The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister writes from the first weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, taking John Lennon's Imagine and two Mayo Clinic doctors' viral performance as a way into Justin's teaching on impermanence and her own admittedly false surrender.

Hannah Hedrick, at 81, argues that TCC benefits are relative rather than absolute, describing her wheelchair class at Life Care Center and doing Rocking Motion in a bank line while stressed about a deadline.

Ann Rutherford describes how her New Mexico review group kept its regular practice times apart during the stay-at-home order, practising by shared intention in the Energy Sea rather than on Zoom.

Charles Sasa, a black belt in Okinawan weapons who could describe chi but never feel it, recounts finally sensing energy during Passing Clouds and his teacher Hannah Hendrick's reply.

Pam Towne cites research on bi-lateral rhythmic movement calming the amygdala and a UCLA study showing raised T cell activity, explaining why TCC practice steadies people during COVID-19.

Gail Terriff recounts how a recreation therapist's request for T'ai Chi Chih "forever" at Edmonton's Hope and Wellness Center drew Alberta teachers together, only for COVID-19 to postpone classes after week one.

Daniel Pienciak describes the expansion and contraction he feels in the t'an t'ien during weight shifts, using shadows, Peter Pan and rooted trees, and credits TCC and Seijaku with steadying a recently recognized case of PTSD.

Fran and Jim Kaib recount the day ten intellectually disabled adults and their aides joined their small public library class unannounced, and how wordless modeling and Joyous Breath brought laughter and calm.

Amy Tyksinski taught her first Zoom class to school families who appeared only as name plates, and offers practical tips on voice, contrasting socks for visible weight shifts, and trusting her own groundedness.

Mary Cerullo recounts a visit by twenty special needs adults aged 21 to 35 to Jim and Fran Kaib's class, where one young woman clapped and demanded Joyous Breath again.

Gail Terriff describes practising in a sunbeam at her lake home during COVID-19 self-isolation, finding layer upon layer of stillness and the chi rippling outward as a blanket of love.

Mary Frances Reis stands on her porch amid towering evergreens in an unusually silent spring, joining the T'ai Chi Chih community at a distance and breathing in God with all humankind.

S. Becky Shinas draws on Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey to argue that the disrupted, uncertain time of COVID-19 is Kairos time, and that kindness in ordinary acts reveals our own divinity.

Rachel Rilinger, a music therapist covering for a recreation therapist on an inpatient acute psychiatric unit, led Rocking Motion and watched pacing, blanket-covered and muttering patients join staff in flowing practice.

Jessica Lewis describes moving her Delaware classes to Zoom after the March 12 state of emergency, the marketing language she now uses to promote TCC, and the T'ai Chi for Veterans program's shift when VA activities halted.

Nancy Hebert describes practicing TCC in a hospital family lounge while her mother-in-law was institutionalized for depression, her mother-in-law's suicide, and her 2019 accreditation to bring TCC to mental health facilities.

Parker Reynolds compares teaching before and during the pandemic, crediting Zoom classes, Sandy McAlister's 80-teacher practice and a felt t'an t'ien connection as answers to the pain of separation.

Julie Buffalo's unpunctuated poem invites practitioners to rest on their feet, let the ground flow up to hold them, and feel the head suspended while the spine lengthens.

Justin Stone gives two healing visualizations, the Duck's Egg and the Waterfall, that precede Chih-kuan and Great Circle meditation, recounting the Russian woman whose hospital practice restored her strength.

Connie Krumrai describes the COVID-19 shutdown reaching Fort Collins as a contraction, an exhale she rests in while letting go of commitments, control and habit energies, and finally breaking her resistance to daily practice.

KG announces that all the content from Justin Stone's two DVDs, individual movement instruction plus the 30- and 45-minute practices, is now streaming, prioritized after COVID-19 closed classes worldwide.

Denise Emanuel Clemen stocked her Minneapolis pantry as COVID-19 emptied the Trader Joe's shelves down to green jackfruit, then found her real reserve in daily T'ai Chi Chih, yoga and 3:00 a.m. Nei Kung.

Justin Stone gives step-by-step instructions for two seated meditations, Chih-kuan concentration on the t'an t'ien or third eye, and the Great Circle, which lifts a golden current from the Bubbling Spring using breath and eyes.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom moments: an 87-year-old confused all his life, Roland finding his knee's sweet spot in front of the TV, and a coronavirus misunderstanding needing quick damage control.

Susan Kenney writes in litany form about the weekly group practice in the park and the church, and how it continues after the pandemic separates the group into different places.

Judy Chancey traces the fallow season that began with her husband Raymond's Stage 3 colon cancer and deepened with her sister Ankie's death, and the yinning and yanging that carried her into Zoom sessions for VA counselors and cancer care staff.

Deb Sitron recounts meeting an 89-year-old Naples student at a fruit stand, where he proudly introduced her to his grandson as his "Tie Dye teacher" and she let it stand.

Writing under stay-at-home orders, Carmen Brocklehurst retells the parable of the Plague and its companions Fear and Doubt, then quotes Justin Stone on chi and on voicing the Six Healing Sounds from the t'an t'ien.

Nan Nelson recalls the evening her community education teacher described meeting a raging driver with compassion, the moment that turned a casual TCC class into a serious commitment, and cites Shantideva on repaying teachers.

Annette McNeil's rhyming ode addresses the coronavirus directly, tracking lockdown hoarding, overworked nurses, dolphins in the canals, and TCC students Yinning and Yanging all nineteen movements together on Zoom.