The Vital Force Archive

Daniel Pienciak compares the forward and back weight shift to shifting a car through neutral, using Sandy McAlister's phrase "glide and arrive" to show that stillness on one foot does not break continuity.

Pete Gregory's parody lyrics, sung to the Beverly Hillbillies tune at the 2009 teacher conference sing-along at Lied Lodge, trace Justin Stone's discovery of T'ai Chi Chih and his 1993 move to Albuquerque.

Lisa Stroyan revisits a note to herself about trust and the present moment, describing how rushing the close or moving hands ahead of the weight shift creates tension, and citing Linda Braga's booklet on synchronicity.

Victor Berg announces that Good Karma Publishing is closing, with remaining funds paying KG to convert Justin Stone's books, DVDs and CDs into free online versions, and inventory discounted meanwhile.

Sandra Wells describes visualizing the TCC movements as a mental practice she uses in the dentist's chair, in waiting rooms and on a train ride to a state park, arriving energized and relaxed.

Hannah Hedrick takes a line from Sandy's newsletter as a starting point and poses the question she plans to raise at the August conference: does T'ai Chi Chih share us with others, or do we share it?

Sky Young-Wick recounts times her intuition proved right: a forgotten item at the door, a pre-cancerous warning she sensed at her physical, choosing Ithaca, and adopting Roxy from a rescue listing.

Judy Hendricks argues that the power of T'ai Chi Chih lies in the form Justin Stone originated, and describes watching his DVD before every class she teaches after 22 years of practice.

A practical list of ways to invite prajna, including mindless yard work and silent retreats, plus the writer's own blocks: rushing, met with singing 'Feelin' Groovy,' and ego.

Suzanne Roady-Ross breaks the taffies down for confused students, starting with the lower scooping palm during Carry the Ball to the Side, then the windup, the opening hands and the sinking leg that raises the upper hand.

Sky Young-Wick's Prajna column prints the lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's "On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)," with its glow of your being that outshines every star.

S. Becky Shinas, a year into the practice, gives her critical mind a new job by naming everyone who loves her while she moves, freeing her body to offer its own teaching cues.

Judy Chancey, a lifelong breath-holder, describes how exhaling into the soles of the feet and Rocking Motion brought her a conscious relationship with breath, and calmed her fear during divisive times.

Justin Stone lays out a breath exercise of counting fifty out-breaths, clicking the teeth and holding the breath at top and bottom, and recounts meeting a pet puma that sprang at the fence without stirring his breath or fear.

Continuing from the May issue, Justin Stone draws on Da Hui, the Lotus Sutra and Zen Master Danxia to argue for trusting Prajna, or present awareness, over accumulated knowledge.

Neena Mitchell had been teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih to seniors in Camillus just in case, then ruptured a kneecap muscle and used mental TCC in the MRI chamber and seated practice through surgery and recovery.

Jeneth Rundle traces how the instruction to think of what she was grateful for during Cosmic Consciousness Pose brought her to Justin's "fasting mind," with humility arriving hand in hand with gratitude.

Sue Bitney marks five years since her husband Jim's death, crediting T'ai Chi Chih and the people it drew to her with steadying her, rebuilding purpose and forging resilience.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recalls Justin Stone doing a practice when writing stalled, explains the seven-line syllable pattern of Pyramid Poetry, and collects reader poems on beauty, Working the Pulley and gratitude.

Diana Bahn writes about her sister-in-law Sarah's suicide, the scorched-field grief that followed, and how returning to the t'an t'ien and Justin's prajna led her to teach at a Mount Sinai cancer center.

Deb Bertelsen answers April Leffler's question about flowing from emptiness, drawing on Thich Nhat Hanh, then describes feeling disconnected after moving to the Southwest and turning to goldstone.

Jerry Jonnson reprints a poem from his 2006 book Living in Balance, which he hands to every student, on caring for yourself and giving the gift of your uniqueness to the world.

Sheryl Adair describes leaning on T'ai Chi Chih through births, illness, death and divorce, including doing Rocking Motion in hospital waiting areas for both her grandchildren's arrivals, plus a Pyramid Poem.

Andrea Skillman's biweekly class for in-patient PTSD veterans in North Chicago pairs tapping and guided meditation with TCC; 67 participants reported drops in pain, racing thoughts, anger, anxiety and agitation.

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.

Diane Crago, an artist diagnosed with a vestibular migraine disorder after two years of vertigo and lost balance, sent her teacher Bill Nakao a poem instead of an article because screens hurt her eyes.

Pam Towne looks back through her saved folders from every teacher conference since the first two-day gathering at Asilomar in 1985, recalling Justin's stated twofold purpose and the silent group practice of 100 teachers.

Carol Nelson-Selby draws on nearly two decades teaching an 8am class of retirees, stroke survivors and Parkinson's patients in Arroyo Grande, and on Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight, to argue TCC balances left and right brain.