The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister describes the first California teacher's retreat since COVID-19, held in Oceanside with 20 teachers, and its theme of coming home to community, to practice, and to Prajna, the inner voice heard in silence at the tan t'ien.

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.

Judy Smith walks past saguaros and the Garden Bistro to Laura Star's class under an adobe ramada at Tohono Chul in Tucson, correcting a movement and remembering family members Justin taught.

George Manning describes letting chi guide his teaching, moving side by side with students, slowing movements with the breath, and carrying the practice to settings where souls are forgotten.

Jim Shorr gathers statements from five practitioners in the five-year-old Saturday standing and seated class at Creekside Village for Seniors, who name Passing Clouds, Rocking Motion and Light at the Top of the Head as the movements that release old habits, steady balance and raise consciousness.

Julie Heryet reports on the Folsom State Prison class after a 15-month lockdown gap, including a student talked out of suicide, poet Lawrence's release, and inmate-assistant Stephen's death from cancer.

Judy Kistler-Robinson turned shut-down recreation center classes into Zoom sessions that drew friends across the country, and she still offers a free monthly online practice from Albuquerque, including one student's husband with Parkinson's.

Hannah Hedrick expands on the constellation idea born during Linda Prosche's stay in the Hawaii rainforest, inviting comments on a Prime Mover graphic with Justin as North Star for the 2024 conference.

Ivonne Begue se Benzo describes the weekly practice she began shadowing with the sisters of Assisi Heights in Minnesota, and how moving meditation lets her respond rather than react.

Marcella Box introduces Lovena Warren, an 86-year-old accredited teacher whose free weekday Zoom practice restored her daily habit, and who led hurricane evacuees in T'ai Chi Chih from a shelter stage in 2005.

Carmen Brocklehurst links everyday acts of kindness, including a boy who unbuckled his seat belt to save a cat, to the wholeness felt when a group ends a movement together and Justin asked, "Did you feel that?"

Linda Prosche travels to Hilo for two weeks with her former teacher Hannah Hedrick, whose question about "Freedom Quotient" leads her to examine the decades-old habits, likened to Pele's hair, standing between her and effortless practice.

Patty Stupca reports the January Second Saturday discussion of seated practice, including Kay Rydeen's caution to rock from the sitz bones rather than the lower lumbar spine, and chair placement for unsteady students.

Joanne Howell recaps the Second Saturday discussion of Sandy McAlister's four practice types - formal, working, play and tailored - with teachers' examples of connected forms, imagery and staying true to Justin Stone's original.

Sue Bitney said yes to teaching outdoors at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in September 2020, and when fifty students asked to learn every movement, she began walking them through all nineteen in a single thirty-minute session.

Donna McElhose collected thank-you letters her Illinois students wrote to Justin Stone, describing asthma-friendly movement, circle meditation, a Folsom Prison video, and the struggle to practice alone at home.

Sandy McAlister recounts the second Saturday teacher Zoom gatherings, including September's discussion of TCC polarity and which movements have it, October's swap of class handouts, and tips on Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Daniel Pienciak, a conservatory-trained musician, compares solo piano practice and choral singing to TCC, arguing that group flow delights but daily solo practice carries the inner discipline Justin Stone described.

Lisa Stroyan admits she has never practised steadfastly alone, and describes how Zoom group practice and a Seijaku class question from Carmen gave her the phrase "supportive cohesiveness."

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.

Denise Alire found joy in worldwide Zoom practice during years of solitude, favors practicing alone along the beach until a place invites her to stop, and still loves the stronger cosmic vibrations of moving as one in person.

Drawing on three decades as a Special Education teacher, Linda Braga argues that partner practice, where classmates observe each other and trade feedback, should be a standard part of every TCC class.

Sue Bitney describes the beginning class she started at a senior co-operative housing building during COVID, where a core of eight practise twice weekly and one man moving only one hand practises with them.

Lorraine Lepine describes the four-days-a-week Zoom practice she has led since March 2020, letting the Chi teach during silent practice, with testimonials from Melissa, Steve Geer, John Marquez and Nicky Mendenhall.

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.

Guy Kent compares solo and group practice after the 2022 teacher conference, recalling forty-minute sessions with Justin in Albuquerque and suggesting practitioners time their own practice against that mark.

Joyce Kanyuk credits her teacher Oreann with bringing students into peace and calm, and describes looking forward to the camaraderie of Monday morning class and feeling the energy of the movements; Pyramid Poems by Johnnie Lee Marquez follow.

Jim Shorr describes how Creekside Village senior housing uses Margie, a longtime student, as a seated demonstrator whom wheelchair and walker participants follow, with Wayne and Bob explaining what it gives them.

Monica Motyka credits her teacher Donna McElhose, who led mixed standing and seated group practices, with the confidence to now teach seated T'ai Chi Chih in every location she teaches.

Ten of Donna McElhose's students answer her homework questions, describing tingling hands, pulsing heat in Daughter in the Valley, energy circling a group, coping with cerebral palsy, and seated practice after a sprained ankle.