The Vital Force Archive

Adam Lacey describes a year of bringing T'ai Chi Chih into Banbury primary schools, with five-minute videos for teachers and shorter films for families, and asks North American teachers for guidance.

Regina Otero-Sabogal, a psychologist and Colombian immigrant, describes recruiting students for free Spanish-language T'ai Chi Chih classes at Galería de la Raza's Casa Adelante housing and Berkeley's Latino Family Engagement Program.

Walter Charley, who learned T'ai Chi Chih in Sedona around 1976, recounts teaching groups of children in psychiatric hospitals, where depressed children lifted and anxious ones calmed; with pyramid poems by Beverly Miles and Johnnie Lee Marquez.

Amy Tyksinski describes the "Flowing River Moments" she offers her high school class, then prints students' own written reflections on self-love, the effort of no effort, polarity and balance.

Margery Erickson traces a career in juvenile detention outreach, crisis intervention, sheltered workshops and special education that preceded her TCC accreditation, then lists community settings where she now hopes to volunteer.

April Leffler taught T'ai Chi Chih to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at a Catholic school in Chester, and the boisterous third grade class did Six Healing Sounds for her dying dog.

Parker Reynolds traces a two-year intention to teach youth back to a video of Sister Christa and April Leffler at Drexel Neumann Academy, and to the church youth group class that finally resulted.

Five tenth graders at Albuquerque Academy describe what a year of T'ai Chi Chih gave them, from skepticism to grounding during a student walkout against gun violence, followed by Pyramid Poems on silence.

Dr. David Parrish draws on Richard Davidson's neuroplasticity research to argue that T'ai Chi Chih, as an evidence based moving meditation practicing attention and letting go, trains the brain for well-being.

Lucinda Kutsko recounts teaching an after-school TCC enrichment class to eight first and second graders, from snack-time chaos and taped Xs on the floor to their surprisingly poised family performance.

Judy Hendricks discovered that a school's new director had changed her once-silent elementary students into chatterers, and that setting clear expectations with teachers and children made every class move well.

Amy Tyksinski describes shifting from mechanics to feeling-sensing through the t'an t'ien, using weekly journal-dialogue and peer teaching with her high school students, and taking her first semester off in 20 years.

Pia Knighton traces her path from a Houston retreat center brochure to accreditation in 2011, and describes teaching weekly 30-minute TCC classes to adolescents on the Menninger Clinic psychiatric unit.

Margery Erickson describes the grounding calm she carries through days spent with energetic teenagers and quiet evenings alone, crediting maturity, experience, T'ai Chi Chih and redirected habit energies.

Amy Tyksinski describes teaching T'ai Chi Chih as a high school PE option in Albuquerque, quoting students who moved from calling it ridiculous to writing a Plato paper in an hour.

Judy Hendricks describes teaching T'ai Chi Chih to over 80 kindergarten through fifth graders in an after-care program, emphasizing grounding, Six Healing Sounds, Zen stories, and one reluctant girl's turnaround.

Cheryl Hall describes eight years of teaching T'ai Chi Chih to first and second graders in her Oregon classroom, where a small daily group learned every movement and grew visibly calmer.

Amy Tyksinski asked her high school students to let one quality pick them, and Cole Helsell, Haley Maness and Kriti Prasad describe practicing with softness and the effort of no effort.

Amy Tyksinski recounts losing control of a high school T'ai Chi Chih class, abandoning her flexible, entertaining approach for strict structure, and the candid end-of-term survey answers her chattiest student wrote.

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.

Four short reports: Debbie Cole builds a basement studio funded by six students, Ann Rutherford previews Antonia's brush painting retreat, Sheila Leonard's class airs on CBC, and Sr. Carletta LaCour coaches high school basketball players.

Peter Gregory traces how obsessive/compulsive rituals crowded out openness until TCC practice let him move from the T'an T'ien, with Margery Erickson describing daily practice steadying her switch to teaching high school algebra.

Anne Perkins expected to teach a handful of after-school students at Central Catholic St. Nicholas School, but Sr. Gail Tippett wanted the whole school, and Perkins ended up leading thirteen groups from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Diana Wright interviews Dr. Jennifer Pike about UCLA's rheumatoid arthritis trial comparing TCC to relaxation therapy, followed by Judy Hendricks recruiting co-workers for a child-parent class and Tony Johansen's first class.