The Vital Force Archive

Dr. Ofelia Olivero describes how lowering the foot slowly and deliberately keeps the practitioner rooted, sharpens awareness of shifting weight, circulates chi evenly, and becomes an expression of presence.

Lanni Lantery recounts a 2003 TCC presentation where built-up Chi made her karate demonstration so fast she split her student's groin cup, plus a beginner's George Clooney remark during Pulling in the Energy.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia collects three teaching mishaps, including a retirement community student whose hearing aid batteries died mid-class and a college student who decided Pulling in the Energy causes heart attacks.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia recounts three classroom moments from 2001: a reluctant husband who called his practice "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," a quip to Justin about "umm" versus "OM," and her own trip up the stairs.

Sharon Sirkis, in a piece reprinted from June 2001, used a slow winter in her classes to go within, then coaxed a squirrel across a parking lot and read its antics as a message: sit still, leap, discard the garbage.

Sharon Sirkis collects four jokes first printed in March 2001, including a student named Murray who joked about the draft board and a beginner worried she was doing variations on the variations.

Sharon Sirkis reprints four classroom jokes from December 2000, including a senior worried his big belly would stall the waist's engine and a hubcap that became the Seventh Healing Sound.

Sharon Sirkus collects four moments of classroom comedy, from an over-achieving teacher candidate over-rotating her waist to a student whose cracking joints sounded like clicking castanets.

Sharon Sirkis logs a fretful morning minute by minute until an insistent hunch sends her to the cable guide, where the 8:00 film is "Excess Baggage," followed by student accounts of Daniel Pienciak's June 2021 Seijaku weekend.

Sharon Sirkus collects three classroom moments: a Senior Center group breaking into "Down in the Valley," an Aspenwood resident asking to be poked more, and a student who skipped practice and put her shirt on backwards.

Jungmin Lee offers a few spare lines on Bird Flaps Its Wings, asking practitioners to soak into the soles of the feet and be ready to rise in the mind.

Sharon Sirkis collects five teaching mishaps from her early years, including a senior center student who wanted to push away his wife and a chat attempted with a man on silent retreat.

Sharon Sirkis collects three classroom moments: a student telling her late, flustered teacher to get grounded, a class inventing its own Six Healing Sounds, and Howard's jigsaw puzzle Show and Tell.

Sharon Sirkis recounts her first Zoom class of seated T'ai Chi Chih, coaching a newcomer's beautiful smile through several movements before discovering it was Melissa's still photo, left behind after she logged off.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom moments: an 87-year-old confused all his life, Roland finding his knee's sweet spot in front of the TV, and a coronavirus misunderstanding needing quick damage control.

Sharon Sirkis collects two classroom moments: a college student's evaluation calling T'ai Chi Chih "very peaceful and weirdly healing," and a rainy day spent flipping fluorescent switches like an eye doctor.

Sharon Sirkis answers the 2018 conference theme by describing the worry that comes from analyzing instead of trusting, then retells the Zen "empty your cup" story she used when teaching karate.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom mishaps and puns, including a student who insisted she had taught only variations of the Six Healing Sounds and a Working the Pulley question that turned into a Supremes singalong.

Michele Dapelo set her intention for the Pennsylvania accreditation week and received an image of an open door, which became her lens on yin and yang, unlearning, self-doubt and her fellow candidates' support.

H.B. recounts being raped at sixteen, the back pain and involuntary muscle spasms that followed, and the class with instructor Sharon Sirkis where the Six Healing Sounds gave her back herself.

Matthew Shin came to T'ai Chi Chih as a skeptic seeking relief from back pain, and describes how daily practice untangled his overcommitment, improved his sleep and ended his coffee habit.

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.

Pauline B. Quimson, a physician from the Philippines and wellness program director, traces how Justin Stone's line "we do not heal symptoms; we become whole" shapes her practice and her work with at-risk teens and women leaving abuse.

Michele Dapelo's short poem sets seeking against finding, right against left, and learning against unlearning, arriving at the true no effort as simply being.

Suanne Lewis describes falling in love three times over: with a new beginners' class reaching Carry the Ball to the Side, with patients at a western Maryland psychiatric hospital, and with an outdoor community practice in the Allegany Mountains.

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.

Paula Rivers describes taking Sharon Sirkis's ten-week class at Tai Sophia Institute, using the movements to calm a headache after witnessing a highway accident, and practising morning and evening for sleep and patience; Larry Bloom likens Rocking Motion to a rower's effortless swing.

April Punzo used Rocking Motion, Around the Platter, Bass Drum and the Cosmic Consciousness Pose outside the gym before her karate belt exam and got through it without an anxiety attack, followed by Andrea Bork on Minnesota's summer park practice and a set of Pyramid Poems.

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.

Newly accredited at Mahwah in July 1997, Sharon Sirkis was inspired by auditing teachers to audit the Pennsylvania course herself, and lists ten reasons other teachers should too.