The Vital Force Archive

Vicki Schroeder describes playing Justin Stone's instructional DVD as students arrive, reading from the photo text and The Vital Force in every class, and listing his books in her syllabus.

Jean Katus teaches Daughter on the Mountaintop by synchronizing hands with the weight shift and keeping fingertips pointed upward, followed by Carmen's account of the torus of energy formed as the hands cross.

Claire Whalen replaced dwindling eight-week beginner classes with weekend and one-day intensive formats at her convent retreat center, paired with a Harvard Health Letter report on UCLA's T cell study.

Linda Braga hands her Tibetan singing bowl to students, who discover that a tense grip yields only a thud, and Stephen Thomson urges teachers to bring awareness down from the head into the body.

Rita Otis describes hosting Antonia Cooper's March 2008 Omaha workshop for forty participants, where a double pane window shattered mid-practice, and links her idea of "creating space" to Meister Eckhart and the Tao Te Ching.

Sandy McAlister has students play Around the Platter deliberately too large, then too small, then let go into the effortless middle, with focus dropping to the soles of the feet; Pam Towne urges learning or rededicating to Seijaku.

Ev Hanson walks through the forward and backward weight shift and the polarity of the ball in Around the Platter Variation, while Ron Richardson explains why students open their hands and how he demonstrates cupping the energy.

Diane See recounts thirteen years of teaching at YMCAs, senior centers and adult day health centers, where interruptions and mixed-ability classes became chances to teach Seijaku, serenity amid activity.

Four teaching approaches to Around the Platter: Alice Holden's student brought a cardboard pizza plate to class, Anna Gunderson and Pat Flynn break down the yin/yang step, and Carmen Brocklehurst adds thumb and t'an t'ien refinements.

Lorraine Lepine describes three teacher tools from the 2005 survey and 2007 Conference: an online Teacher Resource List, a 12-question student questionnaire being piloted, and guidelines for special populations.

Sandy McAlister gives a back-to-basics exercise for keeping toes and heels down through the weight shift, plus Pam Towne's announcement of new six-month practice requirements for Seijaku accreditation.

Anita Vestal offers a jumping rope image for the wrist circles, Daniel Pienciak links knees to wrists with a paper cup balanced on the head, and Linda Braga lists six purposes of Bird Flaps Its Wings.

Gail Terriff traces her path from her first class with Maxine Wan to teaching after her 2005 Edmonton training, with practical advice on class length, fees and covering costs.

Pam Towne urges newly accredited teachers to start teaching immediately, give a presentation a week to fill classes, audit a Teacher Training within a year, and keep their own daily practice at the center.

Judy George walks through her teaching of Rocking Motion from the ground up: grounding, stacking ankles, knees, hips and shoulders, floating arms, and massaging the nerves in the soles of the feet.

Sandy McAlister urges precise cueing, saying "Bass Drum, left foot forward" rather than "on the left side," and describes a class exercise focusing on the downward-moving top arm in Pulling Taffy.

Anita Vestal describes a 12-question Student Reaction Questionnaire being piloted by a few teachers, given anonymously before the first class and at the last, and invites others to test it.

Ron Richardson and Stephen Thompson lay out the costs, publicity and logistics behind their Mississippi workshops and retreat, from paying a visiting teacher's $500 fee to free hospital Wellness Center space.

Jerry Bumbalough tells his senior class to bring water because moving chi makes them thirsty, and asks where the water goes; one gentleman answers, "In my pants."

Ann Rutheford describes teaching two Seijaku classes using Justin Stone's Heightened Awareness book, reporting his answers on pushing with Chi rather than body, audible breath and letting students design their own resistance.

Linda Braga names inertia as the two-fold pitfall of teaching in assisted living residences, poses the hard questions teachers face about lowering standards, and offers six posted guidelines for resident participation.

Dorene Krause thanks Lorraine Lepine and the 90 responding teachers, announces where the 2005 Teacher Survey results are posted online, and passes along teaching tips for seniors, teens and students with physical challenges.

A report that 87 teachers responded to the TCC Teacher Survey 2005, with results promised online in April 2006 and suggestions forwarded to Antonia, Sandy and Pam.

Teachers responding to the 2005 TCC survey give Lorraine Lepine their practical advice on chairs, hearing problems, remembering birthdays, PACE arthritis training and slow repetition for students with Parkinson's.

Judy Hendricks led 155 children through Rocking Motion and the Six Healing Sounds at a park on International Day, and lists what she learned teaching seven classes at a Montessori charter school.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst assigns Justin Stone's Abandon Hope as weekly homework in her intermediate class, including the eleven-year-old boy who explained abandoning hope as swimming away from a leaking boat after his sister died.

Judy Tretheway's web log from Old Folsom records a cancelled program day, racial tension on the yard, a coming smoking ban, jammed chapel locks, and two inmates practising the whole set for the first time.

Lorraine Levine asks teachers to return the 2005 TCC Teacher Survey by December 31 and publishes teaching tips from the first 55 responses, covering seniors, Parkinson's, dementia care, hospice bereavement groups and deaf children, plus a new Special Requests section.

Mary Schapker's summary of Judy Hendricks' conference breakout session on teaching children, with tactics for grounding them, Tao symbols on the floor, small surprises and getting into after-school programs.

Amy Tyksinki's conference workshop notes on reaching high school students through counseling, history and language departments, and on teaching teens with concrete body cues, a soft cloth passed around, and recordings of Justin Stone.