The Vital Force Archive

Lisa Stroyan recounts how tiny hand movements in a reclined gravity chair restored her Chi in 2015, then details practical seated adjustments: sit-bone weight shifts, arm extension, grounding and "squirm."

Jim Shorr describes how Creekside Village senior housing uses Margie, a longtime student, as a seated demonstrator whom wheelchair and walker participants follow, with Wayne and Bob explaining what it gives them.

Kathy Starrick teaches seated TCC to every class, standing or not, after two major surgeries and a fractured leg left her practising mentally, then seated, with less pain and better sleep.

Monica Motyka credits her teacher Donna McElhose, who led mixed standing and seated group practices, with the confidence to now teach seated T'ai Chi Chih in every location she teaches.

Sandy McAlister explains why she left Anchor Taffy and Working the Pulley out of her seated TCC DVD, and why she now believes both belong in the practice with safe adaptations.

Pam Towne traces how she moved from seeing seated T'ai Chi Chih as a last resort to respecting it as a powerful practice, after teaching wheelchair users, hurting her back overdoing the pelvic tilt, and finding beginners connect with the t'an t'ien faster when seated.

Lisa Otero recalls sitting knee to knee with Justin Stone in chairs and finally understanding that it is all in the wrists, then gives practical guidance on chairs, feet and adapting Working the Pulley.

Jessica Lewis credits a painful summer of toe trouble with converting her to seated T'ai Chi Chih, and lists why she now starts every student in the chair, including her VA-referred veterans.

Diana Daffner tripped on a curb, broke her elbow, and found she could approximate most T'ai Chi Chih movements with her arm in a cast, which came off after fourteen days.

Hannah Hedrick describes how Paula Weiner kept T'ai Chi Chih alive through declining health, practising in bed on supplemental oxygen and showing a nurse the movements, supported by friends and cheerleader Howie Mogil.

Judy Chancey describes T'ai Chi at the Sea, a class she built for veterans with PTSD in a program that forbids instruction-based teaching, using sea imagery, grounding and wave rhythm instead of verbal cues.

Suzanne Roady-Ross recounts Judy Chancey's conference presentation on teaching veterans in the ocean, waist or chest deep, replacing familiar imagery with waves, sinking sand, porpoises and frisbees.

George Zimmerman remembers Nicole, who kept a daily T'ai Chi Chih practice through eleven years with ALS, moving without her wheelchair for three years and later practising the movements in imagination alone.

Linda Raye, who has had mobility issues since her teens, took up T'ai Chi Chih 25 years ago as a substitute for dancing, followed by beginners' letters thanking Justin Stone.

Daniel Pienciak recalls two earthquakes during a Santa Barbara TCC Intensive, then explains how a low, appropriately wide stance keeps practitioners grounded, including a chair-supported exercise for seniors.

In a letter to the editor, Paula Weiner credits T'ai Chi Chih with saving her life and describes how recalling Hannah Hedrick, Maria Tallchief and fellow teachers stirs an energy flow that feeds her artwork.

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.

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.

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.

Jeneth Rundle planned a year off from teaching after moving to Oregon, then agreed to teach a neighbor recovering from cancer treatment, a stroke and surgery who progressed from seated practice to standing for a full hour.

Linda Jones lays out the teaching rules for David-Dorian Ross's Tai Chi for Vets program: verbal safety cues and humor are welcome, but no individual corrections, no detailed demonstration and no expectation that veterans memorize the movements.

Eliza Fulton describes her twice-monthly seated classes, called "Move Free," with Alzheimer's residents at a Colorado veterans nursing home, using paper towel rolls and nerf footballs as props.

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.

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.

Diana Bahn describes teaching Rocking Motion to chemotherapy patients with foot neuropathy at a Mt. Sinai cancer center, using Realization Process methods to locate the heel centers and Kidney 1 points.

Dr. David Parrish summarizes Richard Davidson's brain plasticity research on attention, positive outlook, resilience and generosity, and the Dalai Lama's answer about subtle energy, followed by Lorraine Lepine on adapting TCC to aging.

Rick Davis, a retirement community chaplain, draws on the Lotus Sutra and Psalm 23 to argue that seated T'ai Chi Chih offers people confined to wheelchairs by aging and illness a renewed experience of chi and inner vastness.

Pam Towne's practical guidance for teaching seniors, covering hearing loss, balance, stamina, footwear, chairs for seated practice, time for social interaction, and knowing the facility's emergency procedures.

Carol Selby describes teaching students with Parkinson's disease and poor balance to seek the brief secure moment when both feet are flat and the hands pass in front of the body.

A preview of the 2019 Teacher Conference sessions, including Sheila Leonard on awakening energy, Bruce Eisenmenger on PTSD and veterans, Dr. Edward Ehlinger on public health, plus grounding, props and scholarship auctions.