The Vital Force Archive

Lorraine Marcketta reports that after 19 months of nearly daily T'ai Chi Chih practice, her doctor's office called to say her osteoporosis was improving and bone was building.

Bob Poland, 84 and a year into practice, describes being the only man at a Prajna retreat, April Leffler's talks on attention, four full practices indoors and out, and finding his way home in the dark.

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.

Adabelle Rychtarik recounts the business basics covered at her 2013 Albuquerque accreditation, then describes calling 911 when a new seated student lost consciousness in class and later needed a pacemaker.

Julie Barrier describes taking over the T'ai Chi Chih class she had attended as Bill Moore's student at the Oakland Senior Center, including sleepless nights before teaching and the silence that ends each class.

Anita Vestal summarizes twelve controlled trials of T'ai Chi Chih, covering sleep quality, shingles immunity, inflammation, physical performance in older adults, stress and depression, with recommendations for future studies.

Margery Erickson marks nineteen years of teaching since her accreditation course, held in her family's home weaving studio, and traces her sense of being grounded and centered back to that week after a Seijaku-Meditation retreat.

Adabelle Rychtarik collected testimonials from her South Carolina students, who credit TCC with better balance, easier rising from low chairs, and calm during long hospital vigils with a loved one.

Brenda Fisher credits T'ai Chi Chih with carrying her through two major losses, first with grief counselor Sharon Edwards in Arizona and again after 15 years away, leading her to accreditation with Daniel Pienciak.

Linda Braga describes a November ceremony in San Leandro where fourteen students in their 80s and 90s received gold-sealed certificates for years of consistent attendance, and offers the template to other teachers.

Mary Donaldson-Evans recounts how she and her husband, after Movin' to Motown and Chair Yoga failed to stick, were hooked by April Leffler's class, where movement names conjure New Jersey beach vacations.

Donna Deffenbaugh's poem traces one pair of hands from infancy through muddy play, motherhood, keyboards and stiff buttons to timid hands rising at heart-height in practice, reaching for the universe.

Hannah Hedrick traces how cancer prevention authority Sam Epstein moved from scientist's skepticism to nightly practice on an Italian terrace at nearly 90, after 25 years of exposure to TCC.

Pete Gregory, seven years into live-in caregiving for his 89-year-old mother and failing 91-year-old father, maps the TCC movements onto the falls, vigils and mini-crises of his days.

Mary Wichmann's new hiking boots sat unused in the closet after a dermatology procedure on her foot, until an email about a community hiking group led her to the Sonoran Desert and Superstition Mountains as another moving meditation.

M. C. Bauder credits a first community education class with Jean Katus for breaking loose stopped-up chi, ending a fear of going anywhere alone and easing stiff joints.

Fran Kaib describes how years of T'ai Chi Chih widened her narrow emotional range at age 63, bringing jealousy, tears, anger and unexpected fun, and making conscious what was unconscious.

In a letter shared by Dan Pienciak, Fran Alexander describes breaking her ankle in three places, healing far faster than predicted with added bone density at nearly 70, and teaching elderly relatives in Florida.

Jackson Rains points to the retiring Baby Boomers, once drawn to Transcendental Meditation and the Age of Aquarius, as a ready audience, citing his YMCA class growing from 20 students to over 30.

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.

Julie Schuster's first conference, which she helped plan with fellow Minnesota teachers, gave her a deeper grasp of prajna, the ability to ground in Seijaku, and ACE continuing education credit through Pam Towne.

Paula Weiner recounts her 1995 accreditation and volunteer teaching at Sunrise Assisted Living, where prima ballerina Maria Tallchief became a devoted student who practiced Six Healing Sounds daily until her death at 88.

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.

Jim Shorr describes Don, a modest resident of Edgewood Downs Retirement Center who sheds his walker for T'ai Chi Chih after a concussion years ago and wrote his own practice creed on a napkin.

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.

Bobbie Weichman rereads the letter she wrote to Donna McElhose, Justin Stone and Carmen Brocklehurst after three months of classes, measuring twelve years of practice against fibromyalgia, cranky joints and shorter, sometimes seated, sessions.

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.

Carmen Brocklehurst carries Justin Stone's greeting to the 2011 conference, noting that at 93 he no longer travels or answers mail, and invites everyone into a silent group practice.

Marcy Burns, 83 and practising six times a week, describes how morning gloom lifts during group practice and how walking after a full practice leaves her faster and far less fatigued.