The Vital Force Archive

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.

A step-by-step guide to setting up Instagram on a smartphone, cropping and filtering photos, tagging them #TaiChiChih, and following instagram.com/taichichih to spread T'ai Chi Chih images widely.

Lisa M. Otero recounts the first three years of her plan to build a self-sustaining T'ai Chi Chih community in Oxnard and Ventura, from fitness center and church classes to Seijaku and teacher prep.

Stu Goldman puts out a call for T'ai Chi Chih instructors to relocate to Southeastern Florida's Gold Coast, where one teacher serves a 300-mile span of five and a half million people.

Linda Braga recaps the roundtable discussions at the 2011 T'ai Chi Chih conference, listing eight teaching strategies from educational research and the classroom problems teachers brought to the table.

Vanjie Bratt and Carol Mockovak describe teaching at the Becketwood Cooperative since 2003 and the seventh summer of outdoor practice at Hidden Falls park beside the Mississippi, herons and jumping fish included.

Pia Knighton took over her teacher's classes at the Cenacle Retreat Center right after accreditation, then built classes at a community center, a retreat house, and the Menninger Clinic psychiatric units.

Beth Preston traces her T'ai Chi Chih life in Washington from finishing classes with Patricia Strand to teaching at a community college, a YMCA, a free library practice, and a women's cancer support group.

Sue Bitney, self-described as not technologically savvy, was talked into a Minnesota TCC Facebook page by a beginning student, and soon met new practitioners at Lake Harriet who had found the group online.

Barbara Pence offers a rhyming poem announcing that Northwest Indiana is not just cows and corn now that T'ai Chi Chih has arrived, pitching it to anyone short on balance or energy.

Newly accredited Sandi Huebel found her first students among the egg customers of her chicken farm, then converted the garage into a part-time studio and watched the phone start ringing.

Stan Corwin and Vicki Schroeder split a beginners' course in Hendersonville, halfway between them, alternating sessions one through seven so each traveled half as often and students gained two teachers.

May Swanson recounts eight years of donated teaching at The Wellness Community in Phoenix and the Veterans Hospital, including a dying student who sat through class and felt the energy.

Alice Holden traces T'ai Chi Chih in San Antonio from a single teacher in 1992 through two teacher trainings, a weekly library group, the 2002 conference, and classes reaching teenagers, translators and Guatemala.

Richard Cutler, Austin's sole accredited teacher since May 2009, describes building classes at Austin Community College, the Dougherty Arts Center and Sundara Yoga Therapy, where local T'ai Chi masters gave up their slot for Antonia's visit.

Ron Richardson and Stephen Thompson recount the April 2010 Tupelo workshop led by Carmen Brocklehurst, the fourth in five years of hosted visits, and the local interest it generated afterward.

Dennis McCann, a hospital chaplain newly accredited by Pam Towne and Antonia, describes starting a class at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, its Wellness Room setting, and the overlapping hour format for returning students.

Peter Gregory quit a 30-year restaurant job, moved in with his aging parents in northwestern Indiana, and endured car repairs, cancelled classes and cold shoulders before a newspaper health feature brought 75 inquiries.

Jan Block thanks the 2009 Nebraska teacher conference for deepening her teaching of "why" as well as "how," describes adding intermediate and advanced classes, and recounts practicing TCC after airport security pat-downs.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts giving the New Year homily at a small New Jersey Unitarian Universalist church, where all 60 members rose spontaneously to move with her, and urges teachers to offer free presentations.

Rose Alvarez-Diosdado describes setting up a T'ai Chi Chih booth at a local Women's Health Fair, using the Good Karma Publishing Media Kit for colors, banner, flowers and press contacts.

TaiChiChih.org announces a social media outreach campaign using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, plus a planned TCC blog and e-newsletter, and asks teachers and students to contribute videos and testimonials.

Sandy McAlister counts the ripple from Linda Braga's TCC presentation to 200 people at a six-thousand-person conference, and urges students who plan to teach after retirement to start now, one class at a time.

Judy Hendricks and Dora Derzon gave one-hour demonstrations for Presbyterian Hospital leadership at Ghost Ranch, following Justin's advice to teach Around the Platter, a Daughter and the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Richard Cutler recounts driving from Austin to the San Antonio teacher training, his impatience over "correct" movements, the guidance of Pam Towne and Stephen Thompson, and becoming Central Texas's first accredited teacher.

Dale Buchanan recounts running a TCC studio in Great Falls, Virginia, leaving teaching for health club management, then losing his job in Boca Raton and rebuilding classes through a website and Facebook.

Donna Aldous describes starting winter classes at the Mesa Spirit RV Resort, growing past 30 participants in two weeks, charging $2, opening seated with Justin Stone's CD and ordering DVDs.

Anne Lovdahl describes the blustery oceanfront practice near Seal Beach pier, where four weekly sessions draw over 20 people on Saturdays, curious onlookers, and one regular leaving for the Peace Corps.

Editor KG walks through what taichichih.org offers teachers, students and journalists, explains why The Vital Force will not link to individual teacher sites, and asks that unaccredited teaching be reported.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts Justin Stone's sudden move from Taos to Albuquerque, where two students found him in a bookstore, and Catherine Fedewa describes teaching a few classes yearly as ministry.