The Vital Force Archive
Forty years of The Vital Force (1985-2025), the journal of the T’ai Chi Chih community. Search for a word, a teacher, a movement or a place, or browse by category and topic.
February 2014
The February 2014 issue announces the new T’ai Chi Chih International Foundation in Pam Towne’s report, and gathers grounding pieces including Ann Rutherford’s account of an ungrounded student and Caroline Guillot’s advice on landing at the end of Rocking Motion. Roseann Heinrich writes on daily practice through her son’s illness and death, and April Leffler’s students review TCC online.
Aphorisms from Justin Stone on contraction and expansion, the unhappiness he observed among the monied people of the financial world, and the need to balance Yin and Yang or face trouble.
Social work students Lauren Robson and a classmate review the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting claims about migraines, chi flow, seated practice for wheelchair users, and lifting depression.
Amy Schied
Biology Pre-PT Major
Terry Jennings passes along an exchange in which a student with MS and vertigo practices lying down or on the couch, with Sandy McAlister and April Leffler advising effortless movements and both feet.
Terry Jennings
Honolulu, Hawaii
Caroline Guillot recounts how Dora Derzon's advice at a Minnesota conference to really ground at the end of Rocking Motion turned her 'Hovering Conclusion' into a 'Landing Conclusion' and cleared her headache.
Caroline Guillot
Lake Charles, Louisiana
April Leffler assigned her university students a one-page paper on what they could learn about T'ai Chi Chih from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, and prints excerpts from three of them.
April Leffler
Prospect Park, Pennsylvania
Adabelle Rychtarik recounts her November 2013 accreditation week in Albuquerque with trainer Pam Towne, the early morning practices with visiting teachers, and seeing the film of Justin at Folsom Prison.
Dorene Krause practices on a windy October morning at Dennisport on Cape Cod, anchoring her feet against the gusts, matching her movements to the sea, and watching a gliding seagull that offered no resistance.
Dorene Krause
Midland Park, New Jersey
Two social work students report on the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, with Lauren Robson noting migraine and blood pressure claims and another discovering seated practice for wheelchair users.
Amy Schied
Biology Pre-PT Major
Dana Diller calls accreditation week both the greatest and most trying experience of her life, and credits the intensive she attended beforehand, plus the teachers' insights, for preparing her to teach.
Dana Diller
Prescott Valley, Arizona