The Vital Force Archive

Larry Bloom, who never met Justin Stone, builds an imagined interview by pairing his own questions with excerpts from Stone's book Heightened Awareness on habit energies, Consciousness, retreat-hopping and circulating Chi.

Sky Young-Wick admits he avoided Justin Stone out of fear of his blunt feedback, then describes sensing his presence during practices in Kansas City, including one his student Jack felt too.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst takes Justin's closing instruction, "Come to a graceful conclusion," off the practice floor and into ordinary endings: leaving a restaurant after Tuesday teacher practice, finishing an argument, hanging up the phone.

Bo Waddell recounts two outdoor practices: a homeless man in a downtown Atlanta park who said "Thank you for dancing for me," and a New Mexico sunrise practice watched by deer and rabbits.

Pauline B. Quimson, a physician from the Philippines and wellness program director, traces how Justin Stone's line "we do not heal symptoms; we become whole" shapes her practice and her work with at-risk teens and women leaving abuse.

Betty Dobberstein thanks Jean Katus for reviewing the movements and orders the Joy Thru Movement photo text, noting that old knee stitches, hernia surgery and spinal curvature limit her while flexibility grows.

Sr. Antonia Cooper suggests teachers turn students' Internet searching into a classroom exercise, comparing YouTube demonstrations by Travis Enerix and Chris Norkus against the six principles of movement in Justin's DVD introduction.

Merle Smith recounts a springtime women's retreat in the North Georgia foothills where Sheryl Adair led a Tai Chi Chih class for 48 first-timers, several of whom felt the chi flow.

Sandy McAlister asks teachers to honor the brief pauses in Carry the Ball to the Side and Pulling Taffy, and offers the cue "glide, arrive" for fully receiving weight.

Dotty Hoepner recounts reading a chapter of Climb the Joyous Mountain before each session of Donna McElhose's intermediate class, drawn to Justin Stone's travels in the East and the chapter "Provincialism."

Pam Towne addresses the reasons teachers avoid Seijaku, explains that a year of TCC practice is enough preparation, and points to Justin Stone's DVD and the two courses following the conference.

Marjorie Conn, preparing for teacher accreditation, was told in a private session that she was anticipating her arm movements and moving out of synch with her t'an t'ien, which she recognized from acting.

Margery Erickson describes the grounding calm she carries through days spent with energetic teenagers and quiet evenings alone, crediting maturity, experience, T'ai Chi Chih and redirected habit energies.

Mary Lou Kilgore spilled a tube of wood stain on her living room carpet and, hearing her teacher April's words about staying in the here and now, cleaned it up calmly with dish soap and cold water.

Sheryl Adair, after sharing T'ai Chi Chih with nearly 50 women at a retreat, takes up the Yiddish word pekele from Rabbi Pamela Jay Gottfried's book and applies it to setting down our bundle of troubles during practice.

Diane Curley, struck by violent motion sickness on a tour bus between Florence and Siena, braced her hip against a seat post and practised Joyous Breath for three minutes until the nausea vanished.

Sr. Agnes Fleming writes on Justin Stone's first anniversary about her near-daily morning practice, the yin-yang power that steadies her anxious temperament, and leading modified movements twice weekly for elderly sisters.

Evelyn Van Nuys, an artist who works on a potter's wheel, likens the circular movements to centering clay, Pulling in the Energy to holding a star, and Janet Oussaty's class circle to a collective mandala.

Jim Shorr describes Don, a modest resident of Edgewood Downs Retirement Center who sheds his walker for T'ai Chi Chih after a concussion years ago and wrote his own practice creed on a napkin.

After Antonia's Santa Barbara retreat answered every question with the tan t'ien, Tony Johansen dropped his emphasis on form details and taught a class led entirely by awareness sinking below the navel.

Diana Bahn describes, in the third person, her long-running free class at an assisted living facility, where canes, faded memories and old injuries wore down her early hopes until she found commonality with her elderly students.

Ann Rutherford recalls Justin Stone's Turiya meditation retreats in Albuquerque's South Valley and his two lessons, then shows how Seijaku's resistance section and weight shift help release karmic attachments.

Kathy Starrick describes presenting T'ai Chi Chih to an osteoporosis support group, demonstrating Around the Platter, Carry the Ball to the Side and Push Pull as models for vacuuming, sweeping and clearing snow.

Lisa M. Otero recounts the first three years of her plan to build a self-sustaining T'ai Chi Chih community in Oxnard and Ventura, from fitness center and church classes to Seijaku and teacher prep.

Charles Hanks, an eight-year student in Darlene Karasik's seated class at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, argues that TCC's seated approach assumes students will return to standing, and calls on teachers to prepare for more disabled students under the ADA.

Jeneth Rundle's Easter Sunday 2013 poem follows a single cycle of inhaling rain-scented air and exhaling to a full stop, emptying into joy, gratitude and the Vital Force.

More than twenty Pyramid Poems by students and teachers, including Caroline Guilott, Dora Derzon and Nancy Frost, honor Justin Stone a year after his death, alongside captions for two new Good Karma Publishing CDs.

Judy Chancey draws on circularity, continuity and softness as life-management tools, turning to Around the Platter during an upheaval that shook her sense of security, and finding gratitude beyond naming blessings.

Donovan Rundle, four or five months into practice learned mostly from DVDs, attended Carmen Brocklehurst's Albuquerque retreat and recognized her intuitively as his teacher despite a visual impairment.

Hannah Hedrick urges teachers and students to send their stories to The Vital Force, describing the Hawaiian habit of "talk story" and how fellow Seijaku teachers' confessions finally moved her own practice.