The Vital Force Archive

Carol Love makes the case for taking practice outside, from Nature-derived movement names to choosing a spot where uneven ground sharpens balance and birdsong replaces traffic noise.

Fred Lorch credits his ongoing T'ai Chi Chih practice with better balance, flexibility and strength as he ages, plus blood pressure averaging 20 points lower and improved coronary health.

Lois Vermilya's prose poem gathers energy from the most distant star into fingertips and soles, naming a paradox of force and letting go that might fuel her activism of fierce hope.

Four written assignments collected by Donna McElhose: students describe emerging from bipolar isolation, easing fibromyalgia fatigue, practising anywhere after 2005 cancer surgery, and discussing Justin's Climb the Joyous Mountain chapter by chapter.

Amy Tyksinski gathers six UNM college students' written responses to the Softness passage in Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey, from bamboo and oak temperaments to jaw clenching, political argument and caring for a crying baby.

Silvia Coffey sets her own habit of self-criticism, learned in middle school, against a passage from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on how self-pity and gratitude cannot share a breath.

Dr. Ofelia Olivero describes how lowering the foot slowly and deliberately keeps the practitioner rooted, sharpens awareness of shifting weight, circulates chi evenly, and becomes an expression of presence.

Kate Polk credits her T'ai Chi Chih practice with two reductions in her blood pressure medication, calmer recurring visions of a traumatic experience, and comfort during radiation for a skin cancer on her scalp.

In a note to her teacher Parker Reynolds, Liz Emmer asks whether love and chi are linked, wondering if the walls hatred builds block chi the way open hearts let energy flow.

Marcella K. Levie asked her senior students why they return each week, and Madelon, Olga, Ariette and Sima describe calmer minds, better balance, repeating guitar and flute music, and effort without effort.

Kathy Grassel interviews Tyler, a retired Episcopal and Byzantine Rite priest leaving her Albuquerque gym class for Chicago, on how the Tao Teh Ching, yin and yang, and bodily worship shaped his three years of practice.

Three of Donna McElhose's College of Lake County students write letters to future beginners, describing bad knees, ankle and wrist ligament injuries, the switch to a seated class, and the fear of being the only man in the room.

Jim Shorr collects comments from four practitioners at Creekside Village in Beaverton, finishing their sixth year of Saturday morning sessions, on balance, joint tension, new friendships and Qigong warm-ups.

Holly Hershman passes along a student's note crediting T'ai Chi Chih with a 30% gain in movement and flexibility after hip and sciatic trouble, plus thank-you messages from JustinStoneTCC.com newsletter readers, including an opera singer who practices daily to warm up her breath support.

Connie Shaw recounts a class in which teacher Marie Dotts urged students to practice with soft eyes and follow where the Chi led, and Shaw felt the room dissolve into light.

Two student assignments collected by Donna McElhose: Nancy L. maps the electrical, magnetic and heat sensations she feels movement by movement, and Bryan F. describes chi radiating from the t'an t'ien like ripples in a pond.

Warren Wolfe, sleepless in the hospital after knee-replacement surgery and plagued by muscle spasms, began doing T'ai Chi Chih mentally at 3 a.m., and describes the practice he has refined since.

Donna McElhose's students describe healing lower back pain and tennis elbow, feeling tingling energy, grounding in the t'an t'ien for balance, and combining silent group practice with meditation before and after class.

Connie Shaw describes how her teacher Marie's instruction to keep attention in the feet and belly led, during a weight shift, to the unraveling of her vasanas or habit energies.

Laurie Jacobi led a class devoted entirely to Rocking Motion and foot awareness, then shares student Patricia Blakely's email describing how the stone-like neuropathy pain in her right foot vanished by class end.

Wilma Kuhns took up T'ai Chi Chih to protect her balance, then during her second class the last joints of her right fingers clicked into place, letting her close a painless fist.

Johnnie Marquez came to T'ai Chi Chih for balance after stumbling off a stationary bike, resisted his teacher's repeated suggestion to seek accreditation, and describes how Zoom practice, an Intensive and pyramid poetry changed his mind.

Johnnie Marquez traces the stages of a student's journey from quickly learned movements to the growing intimacy with the feet, total weight shift and moments when the practice seems to do itself.

Donna McElhose collected thank-you letters her Illinois students wrote to Justin Stone, describing asthma-friendly movement, circle meditation, a Folsom Prison video, and the struggle to practice alone at home.

Kathy Plachy describes a year in Oreann's class at the Clarkstown Community Learning Center, where slow repetitive movement eased her arthritic hands and steadied her enough to enjoy a steep rocky trail without fear.

Joyce Kanyuk credits her teacher Oreann with bringing students into peace and calm, and describes looking forward to the camaraderie of Monday morning class and feeling the energy of the movements; Pyramid Poems by Johnnie Lee Marquez follow.

Rosemarie Berezin signed up at the Clarkstown Community Learning Center thinking T'ai Chi Chih was formal T'ai Chi, and found in Oreann's class a practice that feels like floating in the Caribbean.

Ten of Donna McElhose's students answer her homework questions, describing tingling hands, pulsing heat in Daughter in the Valley, energy circling a group, coping with cerebral palsy, and seated practice after a sprained ankle.

Sharon Sirkis of Columbia, Maryland collects classroom moments: two seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter, one wanting to push away worries, and a student pulling taffy at red lights.

John Marquez builds a pyramid poem from the word gratitude after a morning practice, then traces how years of T'ai Chi Chih turned being alone from a negative into valued time for practice and writing.