Teaching & Learning TCC (aka Experiencing Joy)
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 very nature of Reality is Joy!” – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator
From the February issue of The Vital Force:
Joy & Healing: “In our movements, we want to remain anchored, centered, rooted firmly in our feet and to the ground beneath us – no whirling Magic Carpet rides or swooping, soaring dips and dives – but we also want to flow from our center with softness, continuity and circularity…. During the teacher accreditation course, I had breakthroughs…. My inner vision became more acute. I have stepped into the joyous and noble role of teacher, a blessing of untold magnitude. There is a line I love from ‘Healing Thru Joy!’ Justin’s powerful poem and lyric: ‘Joy in the Heart! Joy in the Mind! Joy in the Soul!’ Shhh. Listen. Can you hear it? It is the sound of my laughter. It is the movement of joy in my soul.” – KCT, Reston, VA
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Editor’s Note: Read KCT’s inspiring story of becoming a TCC teacher; more heart-felt stories about teacher accreditations; more uplifting comments from TCC students; and more of Justin’s writings about moving correctly and teaching TCC in the February issue of The Vital Force.
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Joy & Wonder: “It (teacher accreditation) was hard and it was soft. There were tears and there was joy. The process was part of an ongoing yinning and yanging experience. What struck me most was the role that language, words play in teaching students the movements. We can tell a student how to move and what to move and when to move, but can words help a student feel the movements? Can I feel softer? I have come to the awareness that it is best if I allow my movements to speak to my body before I attempt to explain the movements to my students. Words manifest. Let us choose them carefully guiding students on this wonder-filled journey.” – CP, Bloomingdale, NJ
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Joy & Balance: “TCC is a gift. It truly is joy through movement. I have learned the benefits of moving slowly, softly and consistently, thereby reducing tension and allowing the energy to flow freely. From continued practice, I have improved my posture and balance. TCC brings me to a place of calm and peacefulness yet I’m energized with a sense of well-being.” – TCC student JB, with DK, Midland Park, NJ
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Joy & integrity: “The rewards of T’ai Chi Chih practice can be great. A TCC teacher who does not practice regularly however, is a fraud – one who can make the outside appearance but manifests none of the inside. Each teacher who radiates, inspires his or her pupils. One with all Life, healing through Joy!” – Justin F. Stone
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