The Vital Force Archive

Ann Rutherford connects the 2024 conference theme "There's Only One Thing Going On" to the Heart Sutra chanted with Justin Stone, arguing Push Pull should be taught as an ego-free ellipse.

Julie Schuster's class at Friendship Village of Bloomington spent weeks practicing a single chosen movement, and students recorded what came of it: Push Pull turning into a mantra, Six Healing Sounds cleansing breath, and Daughter on the Mountain Top easing anxiety at bedtime.

Lynne Roberts presented T'ai Chi Chih at an annual Parkinson's Summit conference, leading Kaiser Permanente providers, hospital staff, caregivers and Parkinson's teams in Push Pull, standing or seated.

Laurie Jacobi takes a student's description of T'ai Chi Chih as a tool for transformation and applies it to her own foot placement, Push Pull and Passing Clouds, watching physical corrections change corresponding areas of her life.

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.

Sharon Sirkis of Columbia, Maryland collects classroom moments: two seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter, one wanting to push away worries, and a student pulling taffy at red lights.

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.

Eliza Fulton describes her twice-monthly seated classes, called "Move Free," with Alzheimer's residents at a Colorado veterans nursing home, using paper towel rolls and nerf footballs as props.

Dorene Krause describes how Push Pull has spoken to her since her beginner days, connecting the forward release and the drawing in of energy to the rhythm of ocean tides where she practices.

Amy Tyksinski describes her doubt before leading Turiya meditation sessions at the Philadelphia conference, then traces the year she spent slowing down Push Pull after a friend questioned its continuity.

Amy Tyksinski cautions against turning the hands forward before the backward weight shift completes in Rocking Motion and Push Pull, locating continuity instead in the t'an t'ien's expansion and contraction.

A conference presentation on lifting the palms slightly from neutral, hinging at the wrist, to open the meridian channels in Around the Platter and Push Pull and strengthen the flow of Chi.

Holly Trenary recounts the sleepless 2:30 a.m. fears of accreditation week, her teacher Marie's advice to hold the frightened part of herself, and the chi she felt in her heart area while playing with Push Pull.

Anita Vestal recounts the 2015 Black Mountain conference, where Susan Quinn used chocolate and candy to locate the perfect moment, April Leffler told of a fly landing on her nose, and Sandy McAlister taught gliding into a full weight shift.

Julie Heryet remembers Franky Carrillo, wrongly imprisoned at Folsom, who forgave the judge and prosecutor, stood in the center of the Push Pull circle before release, and later practiced free in a Los Angeles park.

Daniel Pienciak, told a year after accreditation that his wrists needed more softness, shows where give belongs in the wrist joint using Bass Drum, Push Pull and Rocking Motion.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to four movements, including cocked wrists in Daughter on the Mountain Top, when the weight settles back in Daughter in the Valley, the sideways step in Carry the Ball to the Side, and the 60/40 hand emphasis in Push Pull.

Kathy Starrick describes presenting T'ai Chi Chih to an osteoporosis support group, demonstrating Around the Platter, Carry the Ball to the Side and Push Pull as models for vacuuming, sweeping and clearing snow.

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.

Donna Aldous describes reading Justin Stone's photo textbook and circulating copies of The Vital Force in class, then passes on end-of-series comments from students on Push Pull, connectedness and wholeness.

Judy Hendricks recounts corrections Justin Stone gave at an Albuquerque teacher practice, covering fingertip placement in Push Pull, the yang hand in the Taffy movements, standing between moves, and fluttering fingers as a sign of Chi.

Andrea Skillman recounts five years of teaching T'ai Chi Chih to holistic nurses at their annual conference, where beginners moved so well she had them pair up for mirrored Push Pull.

Marcella Box recounts how noisy high school retreatants who kept March teacher training candidates awake at St. Damiano sent an apology letter, then joined the group for evening prayer and Push Pull.

Amy Tyksinski offers two things to try in Push Pull: feeling the 60-40 split inwardly rather than in the hands, and the strength rising from the back heel as palms return to the breastbone.

Donna Aldous asked her poolside class what T'ai Chi Chih had done for them, and students reported less arthritis medication, easier flying, steadier footing on a bicycle and tingling fingertips from Pulling in the Energy.

Justin Stone corrects common errors: the wrists, not the arms, do the work in Carry the Ball to the Side, hands stay cupped in Push Pull and Passing Clouds, and Working the Pulley turns from the waist, plus news of his conference videos.

Becky B. Watkins offers a sequence of pyramid poems written in flight, moving from God's sigh and human oneness to gratitude, loving-kindness through the chi, and soft hands in Push/Pull.

Justin Stone tells teachers that pointing out where the hands go is not enough, explaining how ending movements with hands parallel to the floor and the Cosmic Consciousness pose let yin and yang rejoin.

Cristina Minelli recounts her November 2001 lecture to roughly 300 people at the University of Verona's Special Education department, from her ten years of insomnia and the Indian tiger parable to leading the room in Push Pull and Around the Platter.

Joseph Lomonico limped into a sample class with a painful, stiff right ankle, and by the fourth session, while doing Push Pull, the pain stopped and he walked nearly normally.