The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister marks T'ai Chi Chih's 45th year with retreat participants' reasons for practicing, and urges teachers to drop unwarranted fear, use World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, and let TCC shine publicly.

Andrea Skillman recounts teaching T'ai Chi Chih to long-term care residents, veterans at fall risk, and more than a decade of early morning classes for the American Holistic Nurse Association's national conference, with student evaluations included.

Linda Minor describes preparing to teach a seated class for seniors aging in place, practising seated herself, attending Carmen Brocklehurst's retreat entirely seated, and checking the room for armless chairs.

Daniel Pienciak lists practical lessons from years leading two senior memory loss groups: speak loudly, repeat movements six or eight times, walk to each person, and return to favorites like Six Healing Sounds and the Joy Song.

Neena Mitchell had been teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih to seniors in Camillus just in case, then ruptured a kneecap muscle and used mental TCC in the MRI chamber and seated practice through surgery and recovery.

Andrea Skillman's biweekly class for in-patient PTSD veterans in North Chicago pairs tapping and guided meditation with TCC; 67 participants reported drops in pain, racing thoughts, anger, anxiety and agitation.

Carol Nelson-Selby draws on nearly two decades teaching an 8am class of retirees, stroke survivors and Parkinson's patients in Arroyo Grande, and on Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight, to argue TCC balances left and right brain.

Sandy McAlister links a Bay Area synchronicity workshop and two retreats she led, drawing on Linda Braga's Seven Qualities of Movement to show how moving as one unit produces harmony and beauty.

Julie Heryet credits Sandy McAlister's playfulness for loosening her insistence on accuracy, describing how frustrated elders at a Senior Center and inmates needing to feel safe changed her teaching priorities.

Becky B Watkins recounts a free eight-week class at her downtown Louisiana library, where Irma, a student with no fingers, rode the bus through pouring rain and practised Rocking Motion softly and beautifully.

Hannah Hedrick, after 30 years of teaching, sets aside movement corrections in her two nursing home classes, watching stroke and Alzheimer's residents brighten as they move any limb they can.

Darlene Karasik reports from a conference breakout session on seated practice, explaining how sitz-bone weight shifts, elbow training and delayed hand movements teach students to move from the t'an t'ien.

Hannah Hedrick treats impatience as an attack thought and gratitude for "therapeutic irritations" as practice, recalling Justin's corrections to her Joyous Breath and Working the Pulley and explaining why she rarely corrects nursing home or newly released students.

Ava Wilensky, six months into T'ai Chi Chih, was left unable to walk, sit or lie down after a hiking trip, and rebuilt her mobility by yinning and yanging alone, three repetitions at a time.

Kent Jarratt used the Six Healing Sounds while waiting in a car during a police sting to recover his stolen laptop, then visualized the whole practice after heart ablation surgery.

Adabelle Rychtarik's students in Simpsonville report what two years of practice changed: Sandra Johnson stands comfortably through church songs using the TCC stance, and Kathy Neely regained balance and arm mobility despite Parkinson's.

Mary Wichmann collects three student comments from her summer practices in a church memorial garden, including thanks for teaching a woman in a wheelchair and Lorraine's dawn practice with waking birds.

Christine Moore recounts how hip tendonitis and a knee injury from a bipartite patella forced her to postpone accreditation, and how seated and mental practice healed her instead.

Lisa Stroyan recounts the nervous system collapse that left her unable to walk or drive, practising almost reclined in a gravity chair, and entering accreditation with walking sticks only to walk out normally.

Hannah Hedrick describes the slippage in her 20-year-old artificial hip, and the physical therapist who evaluated T'ai Chi Chih's weight shifting, approved both directions and asked to refer patients to her classes.

Hannah Hedrick, accredited in 1986, describes teaching at a nursing home, a senior residence, a homeless transition program and a reentry program, and a student who showed her the movements she could do lying down after fracturing her foot.

Richard Karasik distinguishes speaking T'ai Chi Chih from speaking about it, urging teachers to build a shared vocabulary with students, test words like "palm up" and "circular," and treat confusion as an opening for learning.

Carol Nelson-Selby teaches health club classes with ever-changing attendance, so she drills the full weight shift using Carry the Ball to the Side, hands behind the back, and lets the t'an t'ien tow the arms.

Judy George marks twenty years as an accredited teacher, describing the worldwide friendships TCC has brought her and how teaching abbreviated movements keeps students who cannot stand nine repetitions coming back weekly.

Jean Katus relays what her monthly practice regular Carol reports: calmer nights, better sleep, lower blood pressure, and balance regained after knee replacements, plus dropping the Pulling in the Energy visualization before bed.

April Leffler answers questions about why she teaches, recalling the woman in a wheelchair with an amputated leg who asked at a high-rise apartment presentation whether she could join a class.

After a fall left her with a fractured ankle and an Aircast boot, Margery Erickson practised seated Seijaku and TCC from a stool, feeling energy gather at the t'an t'ien.

Daniel Pienciak traces his own knee pain from figure skating and its easing through practice, then advises smaller steps, softening rather than gripping, and letting the knee lead the weight shift.

Jeneth Rundle, a new teacher and stem cell donor for her brother dying of multiple myeloma, recounts the disabled veteran and her caregiving sister who walked into class and healed her.

Linda Braga recounts a year of teaching James, a student with dementia, and Angel his caretaker, including how she asked the class to welcome him and how he returned after a failed residential placement.