The Vital Force Archive

Rev. Rick Davis traces an early bad habit of leaving weight in the yang leg and rushing to the next movement, and links completing the shift to living attentively in the present rather than in the past or in worry.

Diane "Di" Lund froze midway across a swaying wire cable on a forty-foot ropes course, and used her breathing, alignment and t'an t'ien to move again.

Sandy McAlister answers whether all 19 movements must be done in order, citing Justin Stone on Chi memory, and describes reordering her beginner classes so students finish on familiar ground.

Dan Pienciak lists six awareness points drawn from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey: natural breathing, releasing tension in the joints, feeling the t'an t'ien, continuous knee movement, waist and wrists moving as one, and even weight in the soles.

Diana Bahn's poem carries the sense of ground into a canoe trip, paddling across lake water, portaging over rock, and passing painted Indian glyphs before turning back city bound.

Jim Campbell's poem credits Sister Antonia with lifting the heaviness from his shoulders, her laser pointer scribing a message across the sky: flow your Chi, letting go from your core.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst asks teachers to teach the movements exactly as Justin Stone gave them, recalling a teacher who planned to omit difficult parts, and to demonstrate what they say.

Janet L. Starr, practicing since 2004, describes trust as the heart of her T'ai Chi Chih: trusting mentors' corrections, letting the hips carry the shoulders, and rebuilding confidence after health changes.

Daniel Pienciak defines softness as lack of tension and continuity as movement without abrupt starts, stops or slippery spots, naming the lunge-and-return habit in Daughter on the Mountaintop and offering the basin-of-water image for an even weight shift.

Richard Karasik recalls Justin Stone telling him "Softness AND continuity IS the essence of T'ai Chi Chih," and uses symphonies, rests and punctuated circles to unpack that unnamed whole.

Carol Selby describes teaching students with Parkinson's disease and poor balance to seek the brief secure moment when both feet are flat and the hands pass in front of the body.

Linda Braga's notes from the Northern California teachers' annual daylong workshop, where Sandy McAlister taught polarity, continuity and stillness through three movements each, followed by side-by-side partner practice.

Dan Pienciak returned to teaching after three family deaths, and used Gene Kelly's remarks about being grounded to the earth and dancing from the waist down to re-focus his classes on grounding, softness in the upper body, and surrender.

Amy Moody came away from Pam's accreditation course with steadier grounding, noticeably softer movement absorbed from a week beside the teacher-auditors, and unexpected bonding for a self-described private person.

Four men in Julie Heryet's Folsom Prison class describe what the practice gives them: internal cleansing, a filter for bad thoughts, relief from body pain, support for 24 years of sobriety, and silent recognition on the yard.

Carmen Brocklehurst describes how Caroline Guilott's invitation to touch one's own cheeks like a baby's face let teachers feel softness for the first time, plus the 2019 Minnesota conference theme Return to the Circle.

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.

Dr Jerry C. Jonnson offers two handouts he wrote to promote his classes: a plain description of T'ai Chi Chih with a list of researched benefits, and a basics card weighting shifting at 80 percent, posture 15 and hands 5.

Dora Wiemann unpacks flowing and emptiness at the 2018 conference, sharing the lists her teacher prep students made of their own markers for feeling ungrounded and grounded, then asks whether a plant sprouting from a rock at Folsom flows from emptiness.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst distinguishes softness from limpness, comparing it to the confident strength of lifting a baby, then guides Rocking Motion through heavy air and shares words her Albuquerque group felt while practicing.

David Parrish shifts attention from grounding below the waist to the hands, asking students to keep them alive and soft with open wrists so chi can flow and flutter visibly.

Bob Poland, a diabetic whose fingertips are calloused from daily blood sugar tests, describes feeling energy through his palms for the first time, plus relaxing his knees and fully unweighting the opposite foot.

Daniel Pienciak compares the forward and back weight shift to shifting a car through neutral, using Sandy McAlister's phrase "glide and arrive" to show that stillness on one foot does not break continuity.

Lisa Stroyan revisits a note to herself about trust and the present moment, describing how rushing the close or moving hands ahead of the weight shift creates tension, and citing Linda Braga's booklet on synchronicity.

Sandy McAlister links a Bay Area synchronicity workshop and two retreats she led, drawing on Linda Braga's Seven Qualities of Movement to show how moving as one unit produces harmony and beauty.

Pam Towne links softness to letting go of muscular tension and self-critical thoughts, and recommends Seijaku after a year of practice as the way to feel release after resistance.

Host April Leffler introduces comments from eight teachers accredited at the six-day Aston course in March 2018, including two from the UK, on softness, auditing feedback and nerves about facing students.

Laurin McDonald recounts flying from England through blizzards to Philadelphia for her March 2018 accreditation with Daniel, the refinements on weight shift and Rocking Motion, and new UK classes starting in April.

April Leffler introduces the theme of the 2018 Philadelphia teacher conference, Flowing From Emptiness, quoting the Lotus Sutra and relaying what teachers said about being emptied out by life.

Victor Viereck compares dry spaghetti, hard and brittle until boiling water softens it, to a body full of tension that becomes soft and flexible as Chi is added through practice.