The Vital Force Archive

Amy Tyksinski walks through her step-by-step approach to teaching Rocking Motion, from hands on the t'an t'ien and very slow weight shifts to softening knees and keeping arms as responders rather than leaders.

Ron Richardson's workshop group named the obstacles to offering TCC in church facilities, including suspicion that it is evil, and recommended building trust and talking concretely about balance in prayer, relationships and daily life.

Nancy Hoing writes to her teacher Ginny Morgan about being diagnosed with three hereditary clotting conditions, getting her medical team's approval for T'ai Chi Chih, and regaining strength, balance and reduced leg pain.

Linda Braga recounts how Helen, an unsteady 85-year-old referred by her doctor, stood through her first Seniors class and returned to report sitting in her car feeling amazingly calm.

Tony Johansen describes practising at a Santa Barbara retreat with a paralyzed left foot and braced ankle, finding that uncertainty, not infirmity, breaks his connection to the chi holding him up.

Ginny Morgan practised on her cruise ship balcony in rough seas, sinking into the soles of her feet until six seagulls gathered to move along with her.

Margery Erickson, crossing 50 yards of iced-over walkway from her garage after teaching an evening class, told herself to think soft knees, sink down and move slowly and continuously.

Justin Stone, writing for a health organization, cites the zero percent recidivism among T'ai Chi Chih practitioners at Folsom Prison, a Wall Street Journal report on shingles immunity, his unbroken bones after a fall at Needles, and his own blood pressure.

Sarah Williams summarizes her master's thesis study in which twenty adults aged 20 to 39 were assigned to T'ai Chi Chih or walking for five weeks, with significant blood pressure drops in the TCC group.

Three beginning students, Zena, Nancy and Carol, describe gains in energy, posture, knee strength and sleep, with Carol practising the twenty movements along the shore of Lake Superior.

Anne Hollek, left balance impaired after surgery removed a tumor from a balance nerve, writes that nine months of classes with Donna McElhose let her walk heel to toe and ride a bicycle again.

Bernice Wilkinson, over 70 and living with osteoporosis and compression fractures, describes how Sandy McAlister's reminders about soles of the feet and soft knees ended her nervous clinging to shower walls.

Athene Mantle hosted 44 teachers and students in the Oakland hills on May 4, 2002, where new Teacher Trainer Pam Towne taught grounding, balance before stepping out, and synchronicity of hands and feet.

Judy Tretheway's poem stands in the Cosmic Consciousness Pose, poised between heaven and earth on the tiny tripod of the feet, finding alignment, center and softness within sturdy bones.

Alex Rovang, a student of Donna McElhose, traces a life from the awkwardness of birth through growing softness, thinking in the feet and staying centered, toward a hoped-for graceful conclusion.

Letters in which Justin Stone praises the March issue, Guy Kent follows the Folsom prison reports, Neena Mitchell meets Carolyn Perkins by chance in Manhattan, and Grady Anderson reports his accreditation.

After a party guest dismissed T'ai Chi Chih as boring, Marianne Ferrari describes her own beginner's athletic overeffort and the gyroscopic center, softness and inner quiet she found instead.

Richard Detert and two university colleagues tested 35 education professionals who learned T'ai Chi Chih at a weekend workshop, measuring stress manifestations and well-being after four weeks of journaled practice.

VirginiaLee Cepeda describes how Ann Vidmar, who has multiple sclerosis, came to class with a walker, then a cane, and eventually walked in with no aid; Vidmar adds her own thanks.

Jeanne Marlowe recounts her first year as an accredited teacher: a detached retina discovered during training in Albuquerque, two surgeries, ongoing blurry vision and balance work, and practice at Machu Picchu.

Jo Trautmann describes her first two classes at a Sun City retirement community in Texas, where twenty-plus students seeking balance and flexibility brought a surprising stillness to the room.

Nancy Connell of Severna Park, Maryland began T'ai Chi Chih at 57 after losing agility, and within three weeks could balance on one leg to put on her walking shoes, with praise for teacher Sharon Sirkis.

Bill Moore, a horn player and former Integral Yoga teacher, writes to Justin Stone that two years of T'ai Chi Chih slowed his breath, lowered his center of gravity and eased neck and shoulder tension.

Susan Larson-Waugh's newspaper profile of Joe Apt, who teaches up to 15 classes a week despite multiple sclerosis and a triple bypass, and of student Lenore Listiak, strengthening knees after replacement surgery.

Sharon Sirkis, Roberta Taggart and Barbara Riley answer Carol Lesch's question on teaching Parkinson's patients, from Florence's belly laughs at an adult daycare center to Bill's improved balance after eighteen months.

Lisa Lytle reports from Duke Cheng's Buena Park studio on growing American interest in t'ai chi and chi kung, citing NIH falls research and students managing asthma and diabetes.

Drs. Lumsden and Matire, with research assistant Baccala, introduce primary care physicians to t'ai chi ch'uan as a low-impact adjunct therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

Janet Clarkson recounts the balance loss, blurred vision and tingling hands that led to her multiple sclerosis diagnosis at 42, and how Roberta Taggart's class at Kaiser Permanente eased her spasms and pain.

Lynn Lind's Deming Headlight report on Beverly McFarland, who took over daily T'ai Chi Chih sessions at the Deming Elderhostel, came to the practice through recurring dreams, and taught a blind woman with her own eyes closed.

Roberta Taggart summarizes a Times report on William Haskell's federally funded Stanford study testing t'ai chi and other unconventional therapies against aging, measuring balance with eyeglass-mounted devices and stress indicators in saliva.