The Vital Force Archive

Lisa Otero's step-by-step approach to teaching the hip turn in Carry the Ball to the Side, from distinguishing hip from shoulder turns to the "six-shooter" trick and the elliptical swivel.

Stephen Thompson describes how beginners whose first awkward attempts reveal a mind-body disconnect can honor that feeling, letting the yearning for groundedness guide them toward perceiving their own chi.

Justin Stone likens sinking into the essence of T'ai Chi Chih to satori in Zen, describing the practice doing itself, the disappearance of argument, and the effort of no-effort.

Carol Houtkooper recalls a conference correction revealing she had turned "shift the weight, turn the waist" into two separate moves in Carry the Ball to the Side, and how she now teaches the flowing principle first.

Editor KG answers a birthday-party remark questioning whether the journal matters, quoting Jocelyn Sampson practising alone on a Northern Ontario lakeshore and a YouTube viewer, plus news of online subscription renewal.

Cathy Fedewa names four aspects of Carry the Ball to the Side, from arms following the weight shift to the hip swivel she found artificial until she stopped forcing it and discovered she was already doing it.

Nancy Werner-Azarski takes a ranger's advice not to hurry through a park home from a Quetico canoe trip, then meets her husband's heart surgery and her own hip injury with visualized practice.

Hannah Hedrick, at 70 and with two artificial hips, names three refinements to Carry the Ball to the Side: staying low throughout, pausing until weight is evenly distributed, and the narrow oval hip rotation.

Terry Jennings describes the 11-session pilot seated T'ai Chi Chih class she led at her mother's Honolulu memory care facility, using circle seating and chair rocking to prime the chi.

Amy Tyksinski gives point-by-point corrections for Carry the Ball to the Side: spiraling down, turning waist and hips together, finishing the circle in front of the chest, and the trailing hand's 45-degree push.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recalls her first teacher Helen Brungardt Pope asking students what they experienced, a question that led her from a whirring mind to quiet, soft wrists and the turning t'an t'ien.

Anne Lovdahl describes the blustery oceanfront practice near Seal Beach pier, where four weekly sessions draw over 20 people on Saturdays, curious onlookers, and one regular leaving for the Peace Corps.

Nancy Lecraw describes five years of team teaching with Bobbie, from Tuesday morning planning sessions over tea to dividing new and review movements, working with seated students, and meeting program directors together.

Quotations drawn from Justin Stone's CD on balancing yin and yang, the reciprocal character of habit and Chi, Chang San Feng's instruction on moving lightly, and Seijaku as serenity amid activity.

Sky Young-Wick argues that every T'ai Chi Chih teacher is a leader, drawing on her 50-year friendship with her former babysitter Marge to define leadership as sharing time, honesty and heart without ego.

Justin Stone insists that benefit depends on how you move: flowing from the t'an t'ien with no effort in shoulders or arms, correct yinning and yanging, and no striving to please the teacher.

Margaret A. Baker likens sharing T'ai Chi Chih to a neighbor's advice about dividing flowers, crediting Ron Richardson, who taught her in 2003 during benzodiazepine withdrawal, and naming her 2009 goal of reaching African American communities.

Tina A. Poslusny wanted to learn T'ai Chi after seeing a sunrise group in the Luxembourg Gardens, then found April Leffler's class was a moving meditation, Six Healing Sounds and all.

Eight short pyramid poems by Mary White, Cynthia Winland, Debra Winland, Caroline Guilott, Mary Ruiz, Pauline Quimson-Tong, Dora Derzon and Sheryl Adair on letting go, feeling the chi and living in the now.

Marcy Burns, injured by falls in Tanzania, Spain and Vietnam, describes how retirement, widowhood and Lisa Otero's twice-weekly classes led to steadier travel through Turkey, Transylvania and, at 81, Morocco.

Sr. Antonia Cooper urges teachers to register early for the July conference in Nebraska City, names the discipline as a steady support during economic collapse, and announces Blooming the Spirit plus new COPD teaching guidelines.

Larry Bloom, a chemical engineer by training, brings his skeptical curiosity to the question of whether chi is real, surveying scientific forms of energy and the brain's billions of cells before landing on Einstein's advice about holy curiosity.

Sandy McAlister traces the sharing she saw at the 2008 teacher conference, from auditing and handouts to running the Albuquerque center, back to the love and connection practice awakens.

Kathi Allen, a weary commuter into New York City, describes finding T'ai Chi Chih through Sr. Mary Reynolds and how the gentle rhythms, quiet class and flowing energy calmed her.

Pam Towne urges year-long students to seek accreditation and inactive teachers to return to teaching, listing five upcoming six-day trainings at $450 and two four-day intensives at $200.

After seeing gentle exercise everywhere on a 2008 trip to China, Richard M. Lukesh joined Margaret O'Connor's class, watched his blood sugar drop twenty points, and finished a long-stalled poetry book.

Roberta Taggart breaks down the side-to-side weight shift in Carry the Ball to the Side, showing how leg patterning, waist turning and hip swivel connect, and how tension blocks them.

Joyce Manning, a student of Dorene Krause, gave up trying to fit a full practice into every busy morning and learned to split it into halves completed later the same day.

John Taggart corrects the common habit of swinging arms wide past the core in Carry the Ball to the Side, showing how wrists form the ball softly while elbows stay close.

Kate Hollister, instructor for three UCLA studies, describes Dr. Michael Irwin's insomnia trials with older adults and breast cancer survivors and Dr. Helen Lavretsky's project on depression.