The Vital Force Archive

After a conference talk on social media, April Leffler assigned her university students to research T'ai Chi Chih on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube; three students' papers on bubbling spring, seated practice and daily habits follow.

April Leffler assigned her university students a one-page paper on what they could learn about T'ai Chi Chih from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, and prints excerpts from three of them.

April Leffler assigned her university students a one-page paper on what they could learn about T'ai Chi Chih from Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube, and prints three of their write-ups.

Tiffany Anne Mangalindan, juggling two jobs, summer courses, an internship and wedding planning, recounts how a summer TCC class eased her anger, sharpened her focus and reduced her asthma inhaler use.

Bayleigh Oberlander, who found T'ai Chi Chih during college, describes the balanced energy, greater peace, physical steadiness and improved body temperature regulation she noticed after beginning to practice.

April Leffler collects metaphors written by her Spring 2012 Widener University students, who compare T'ai Chi Chih to a heartbeat, storm clouds releasing rain, invisible air carrying chi, and an ocean wave lifting stress away.

Dana Diller, a skeptic with a science background, took a community college T'ai Chi Chih class on her doctor's advice and watched her systolic blood pressure drop 15 to 18 points after practice.

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.

Sharon Sirkis gathers written comments from her college students, who describe discovering what grounding feels like, using Pulling in the Energy to focus while tired, and easing an asthma attack with the Six Healing Sounds.

Judy Hubbell teaches an Excelsior District outreach class through San Francisco City College where student translator Janet Yeong renders softness, continuity and weight shift into Mandarin and Cantonese while Judy keeps moving.

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.

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.

April Leffler had students in her first university T'ai Chi Chih course keep weekly journals, and quotes their entries on reduced stress, chi flow, easier asthma and sharing movements with family at Thanksgiving.

Donna McElhose has her community college students hunt for articles on T'ai Chi Chih benefits at the start of the semester and again at its end, when their choices turn personal and emotional.

Nancy Lecraw describes five years of team teaching with Bobbie, from Tuesday morning planning sessions over tea to dividing new and review movements, working with seated students, and meeting program directors together.

Elaine Peterson, a music professor at Mississippi State University, describes using T'ai Chi Chih to help singers and instrumentalists move from the center, ease tension, and stay fully present while performing.

Connie Stevens took T'ai Chi Chih for a physical education credit at UMBC days after laser eye surgery, and her ophthalmologist was astonished by better than 20/20 recovery; Patty Friddle adds her own account.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three encounters: an adult daycare student's quip about wine, a UMBC student demonstrating Around the Platter with her legs on the floor, and a skeptic in back pain who conceded she had a point.

Sharon Sirkis recounts a student raising his hand for Working the Pulley and declaring "I solemnly swear," plus a UMBC student whose watch-free assignment coincided with a bank robbery.

Kathy Grassel taught Tai Chi Chih to 30 sixth-graders waiting to testify at the New Mexico legislature, renaming every movement with wildlife themes, plus classroom quips collected by Sharon Sirkis.

Meg Costello, a Catholic Sister teaching with a physical disability, recounts five years of invitations: a stress management class at Georgian Court College where a student in a wheelchair wrote approving comments, monks at a New Jersey monastery, and a public school special needs class.

Five pyramid poems by students in Sharon Sirkus' T'ai Chi Chih class at U.M.B.C., including Stephanie Meier on relaxing away from her kids and Angela Carroll's moonchild seeing herself for the first time.

Cary Fellman taught a week-long class at the UW-Madison summer arts school in Rhinelander, where a five-minute demonstration of Rocking Motion and Bass Drum quieted an audience of a hundred.

Diana Welsh-Durkin and Debbie Cole summarize Sr. Alice Holden's open-floor conference discussion on spreading the UCLA, Wall Street Journal and Prevention findings to doctors, insurers such as New Mexico's Blue Cross, and graduate researchers.

Sharon Sirkis recounts blinking emergency lights during her college class's first music session, a student's "get-out-of-jail free card," and a 95-year-old choosing her hair appointment over class, plus Sheila Leonard's license plate holder photo.

A collection of classroom laughs gathered from Sharon Sirkus, Nancy Lecraw and Bobbie Weichman, Kathy Grassel and Rodney Anderson, including a whole class bowing by mistake and juvenile detention students riffing on Working the Pulley.

Denise Clark describes teaching TCC to religious brothers and sisters at Holy Names College, and how Korean brother Seon Keun Oh was supported by Bay Area teachers toward accreditation.

Lynn L. Gerdes remembers Sister Merrie Frances Seidl, SSND, who taught T'ai Chi Chih at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee through six years of cancer and chemotherapy until this spring.

Monica Simorangkir enrolled in Sharon Sirkis's class only for graduation credit, then found her hands warm after the first session, slept sixteen hours straight, and saw her anxiety attacks grow less frequent.

Lisa Renee France signed up for a T'ai Chi Chih course only to earn one CPA credit, then a hospital stay made Sharon Sirkis's lessons about bamboo, patience and a too-full plate suddenly matter.