The Vital Force Archive
Eighteen years of The Vital Force (2007-2025), 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.
May 2020
The May 2020 issue meets the first months of COVID-19. Justin Stone’s two-part Heightened Awareness gives the Duck’s Egg and Waterfall visualizations along with Chih-kuan and Great Circle meditation, Amy Tyksinski offers practical advice for teaching on Zoom, Pam Towne cites research on rhythmic movement and immune response, and Sandy McAlister writes on impermanence.
Unemployed as a non-essential worker during the pandemic, Neal Roy practices on waking and tracks the uneven weight in his feet, finding that softening his knees and sinking lower evens the shift.
Neal Roy
Portland, Oregon
Lisa Stroyan writes from the early weeks of the pandemic, disoriented by fear and media, deaths at her father's former nursing home, and finds grounding in Zoom practices, Justin's books and the Nei Kung.
Lisa Stroyan
Fort Collins, Colorado
Connie B. Shaw describes the clear tone she calls the sound of the Chi, or Sacred Pranava, heard in the head while attention rests on the t'an t'ien, and gives a week-long listening practice.
Elizabeth Ebrahimzadeh, a self-described born worrier who met T'ai Chi Chih in a park 18 years ago, describes how daily practice grounds her through pandemic fears about loved ones, postmen and plumbers.
Elizabeth Ebrahimzadeh
Sacramento, California
Patricia Winger passes along a church-service parable about a jostled cup of coffee spilling whatever it holds, and says T'ai Chi Chih makes her more confident about what is in hers.