The Vital Force Archive

Caroline Guilott recalls skipping into the room to greet Justin in Albuquerque, and describes how words about the movements can trap a practitioner while attention to the t'an t'ien, the weight shift and softness opens the practice.

Caroline Guilott draws on Justin Stone's exact phrases, from "graceful conclusion" to the hip swivel, and explains why polarity between relaxed, slightly cupped hands is felt in the body rather than the mind.

Caroline Guilott insists on Justin Stone's exact wording, from "graceful conclusion" to the "hip swivel," and explains how the relaxed, slightly cupped hands let students feel polarity as heat, cold or tingling rather than a cosmetic gesture.

Caroline Guilott describes the resting pose that ends each movement, the softening around the t'an t'ien with feet rooted, and her memory of Justin Stone rising early and repeating his own close.

Caroline Guilott compares old photos of her Rocking Motion with Justin Stone's videos, discovers he barely bends the elbow, and finally understands his remark to her in the Albuquerque circle: there is nothing to do.

Caroline Guilott describes the hop of Seijaku, light on the feet with the waist turning internally, as the point where thought disappears and awareness becomes total and glorious.

Charles B. Cappel maps Daughter in the Valley onto the Louisiana oak trees in his yard and park, tracing roots, trunk and canopy in the hands' sweep and the Chi's rising polarity.

Told she must be a slow learner, Caroline Guilott answers with twenty years of the same 19 movements and one pose, a retreat with Carmen Brocklehurst, and the slow discovery of grounding in the soles of her feet.

Becky B Watkins recounts a free eight-week class at her downtown Louisiana library, where Irma, a student with no fingers, rode the bus through pouring rain and practised Rocking Motion softly and beautifully.

Caroline Guillot's conference presentation on feeling the chi through Rocking Motion, Daughter in the Valley and Pulling Taffy, letting go before and after each movement and noticing polarity between the palms.

Caroline Guilott describes how Fast Track freed her Seijaku practice, releasing the mental emphasis on moving through resistance while keeping her rooted in the soles of her feet as she hopped.

Becky Watkins arrived at her family's beach vacation burned out, angry and sorrowful, and found that eight days of swimming, news-fasting and practicing in the sand left her healed and light-hearted.

Caroline Guillot recounts how Dora Derzon's advice at a Minnesota conference to really ground at the end of Rocking Motion turned her 'Hovering Conclusion' into a 'Landing Conclusion' and cleared her headache.

Melinda Antoon Cormier, a 56-year-old artist practising in Lake Charles, mentally ran through the Six Healing Sounds during a resting stress test, and her angioplasty revealed a naturally grown bypass around a minor blockage.

Brenda Mounier resisted T'ai Chi Chih until her friend Caroline talked her into driving 90 minutes for eight weeks of class, and a year later she practices for herself.

Joshewa describes how classes gifted to him and L'aura during her second pregnancy became a way of life in south Louisiana, crediting TCC with stress relief, emotional stability and stillness amid movement.

Mary Ann Moran tracks her husband's sudden job loss, resumes sent across the country and a new job in a new city, threading movement names through the refrain stay focused, stay centered, stay positive.

Becky Watkins taught T'ai Chi Chih at two conferences for grief professionals and bereaved parents, drawing on her son's death, and dolphins surfaced in Biscayne Bay during Push Pull.

Caroline Guilott describes holding the Cosmic Consciousness Pose for a minute at the end of practice, the phrase "heaven, earth and men in the middle," the focus settling to the t'an t'ien, and the feeling of being rooted through the soles of the feet.

Caroline Guillot recalls Justin Stone answering her request for corrections with "T'ai Chi Chih is all continuous," and her own Rocking Motion in a crowded airport, soft, rooted, and briefly silent.

Caroline Guillot names the circularity of the waist and the ellipse traced by the t'an t'ien as what she loves in Pulling Taffy, a movement she managed even with her arm in a cast.

B.J. Day, a beginner in her twenties who considered herself clumsy and without balance, practised Rocking Motion while waiting for the shower to warm and recalled the Six Healing Sounds inside it.

Caroline Guillot includes Justin Stone's T'ai Chi Chih: Joy Thru Movement in her class fee, assigning homework from it and quizzing students orally in the final session.

Becky Watkins traveled from Louisiana to the 2009 conference at Lied Lodge, spent two hours spotting twenty-seven bird species with an ornithologist at Arbor Day Farm, and found gratitude the theme of her week.

Caroline Guilott recalls learning Daughter in the Valley wrongly and Victor Berg's exasperation before her training, then walks step by step through the shifts, the circular hands and the energy felt between the palms.