The Vital Force Archive

Rev. Rick Davis traces an early bad habit of leaving weight in the yang leg and rushing to the next movement, and links completing the shift to living attentively in the present rather than in the past or in worry.

Jessica Lewis reports on a T'ai Chi Chih Foundation grant that paid for 1000 flyers and a banner promoting Free T'ai Chi for Veterans, distributed at Stand Down and to Delaware realtors.

Diane "Di" Lund froze midway across a swaying wire cable on a forty-foot ropes course, and used her breathing, alignment and t'an t'ien to move again.

Margery Erickson walks teachers through the TaijiFit veterans application at taijifit.net/vets, from the 150-hour training requirement and new acronyms like Vairkko and CANVAS to networking locally and teaching free, volunteer classes.

Robert Delano, diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease, tracked down his late mother's teacher Sheryl Adair and found that daily practice left him yinning and yanging while vacuuming.

Kathleen McAllister describes the frustrating sign-up process for David Dorian Ross's Free T'ai Chi for Veterans program, and decides patience and softness are the way to meet it.

Merle Freidin Smith began T'ai Chi Chih after a 1998 rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, and practiced it mentally through 18 days in hospital after cervical fusion surgery, keeping her attention in the soles of her feet.

Rebecca Paulson describes the third annual T'ai Chi Chih weekend at her family's cabin above the Continental Divide, where teachers and students share meals, stargaze, and practice silently in a pine grove.

Sandy McAlister answers whether all 19 movements must be done in order, citing Justin Stone on Chi memory, and describes reordering her beginner classes so students finish on familiar ground.

April Leffler gathers comments from participants at the August 2019 Teacher Symposium in Pennsylvania, where Sandy McAlister led work on movement refinements, wholeness, class formats and ways to describe movements to students.

Daniel Pienciak answers a student's complaint about wandering thoughts with Justin Stone's advice to return attention to the soles of the feet, plus guidance on sinking the mind into the t'an t'ien.

Justin Stone recounts the Buddha answering "I am awake!" and names habit energies behind compulsive behavior, followed by Sarah Riley's note on Daniel Pienciak's Seijaku retreat.

Diana Bahn uses her own home renovation and the stress of the unknown to describe Seijaku, serenity in the midst of activity, as a grounding internal practice for complicated times.

Jim Shorr gathers first-person testimony from residents and guests at Creekside Village in Beaverton, Oregon, who describe calm, loosened muscles, better balance and the group's shared Six Healing Sounds.

Terry Jennings recounts stopping at Carmen's Seijaku retreat in New Mexico on the annual drive to a family farm, then teaching four classes to beloved friends in Des Moines, where one student joked about getting only half the benefits.

Kent Jarratt describes two years of weekly practice in a long-term care facility with Jerry, 99, and two blind residents, adapting movements for wheelchairs, painful shoulders, stroke paralysis and oxygen masks.

Justin Stone lays out a sequence of listening practices, from registering random sounds without embroidery to chanting the Gayatri Mantra and singing his own "Healing thru Joy," recalling a flute heard in Himalayan rain.

Linda Jones spent over an hour on Rocking Motion at Carmen's September retreat in Albuquerque, and argues the wider community should stay open to the subtle differences Albuquerque teachers bring.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone on the needs we manufacture, the unreality of memory, the ice cream cone as America's tea ceremony, Dogen on spring, and Joshu Sasaki's five fingers.

Carmela Beck recalls watching Justin Stone demonstrate at an Albuquerque bookstore while her toddler roamed unsupervised, then finding his photo online a decade later when back pain sent her looking for something gentler than yoga.

Caroline Guilott likens attending Carmen's retreat to an artisan dipping a candle wick in hot wax again and again, each workshop adding a thin layer of understanding before teachers carry their light home to students.

Compiled by Julie Heryet, three Folsom inmates describe what TCC does for them: David H. on healing stab wounds and 24 years of sobriety, Jonathon R. on filtering prison chaos, Steven F. on his three certificates.

Farrel Zeeman traces his practice from 30-minute morning sessions at the Big Sky Retreat in 2011 to an Albuquerque retreat, arguing that TCC is a form of prayer requiring the same stillness.

Jessica Lewis describes launching veterans-only classes through Taijifit and the VA Community Care Network, with a roadmap for letters of introduction, meetup listings, flyers and befriending local VA staff.