The Vital Force Archive

Fred Lorch credits his ongoing T'ai Chi Chih practice with better balance, flexibility and strength as he ages, plus blood pressure averaging 20 points lower and improved coronary health.

Marcella K. Levie asked her senior students why they return each week, and Madelon, Olga, Ariette and Sima describe calmer minds, better balance, repeating guitar and flute music, and effort without effort.

Reprinted from November 2006, Justin Stone describes Chi as the Cosmic life principle vibrating through all things, and credits consistent T'ai Chi Chih practice for his undiminished health at nearly 86.

Susan Corey describes the seniors she teaches, whose stories of sorrow and hilarity are woven into their unhurried practice, and likens them to the light-filled mystics of The Dark Crystal.

Suzanne Roady-Ross, seventeen years into her practice, describes her grown children's differing responses to T'ai Chi Chih and the lasting friendships her students have built around class and lunch afterward.

April Leffler describes noticing the aging and homogeneity of the TCC community at the 50th Anniversary Teacher Conference in Albuquerque, and how her alarm gave way to trust when she responded from grounded stillness rather than emotional reaction.

Christina Tillotson traces her first TCC practice in a grassy circle at Asilomar in 1983, her 1993 accreditation, and a newer Encinitas Senior Center student who said this omnipresent energy would have replaced her hippie-days substances.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts a friend being told about T'ai Chi Chih for high blood pressure by someone who did not know she already knew, and urges a post-Covid return to daily practice.

Marcella Box introduces Lovena Warren, an 86-year-old accredited teacher whose free weekday Zoom practice restored her daily habit, and who led hurricane evacuees in T'ai Chi Chih from a shelter stage in 2005.

Kathy Plachy describes a year in Oreann's class at the Clarkstown Community Learning Center, where slow repetitive movement eased her arthritic hands and steadied her enough to enjoy a steep rocky trail without fear.

Sharon Sirkis of Columbia, Maryland collects classroom moments: two seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter, one wanting to push away worries, and a student pulling taffy at red lights.

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.

Sharon Sirkus collects three classroom moments: a Senior Center group breaking into "Down in the Valley," an Aspenwood resident asking to be poked more, and a student who skipped practice and put her shirt on backwards.

Jim Shorr collects November and December 2020 testimonials from Creekside Village residents who kept practicing through the COVID-19 shutdown, with balance the benefit nearly everyone named.

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.

Deb Sitron's 89-year-old student at a Naples senior residence introduced her to his grandson at a fruit stand as "my Tie Dye teacher," and she let the mistake stand.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom moments: an 87-year-old confused all his life, Roland finding his knee's sweet spot in front of the TV, and a coronavirus misunderstanding needing quick damage control.

Deb Sitron recounts meeting an 89-year-old Naples student at a fruit stand, where he proudly introduced her to his grandson as his "Tie Dye teacher" and she let it stand.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bev Chandley handed each of her 31 senior students at Shell Point Retirement Community a polished stone to hold palm up, and not one hand turned over while learning Pulling Taffy.

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.

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.

Maya Campana Caudill writes that she and her husband, in their late 70s and early 80s, still lead free twice-weekly T'ai Chi Chih and Qigong practice in the park for about 16 people.

Sandra Babka, at 76 and living with nerve damage, recounts a lifetime of exercise and practicing TCC in airports and doctors' offices, paired with an anonymous student's account of letting go through Abandon Hope and a cancer diagnosis.