The Vital Force Archive

Nancy Jo Bleier's journal of recovery from her second hip surgery, from seated practice and holding a bookcase to a Seijaku without support, plus Sitka's monthly TCC-by-the-Sea waterfront gatherings.

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.

Linda Braga's first class at an assisted living residence, where a walker ran over her foot, a leak from upstairs brought in a noisy HAZ-MAT crew, and ten seated beginners stayed anyway.

Rosalind Braga's article for Delta Kappa Gamma's international journal The Bulletin, recounting how a stress reduction flyer led her to TCC and to teaching seniors aged 60 to 90.

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.

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.

Meg Costello, a Catholic Sister teaching with a physical disability, recounts five years of invitations: a stress management class at Georgian Court College where a student in a wheelchair wrote approving comments, monks at a New Jersey monastery, and a public school special needs class.

Classroom mishaps collected from Cristina Minelli, Sher Dano, Sharon Sirkus and Lisa Thorburn, including an Italian student who thought Sandy's talk of knees meant a missing girl named Denise.

Sister Carol DeAngelo describes the seated, breath-and-hands practice she leads at St. Cabrini Nursing Home, where residents, day health registrants and nurse assistants find a noisy room gradually quieting.

Sandy McAlister describes her shy Mormon childhood, her ski-bum years, the gentle exercise and seated T'ai Chi Chih she teaches in convalescent homes and senior centers for two school districts, her Nepal and Africa trips, and her fifth year of Sierra Club hiking-and-practice weeks.

Carolyn Perkins recounts taping a six-minute T'ai Chi Chih segment at Martha Stewart's Westport studio, persuading Stewart that her 89-year-old mother, recovering from hip replacements, should practise seated.

Five reader anecdotes, including Carol Houtkooper's grandson mishearing "aftermath" as a math class, Sher Dano's 99-year-old student Gerry explaining the Viagra benefits of T'ai Chi to a curious newcomer, and a Seijaku training quip about sitting in a square.

Pat Flynn got through accreditation during a Lyme disease flare, then began teaching a small class of friends, neighbors and her parents, adapting Rocking Motion and seated practice for a stroke, a pregnancy, a ball walker and a fused spine.

Six classroom anecdotes from Nancy Jo Bleier, Debbie Cole and Sharon Sirkis, including a hospital student singing rock-a-bye-baby during Pulling in the Energy and a pose renamed the "Cosmic Kick-stand."

Reports from the first Day of "Joy Thru Movement" on Justin Stone's birthday: Bernice Piotrowski on demonstrations at the Edmonton Public Library, Dan Pienciak on twenty New Jersey teachers at Sister Antonia Cooper's Villa Maria, plus Bismarck and a 96-year-old seated practitioner in Maryland.

Five light moments from Sharon Sirkis and Ed Altman, including a senior's "big belly" horsepower, a hubcap that interrupted the Six Healing Sounds outdoors at UMBC, and fireworks after teacher training.

Sr. Patty Campbell describes the Friday half-hour of seated T'ai Chi Chih she leads for retired sisters in St. Clare Hall infirmary, plus Monday sessions broadcast on closed circuit TV.

Sharon Sirkis collects classroom moments, from seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter to a student doing Pulling Taffy at red lights, and Nancy Vermond's seated class flows to Frank Sinatra.

Marlene Brown hosted a one-day workshop at a tree-covered former monastery where Ed taught sixty-three people from seven states to move without tension, including one woman practising seated in a chair.

Joanna Woodrow's account of her teacher accreditation course, crediting Ed Altman's vivid corrections, Elissa Maguire's coaching, Roberta Taggart's seated T'ai Chi Chih demonstration, and the student presentations that tied her business past to her new path.

Doug Harned reports from the 14th annual teachers' conference at Concordia University, where 150 teachers practiced twice daily, heard Justin Stone speak on chi, learned Seated TCC, and honored TCC's 25th Anniversary.

Sharon Sirkis, teaching seated TCC at an adult day care center, mistook a silent member for cognitively impaired, then stayed through lunch as he wept about his fear of a psychiatric institution.

Barbara Sommers describes a year-long seated class at a Senior Day Care Center, where foot stamping built awareness of the soles, chairs in a circle curbed wandering, and the first ten movements were adapted left foot then right.

Sharon Sirkis, Roberta Taggart and Barbara Riley answer Carol Lesch's question on teaching Parkinson's patients, from Florence's belly laughs at an adult daycare center to Bill's improved balance after eighteen months.

Five readers write in, from Jackie Kingsbury spiral-binding her back issues to Mike Wavra asking what seated practice means for a man with MS: what do you do with the feet?

Christeen McLain-Horpedahl recounts teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih at Villa Maria Nursing Home in Fargo from 1985, her daughter Kathryn helping residents form circles, Gail Braaten's 12-week study, and two knee injuries healed without surgery.

Roberta Taggart lays out the five-part hour she developed for seated T'ai Chi Chih with frail elderly students at two senior day care centers, from an opening reading through warm-ups, the form, and closing waterfall visualization.

Virginia Cepeda describes two years of teaching a physically challenged class who practiced daily holding kitchen sinks and chairs, until 14 of 16 students stood and performed unaided in March 1997.

Pat Huseby gives five guidelines for teaching seated Seijaku at a Danville retirement community, from sitting to the chair's edge to placing thought in the t'an t'ien, plus advice for fibromyalgia flare-ups.

Teacher notes from Gord Wade in British Columbia, Anna Martens-Janssens in Antwerp, Sharon Davis in Sedona, Jackie Kingsbury in Zephyrhills and New Mexico teachers planning the 1998 conference, plus Lois Mahaney's 80th birthday.