imprint her own speech and actions leave.

Sr. Antonia Cooper presents the two new T'ai Chi Chih vision statements drafted by twenty teachers under Frank Taylor's guidance, and announces the new T'ai Chi Chih International Foundation for conference and accreditation scholarships.

Sandy McAlister announces a six-month Mentoring Program, with April Leffler and Stacey Moore as the first mentors for May's new teachers, plus a Continuing Education Program awarding 27 hours for intensives.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts a seven-week European trip visiting teachers near Mantua and in West Sussex, teaching ten movements to six Franciscan sisters, and honoring teachers who work unpaid.

Sr. Antonia Cooper suggests teachers turn students' Internet searching into a classroom exercise, comparing YouTube demonstrations by Travis Enerix and Chris Norkus against the six principles of movement in Justin's DVD introduction.

Sandy McAlister asks teachers to honor the brief pauses in Carry the Ball to the Side and Pulling Taffy, and offers the cue "glide, arrive" for fully receiving weight.

Writing after Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown shootings, Sr Antonia Cooper traces how faithful practice heals habit energies and brings the inner peace Justin Stone promised, with five Pyramid Poems appended.

Sandy McAlister describes the phrases she is trying in a new eight-week series, asking students to feel the weight settle evenly into both feet and to flow back to rest between sets.

TCC Guide Sr. Antonia Cooper recalls the Portland conference practice in the Chinese Garden, announces Daniel Pienciak as a new teacher trainer with the qualifications she looks for, and previews the 2013 gathering in Collegeville.

Sr. Antonia Cooper sets down the revelations Justin Stone entrusted to her and shared at the Portland conference, among them countless universes, time as illusion and gratitude, with Pyramid Poems appended.

Sandy McAlister writes from the plane ride home after the teacher's conference, where the re-dedication ceremony and three days of moving Chi magnified both her habit patterns and her wish to be a better person.

Sr. Antonia Cooper counts the nine different names Justin Stone gave the rest pose in the T'ai Chi Chih Photo Text, notes his openness about how and when to practice, and prints the 2011 mission statement.