The Vital Force Archive

Carol Nelson-Selby answers a new teacher's question about introducing Carry the Ball to the Side to seniors with hip and knee replacements, using a rain stick to teach the weight shift.

Jim Shorr gathers residents' own words from Edgewood Downs in Beaverton, Oregon, on regained balance, practising half the movements without a walker, and the calm the first twelve bring, plus Pyramid Poems on freedom.

Social work student Lauren Robson and a classmate review the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting claims about migraines, chi flow, depression and the discovery of seated practice for wheelchair users.

Social work students Lauren Robson and a classmate review the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting claims about migraines, chi flow, seated practice for wheelchair users, and lifting depression.

Two social work students report on the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, with Lauren Robson noting migraine and blood pressure claims and another discovering seated practice for wheelchair users.

Social work major Lauren Robson, writing for Amy Schied's social media column, reviews the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting migraines, joint pain, seated practice for wheelchair users and depression.

Terry Jennings passes along an exchange in which a student with MS and vertigo practices lying down or on the couch, with Sandy McAlister and April Leffler advising effortless movements and both feet.

Darlene Karasik recounts three pregnant women wandering into her HMO-sponsored class, the medical release forms that followed, and her call for teachers, testimonials and outcome data to establish prenatal T'ai Chi Chih.

Michiko Uramoto, a quadriplegic with severe chronic pain, describes four years of seated T'ai Chi Chih classes begun at her spinal cord injury doctor's invitation, and the pain relief, energy, posture and sleep changes that followed.

Charles Hanks describes adapting T'ai Chi Chih to a swimming pool, where buoyancy defeated his grounding until teacher Mary Case suggested the ankle weights and weight belts scuba divers use.

Sr. Agnes Fleming writes on Justin Stone's first anniversary about her near-daily morning practice, the yin-yang power that steadies her anxious temperament, and leading modified movements twice weekly for elderly sisters.

Diana Bahn describes, in the third person, her long-running free class at an assisted living facility, where canes, faded memories and old injuries wore down her early hopes until she found commonality with her elderly students.

Charles Hanks, an eight-year student in Darlene Karasik's seated class at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, argues that TCC's seated approach assumes students will return to standing, and calls on teachers to prepare for more disabled students under the ADA.

Betty Dobberstein thanks Jean Katus for reviewing the movements and orders the Joy Thru Movement photo text, noting that old knee stitches, hernia surgery and spinal curvature limit her while flexibility grows.

Diane Curley, struck by violent motion sickness on a tour bus between Florence and Siena, braced her hip against a seat post and practised Joyous Breath for three minutes until the nausea vanished.

Gail Terriff describes teaching T'ai Chi Chih at four Edmonton sites serving people with mental health issues, from psychiatric hospital groups to a YMCA program whose participant evaluations she reports.

Stephen Thompson, who fell ill during the 2012 teacher conference, found some of the presentations he missed archived online, among them Sara Nelson's talk on approaching health professionals and students with physical problems.

Donna McElhose, left waiting three hours in a hospital cubicle for a delayed procedure, wrapped her IV lines around her wrists and practiced TCC in her gown while nurses looked on; Pyramid Poems on silence follow.

Sandra Freda visited Jerry Bumbalough's twice-weekly class at a Salinas adult day health center, where he teaches seated TCC to Spanish-speaking students with Alzheimer's beginning with "Copy me."

Joan Hutchison, diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2009 and unable to walk, describes how intense physical therapy helped her avoid surgery and how T'ai Chi Chih became the one exercise she can still do.

Adabelle Rychtarik describes how sciatica, plantar fasciitis and an inflamed iliotibial band ended her full standing practice, and how sitting practice brought continuity, softness and gratitude toward her body.

Chris Norkus watches fifteen students at his FirstHealth class practice within their own abilities, likening them to blooming dandelions, and describes Christina falling mid-class and her hard-won gains.

Jerry Bumbalough describes teaching seniors with Alzheimer's and dementia at an adult day health care facility, where early frustration turned around after Antonia advised him to simply say, "Copy me."

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.

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.

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.

Hannah Hedrick describes her Hilo class grown from the Warriors Against Diabetes support group, an adaptive session co-taught with Marty Mimmack, who was born without arms, and a proposal to host low-cost 2012 accreditation.

Marty Beery, an accredited teacher, had a stroke weeks after retiring, and describes retraining her right hand, finding that body memory brought the movements back, and practising with a beginner's mind.

Karen Carlisle, 67, joined Hope Spangler's class at Yavapai College after two foot surgeries and severe arthritis, and six months later walks miles barefoot with minimal pain.

Mary Case, who noticed her own sudden hearing loss ten years ago, offers practical adjustments for students who cannot hear you: face them, seat them discreetly up front, lower the music, and use a waist amplifier.