The Vital Force Archive

Fred Lorch credits his ongoing T'ai Chi Chih practice with better balance, flexibility and strength as he ages, plus blood pressure averaging 20 points lower and improved coronary health.

Anita Vestal recounts ten years of offering free Spanish-language classes in rural Costa Rica, where clubs supplied transportation and space, and calls for Foundation grants and a new video of TCC worldwide.

Joan Weaver's pyramid poem marks the 50th T'ai Chi Chih teacher conference, naming the Zoom connection to Albuquerque, the small-group storytelling, and those remembered in absence.

Dr. Anita Vestal reports from the inaugural Science of T'ai Chi and Qigong as Whole Person Health Conference, where Dr. Helen Lavretsky could not locate a TCC teacher for a study through the website directory.

Patricia Winger describes how agreeing to teach her neighborhood seven days a week finally built a daily practice, breaking a 30-year habit within two months and speeding her recovery from total knee replacement.

Diana Daffner mistook Bass Drum for a drum beaten on top, substituted the image of caressing a tree trunk, and later told beginners the story when teaching the movement.

Trish Winger names the commitment that a daily group practice creates after 20 years of putting her own practice last, alongside the freedom of solo practice to choose movements and pause.

Diana Daffner describes how she and her husband Richard included T'ai Chi Chih in twenty-five years of couples coaching, finding that partners facing each other while moving developed a heartfelt connection.

Diana Daffner tripped on a curb, broke her elbow, and found she could approximate most T'ai Chi Chih movements with her arm in a cast, which came off after fourteen days.

Anita Vestal recounts the 2021 conference, from Paul Ciske on lifting the Chi to Sue Kenny and George Manning's volunteer work in Sacramento mental health programs, then asks readers to join new outreach and Spanish-language groups.

Trish Winger balanced a hardcover book on her head during class to demonstrate a still torso, and found her students' backs straightened and their movements grew smoother.

Trish Winger's students kept missing the mark on Working the Pulley, so she watched herself in the mirror and recast the movement as a pie throwing machine, with one pie handed over after another.

Mary Ann Johnson of Ponte Vedra Beach offers a New Year blessing in verse, wishing 365 days of deep joy and 525,600 minutes of peace to the TCC circle, sometimes gathered virtually.

Eric Schoenfeld recalls the spirit of oneness at retreats at the now-sold Franciscan Spiritual Center in Pennsylvania, and finds that same warmth in Sandy McAlister's Tuesday noon Zoom practice.

Trish Winger struggled with a hymn's vow to live each moment in peace until her minister's explanation of Shalom gave her the same meaning she already knew in Seijaku: serenity amid activity.

Diana Daffner addresses fellow teachers directly, listing what a TCC teacher actually does: holding a space of love, reminding students to breathe, demonstrating continuous circles, and learning alongside them.

Patricia Winger passes along a church-service parable about a jostled cup of coffee spilling whatever it holds, and says T'ai Chi Chih makes her more confident about what is in hers.

Nancy Johnson's poem follows a walker who loses the way to a labyrinth, is set right by three strangers with big dogs, rests at the center, and spirals back out.

Bev Chandley handed each of her 31 senior students at Shell Point Retirement Community a polished stone to hold palm up, and not one hand turned over while learning Pulling Taffy.

Pat Finstad names five constants she reviews at the start of every class: the soft rounded hand shape, shoulders down, head up, vertical spine, and elbows always pointing down.

Stu Goldman, uneasy about repeating what "Justin would say," describes building his own teaching phrases like "I came for the movement; I stayed in the moment," and recalls a silent correction from Carmen Brocklehurst.

Stu Goldman rebuts the adage that those who cannot do teach, describing his use of humor, props and mirroring, and urging teachers to notice what works and build a consistent personal style.

Stu Goldman, the only year-round teacher south of Orlando on Florida's east coast, describes retreats as his lifeline to the TCC community and, after reading Barry Boyce in Mindful, proposes renaming them a recharge.

Susan Quinn, with no teacher nearby in Florida, prepared for accreditation through Skype lessons with Karen Goran, retreat feedback from Pam Towne and Antonia, twice-daily practice, and coaching from her husband Jerry.

Diana Daffner recounts meeting Dr. Alan Dattner at her weekly sunset practice on Siesta Beach, where he described how Around the Platter Variation warmed his cold, constricted fingers and now helps his Raynaud's patients.

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.

Diana Daffner reprints her July 1992 meditation on what teachers do for students, and adds testimonials from Maia Shafer and Philippe Blanc about twenty years of sunset practice on Siesta Key Beach.

Stu Goldman, whose high-pressure career ended after life-saving surgery left him with neurological changes and depression, describes finding T'ai Chi Chih through a 2010 AARP article and now pursuing accreditation.

Jackie Kingsbury describes how a snowbird visiting Florida for six weeks phoned for a refresher lesson, leading to private sessions in her living room that revived her own practice.

Stu Goldman describes how COPD was caught early by his cardiologist, the two stents that followed his Prescott retreat, and the calm that has let him give up carrying an inhaler.