Community
T’ai Chi Chih is a mindfulness-moving meditation practice that’s easy to learn. The series of 19 movements and one pose helps circulate the Vital Energy, the Chi. Practitioners experience peace, improved health, and many more benefits. Our free monthly e-newsletter offers inspiration between issues of the TCC quarterly journal, The Vital Force, in which teachers and students tell stories about ways they’ve benefited from the practice.
The TCC community is slowly growing (1989). – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator
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From the recent issue of The Vital Force:
Giving & giving back: “The Pittsburg Fifty Plus Club is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of senior citizens in Pittsburg, CA. In 2012, we faced a volunteer shortage. People were burning out; club members were apathetic or uninvolved; and new memberships were difficult to generate due to a lack of programs and services. When we introduced TCC in 2015, an influx of new members came, looking for balance in their lives. Many became the volunteers we needed. During the COVID quarantine, TCC classes conducted via Zoom four days a week kept our members in touch with each other, a respite from isolation. The positive impact of TCC on two of my students propelled them to become accredited teachers. And recently, our executive board donated funds to help keep Justin Stone’s valuable T’ai Chi Chih! Joy Thru Movement Photo Text in print.” – BB, Pittsburg, CA
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Editor’s Note: Learn more from TCC teachers with more than 25 years of experience in the August issue of The Vital Force.
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Moving together: “TCC has led me into communities I had no connection with before teaching and has allowed me to broaden my skills through feedback from students. I’ll never forget working with a group recovering from strokes and paralysis. Many were nonverbal. I introduced them to TCC and then explained that if they couldn’t move as I did, then perhaps they could imagine they were moving with me. I was amazed and overjoyed when I saw that many of them had fluttering fingers even in that first session. I reintroduced myself and TCC again each week, as several had memory impairment. Then we’d do a few movements together, moving however they could, or imagining so. Feedback was universally positive. One young man began to get some movement and feeling back in an arm he hadn’t used for years. TCC is indeed a great life-changing force for good.” – LM, Culworth, Banbury, England
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Receiving: Among the 2024 Teacher Conference organizers’ evaluation questions: “What surprised you? What did you get that you didn’t expect?” A few answers: “How many people ‘pay it forward’ from various TCC groups.” (MC) “How deep the love was felt at the core of my very existence.” (JZM) “Courage to be me; a growth of certainty and trust in the Chi.” (LCS) “The gently infused intention of a smooth, mindful stream of energy that kept me buoyed rather than burned out as an introvert. (AL)” – Various attendees
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Evolving: It always makes me smile when a student — or TCC teacher — writes that he or she is now much more confident and energetic in his work, or that he or she doesn’t kick the cat and yell at the children from fatigue. Always, they ask, ‘This doesn’t have anything to do with TCC, does it?’ To which I reply, ‘What’s the difference, as long as it is happening?’ Our attitudes change and we become more like the bamboo, rather than the oak. Then the outer world reflects this inner serenity. – Justin F. Stone
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Where in the World have you been doing T’ai Chi Chih? Share your images for our gallery.
Want more inspiration? Want a connection with the global TCC community? Want tips for better practice? Join us:
Subscribe to The Vital Force. Our quarterly journal offers engaging stories, hints, and insights from TCC teachers and students. We also highlight wisdom by, and photos rarely seen of, originator Justin Stone.
