The Vital Force Archive

Gloria Mancusco credits classes with Dorene Krause and Bill Moore for normal blood work, blood pressure and improved bone density, joined by Kay Spaloss, who stopped her bone density medication.

An editor's note recounting how much of the issue was laid out beside Justin Stone's bed over two weekends, where he dozed, examined a new T'ai Chi Chih photo text app on an iPad, and asked that readers be thanked.

Carol Chamberlain began T'ai Chi Chih a year after her Parkinson's diagnosis, when she often needed a cane, and credits it with the stress management that keeps her tremors from worsening.

Linda Robinson walks through her morning practice at home, from feeding the cat and raising the shades to the chi rising from the bubbling spring and moments of wordless presence.

Marjorie CT recounts a silent group practice on the grass at a goodbye picnic at Mt St Francis convent, where an entire short play came to her, followed by two more.

Donna J. Moore recounts how she resumed T'ai Chi Chih from a bed and wheelchair after her prosthesis exploded her right femur in July 2010, using seated arm movements and focused breathing to manage pain and fend off depression.

Mariee Mitchell strings the names of the movements into a tall tale in which she falls into a hole and fellow "T'ai Chi Chih'uns" mount a rescue.

Beth Preston traces her T'ai Chi Chih life in Washington from finishing classes with Patricia Strand to teaching at a community college, a YMCA, a free library practice, and a women's cancer support group.

Justin Stone contrasts Tagore's unanswered "Who am I?" with Tako-san's bright moon over water, traces Chinese cosmology back to the Uncarved Block, and explains how each mood carries a corresponding prana.

Physical therapist Sara Nelson picks movements like Working the Pulley for clients with pain or fatigue; Donna Moore and Daisy Hobbs then discuss twenty years of teaching and seated practice.

Hannah Hedrick gathers testimonials from two conference breakout sessions on "T'ai Chi Chih: Part of All You Do," from animals drawn to practitioners' chi to skeptical spouses coming around and teachers steadied by grief and volatile situations.

Phyllis Bagwell describes how years of clenching her jaw and hunching her shoulders against pain gave way after a T'ai Chi Chih class at the YMCA with Beth Preston.

Carmen Brocklehurst carries Justin Stone's greeting to the 2011 conference, noting that at 93 he no longer travels or answers mail, and invites everyone into a silent group practice.

Eric Braff found T'ai Chi Chih easy to pick up and more calming than sitting meditation after a busy day, naming Passing Clouds his favorite for its circularity and shifting weight.

Ann Rutherford describes her own method of teaching Seijaku: the student holds the mind in the t'an t'ien, chooses one obscuring habit such as anger or resentment, and passes through it during the resistance section.

Sr. Antonia Cooper contrasts her 1994 Seijaku training with Justin, which she abandoned after overwhelming energy, with the 2011 Ohio audit where Ann Rutherford's teaching on resistance in daily life renewed the form for her.

Roseann Heinrich describes practising at home the day after the 2011 conference, applying a correction to her head position while memories of friends and hugs streamed in and lifted her practice.

Anna Vaith recounts recovering from abdominal surgery with a six-inch incision, using mental and seated T'ai Chi Chih for pain, sleep and balance, plus practical tips on limiting the weight shift.

Ev Hanson-Florin recounts her first TCC conference, from practices led by guide Antonia Cooper and teacher trainers Sandy McAlister and Pam Towne to talks on Seijaku, children and the scholarship raffle.

Sue Bitney, self-described as not technologically savvy, was talked into a Minnesota TCC Facebook page by a beginning student, and soon met new practitioners at Lake Harriet who had found the group online.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts arriving at Sawmill Creek Resort for the 2011 Ohio conference, praising Lucinda Kutsko's organization, the blue satin "Love" logo, students who came to serve, and Alice Holden's lecture on joy.

Ron Richardson practices each morning among oak, pine and magnolia trees, naming Six Healing Sounds his new favorite movement as geese squawk overhead and his immune system grows stronger.

Steve Marsh previews the July 5-8, 2012 Portland conference, listing nearby day trips from the Pacific beaches to the Columbia Gorge and announcing a pre-conference group practice at the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Amy Tyksinski's teacher trainer tip on the Six Healing Sounds: cottonmouth signals a shift toward yin, the body is a symphony, and a troubled organ calls for repeating its sound.

Suanne Lewis describes falling in love three times over: with a new beginners' class reaching Carry the Ball to the Side, with patients at a western Maryland psychiatric hospital, and with an outdoor community practice in the Allegany Mountains.

Stephen Thompson recounts Peter Gregory's challenge to teach TCC in 12-step recovery programs, his failed attempts to enter Mississippi jails, and six months of talks before NMHS Behavioral Health Center accepted classes.

Sharon Sirkis gathers written comments from her college students, who describe discovering what grounding feels like, using Pulling in the Energy to focus while tired, and easing an asthma attack with the Six Healing Sounds.

Dianne Moody recounts leaving an exhausting corporate job at a personal low, finding her first class with Judy Hendricks, losing nearly 50 pounds, and preparing for November's teacher accreditation.

Sandy McAlister draws on Justin Stone's 1992 teacher conference talk about Prajna, innate wisdom blocked by habit energies, and describes candidates at teacher training who break through only after giving up the director's chair.

John and Laura Schwartz of Spokane each describe two years of practice with teacher Pat Moseley: no falls in six months after spinal cancer and a broken hip, and fifty pounds lost.