The Vital Force Archive

Connie Shaw writes to her teacher Marie Dotts about an insight five months into class: scanning people's vibrations rather than their words revealed the draining habit energies behind familiar smiling masks.

Connie Shaw recounts the Spring Equinox class led by Marie Dotts, where silent practice in a circle within a circle broke open an expansive state of tears, deep sleep and impersonal love.

Marie Dotts introduces reflections from the April 2019 accreditation week, with new teachers Rick Davis, Robert Poland, Debby McLister, Stephanie Copeland, Kyung Sook Lee and Becky Shinas describing transformation, community and moving well.

Connie Krumrai recounts her accreditation week with teacher trainer Daniel Pienciak, where eight teachers, a Folsom Prison DVD of Justin, and a Mark Nepo verse about cracked seeds met her anxiety with laughter.

Amy Moody came away from Pam's accreditation course with steadier grounding, noticeably softer movement absorbed from a week beside the teacher-auditors, and unexpected bonding for a self-described private person.

Eliza Fulton pairs the Aramaic Lord's Prayer, meant to be embodied and intoned, with the TCC movements from Rocking Motion through Passing Clouds, finding new meaning in the Around the Platter variation.

Bob Poland, a diabetic whose fingertips are calloused from daily blood sugar tests, describes feeling energy through his palms for the first time, plus relaxing his knees and fully unweighting the opposite foot.

Eliza Fulton describes demonstrating T'ai Chi Chih at the Glenwood Springs Downtown Block Party, microphone and gawking crowd included, until three young people with a baby joined her and one bystander signed up for a class.

Lisa Stroyan revisits a note to herself about trust and the present moment, describing how rushing the close or moving hands ahead of the weight shift creates tension, and citing Linda Braga's booklet on synchronicity.

Eliza Fulton recalls her surprise that TCC teachers face no continuing education requirement, and argues that Justin Stone gave teachers his example and their own inner teh instead of rules; with Pyramid Poems on silence.

Lisa VV traces her path from Marie Dotts' 2014 beginners class through accreditation and conferences to hosting April Leffler's prajna workshop in a restored barn near her home.

Mary Buirgy, a new student, recounts four teachings from April Leffler's Northern Colorado sessions: innate prajna as an inner GPS, the reciprocal nature of mind and Chi, saying yes with "Now, is how!", and leaning into community.

Connie Krumrai recounts a weekend workshop led by April Leffler where meditation, eyes-closed partner exercises and guided visualization brought a subtle shift she located in her t'an t'ien rather than her head.

Lisa Stroyan gathers advice from April Leffler, Carmen Brocklehurst, Marie Dotts and Caroline Guilott into a hybrid-car metaphor: the adrenaline-driven mind as gas pedal, the t'an t'ien running quietly on chi.

JoEtta Heck describes the self-gratitude she carried home from the Prajna and Heightened Awareness workshop, where April Leffler asked participants to list ten things they would love to do before leaving this world.

At April Leffler's workshop, Rebecca Paulson listed clearing out every closet among things that would bring her happiness, then went home, emptied magazines into the trash, and found unexpected prajna.

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.

Holly Trenary's poem traces a life of fourteen moves, exhaustion and anger carried alone, then the grounded, Seijaku-relaxed confidence and gratitude she found through T'ai Chi Chih.

Lisa Stroyan accepted Julie Heryet's conference invitation and visited the T'ai Chi Chih class at Folsom Prison, walking through the cellblock to a chapel circle where inmates met her with kindness rather than the defensiveness she expected.

Marie Dotts guides teachers through a rededication ceremony at the 2017 conference, quoting Justin Stone on teh, inviting Sky Young-Wick to read on sharing, and having each teacher pour yin and yang sand into a large Tao symbol.

JoEtta Heck prints the lyrics of the conference parody of John Denver's Rocky Mountain High, telling how Marie Dotts brought the Chi to Colorado, complete with cues for welcome signs.

Lisa Stroyan describes the daily resistance she meets before practicing, the moment the weight shift takes over, and the tools she and other teachers use to keep showing up.

Marie Dotts previews two discussion topics for the 2017 conference: giving and receiving correction as an expression of teh, and whether teachers came to T'ai Chi Chih for physical or spiritual reasons.

Lisa Stroyan noticed her fingers curling during practice and traced the habit to sympathetic nervous system activation, learning to let her hands open through presence rather than muscular effort.

Eliza Fulton treats the final pause after practice as a living silence that heals body and mind, noting that "silent" and "listen" are anagrams and urging us to rest from mental activity.

Eliza Fulton adapts a yoga strap trick for teaching the weight shift, holding a belt across the kidneys so students feel the hip flexors open and close as they yin and yang.

Lisa Stroyan, one month into teaching, watches a student discover she can feel her feet standing but not moving, and answers the question of how T'ai Chi Chih feels with images of sand, carousels and waterfalls.

Lisa Vander Vliet met Trudi at her parents' senior living community and discovered the 84-year-old had taught herself T'ai Chi Chih from Carmen Brocklehurst's YouTube video, practicing alone for five years.

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.

Lisa Stroyan recounts the nervous system collapse that left her unable to walk or drive, practising almost reclined in a gravity chair, and entering accreditation with walking sticks only to walk out normally.