The Vital Force Archive

Nancy Frost's four-hour drive to a Cape Cod church for Jessica Lewis's weekend retreat ends among nearly 30 practitioners, where teaching each movement seated first becomes a new awareness.

Sue Kenney describes a student returning to George Manning's Tuesday class at Hope Cooperative's mental health program after two years away with long COVID, recalling the Taffy variations and finishing seated.

Steven Huskey teaches a weekly 45-minute seated class for brain injury survivors, emphasizing weight shift felt through the sit bones, upright torso, and compact hand movements in the side-to-side movements.

Jessica Lewis recounts how a painful condition in three right toes converted her from dismissing seated TCC as "TCC light," and argues for starting all students, especially veterans, in a chair and adding seated training to accreditation week.

Rod Nakayama recounts becoming accredited in November 2024 after seven years as a student, and teaching a class of thirty-plus at his Senior Center, including a seated session.

Three of Donna McElhose's College of Lake County students write letters to future beginners, describing bad knees, ankle and wrist ligament injuries, the switch to a seated class, and the fear of being the only man in the room.

Lisa Stroyan describes how seated T'ai Chi Chih amplifies awareness of the t'an t'ien and feet, with guidance on soft seated weight shifts, chair choice, and letting students sit, stand or rest as needed.

Steven Huskey recounts the teaching that found him after accreditation, from filling in for his own teacher to classes for Parkinson's patients and a brain injury support group, and the lesson plans he abandoned for flexibility.

Colette Hertz describes the exhaustion and deepening after her November 2024 accreditation, teaching seated TCC to her 95-year-old neighbor Roberta, and feeling chi in her fingertips while her right hand was in a cast.

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.

Three practitioners write in: Parker Reynolds practiced TCC mentally while coming out of hip surgery anesthesia, Sherry Corson found relaxing hands and belly deepened her Chi, and Lynne Roberts keeps teaching while awaiting back surgery.

Jeneth Rundle recounts her only face-to-face visit with Justin Stone in May 2011, when her phone rang mid-practice, and how his question returned to her after foot fusion surgery.

Patty Stupca reports the January Second Saturday discussion of seated practice, including Kay Rydeen's caution to rock from the sitz bones rather than the lower lumbar spine, and chair placement for unsteady students.

Linda Jones teaches seated TCC to beginners and to chemotherapy patients who regained feeling in their fingertips, yet finds mental practice, with its complete weight shifts, the most powerful of all.

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.

Lisa Stroyan draws on Justin's three confirming signs, the Nei Kung and an email exchange with Lynne Roberts to offer practical ways to develop TCC mentally, from breath counting to feeling weight shift through the soles.

Sandy McAlister explains why she left Anchor Taffy and Working the Pulley out of her seated TCC DVD, and why she now believes both belong in the practice with safe adaptations.

Pam Towne traces how she moved from seeing seated T'ai Chi Chih as a last resort to respecting it as a powerful practice, after teaching wheelchair users, hurting her back overdoing the pelvic tilt, and finding beginners connect with the t'an t'ien faster when seated.

Lisa Otero recalls sitting knee to knee with Justin Stone in chairs and finally understanding that it is all in the wrists, then gives practical guidance on chairs, feet and adapting Working the Pulley.

Jessica Lewis credits a painful summer of toe trouble with converting her to seated T'ai Chi Chih, and lists why she now starts every student in the chair, including her VA-referred veterans.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst gives practical instruction for seated practice in a straight-back chair, working the weight shift through the sits bones in Rocking Motion and Around the Platter.

Bruce Childs returned to teaching chair-assisted TCC at the Barnstable Adult Community Center after the pandemic, and lists the resources in his toolbox, from Sandy McAlister's DVD to his own Little Guy illustrations.

Ten of Donna McElhose's students answer her homework questions, describing tingling hands, pulsing heat in Daughter in the Valley, energy circling a group, coping with cerebral palsy, and seated practice after a sprained ankle.

Hannah Hedrick, managing nearly four decades of chronic back pain and recovering from a third hip surgery, found that seated TCC sharpened her feel for grounding, alignment and the tan t'ien.

Jeneth Rundle describes teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih over Zoom while her student Angela recovered from knee replacement surgery, and teaching from a chair herself during her own knee trouble.

Lisa Stroyan recounts how tiny hand movements in a reclined gravity chair restored her Chi in 2015, then details practical seated adjustments: sit-bone weight shifts, arm extension, grounding and "squirm."

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.

Kathy Starrick teaches seated TCC to every class, standing or not, after two major surgeries and a fractured leg left her practising mentally, then seated, with less pain and better sleep.

Monica Motyka credits her teacher Donna McElhose, who led mixed standing and seated group practices, with the confidence to now teach seated T'ai Chi Chih in every location she teaches.

Donna McElhose asked her current students to write welcome letters to future beginners, and they describe bad knees and a seated class, being the only male in the room, and the daily practice that finally made the movements make sense.