The Vital Force Archive

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.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst lists six principles of T'ai Chi Chih practice, from energy following attention to attention to the bottoms of the feet, then retells the Zen story of Tesshu, the swordsman beaten with a stick until he grew aware.

Nancy Rolph-Johnson watches a tree outside her window glide, slide and arrive front to back and side to side, carrying spring birdsong, wind and rain, and wishes for its wisdom.

Sandy McAlister argues that nit-picky corrections and rigid insistence on one correct form are driving good teachers away from community events, and calls for tolerance, softness and self-discovery instead.

Nancy Rolph-Johnson likens Rocking Motion to a room full of rocking chairs, wooden arms sheltering the sitter, thoughts gliding away in a silent lullaby of moving meditation.

In a transcribed lecture, Justin Stone explains that muscular tension contracts the meridian channels and blocks chi, citing the soft tongue, water wearing rock and bending bamboo.

Amy Tyksinski cautions against turning the hands forward before the backward weight shift completes in Rocking Motion and Push Pull, locating continuity instead in the t'an t'ien's expansion and contraction.

Pat Finstad names five constants she reviews at the start of every class: the soft rounded hand shape, shoulders down, head up, vertical spine, and elbows always pointing down.

Donna Deffenbaugh recounts the olive green drawstring pants and velveteen shoes that once got her into the zone, and her teacher's blunt verdict on their too-big black replacements.

Daniel Pienciak breaks down how he teaches the hip swivel, starting with a full lateral weight shift and waist turn, then the pelvic tilt, the elliptical path, and why men and women may feel it differently.

Donna McElhose lays out the wall, flashlight, partner-touch and hip-rotation exercises she uses to prepare students for the T'ai Chi side step, then details foot angle and holding the t'an t'ien wind-up through the step.

Caroline Guillot's conference presentation on feeling the chi through Rocking Motion, Daughter in the Valley and Pulling Taffy, letting go before and after each movement and noticing polarity between the palms.

Dorene Krause traces a T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics quotation she copied down as a new student in 2001 to her 2017 conference breakout session on letting the t'an t'ien lift the body in vertical movements.

Sandy McAlister warns that a wandering mind lets the Chi rise, bringing headaches and giddiness, and describes keeping attention below the waist to stay grounded; pyramid poems on six movements follow.

Carol Spicer describes closing every class with a short seated meditation, crediting Dorene Krause and Phyllis Segal for the practice, and includes her poem "Within the Softness," written after the 2014 teacher conference.

Lisa Jacobs traces her path from a first class at the Gurnee Park District through years of unlearning ballet habits, and Ed Altman's insistence during accreditation that teaching stay purely Justin Stone's.

Donna Deffenbaugh offers a raven soaring on canyon thermals as a visualization for days when fatigue tempts us to push through the movements, quoting Justin Stone's "effort of no effort."

Caroline Guilott describes how Fast Track freed her Seijaku practice, releasing the mental emphasis on moving through resistance while keeping her rooted in the soles of her feet as she hopped.

Daniel Pienciak asks practitioners to feel how deeply the supporting knee bends and whether the back leg bends as much as the front, offering heel adjustment when the stance is too large.

Mary Wichmann finds golf pros teaching circular motion, a soft grip and effortless swing, then turns her New Year resolve into written apologies and thanks to her parents, great uncle and family.

Justin Stone, in a taped lecture, defines Chi through Lao-Tzu and Sri Aurobindo, describes the reciprocal character of mind and Chi, outlines a maximum Chi program for athletes, and names the seven emotions.

Lisa Stroyan noticed her fingers curling during practice and traced the habit to sympathetic nervous system activation, learning to let her hands open through presence rather than muscular effort.

Fran Alexander lists the subtle habits she caught in her own posture while auditing the Pennsylvania teacher training, and BJ Amin recounts tracking down a Canadian friend photographed with Justin Stone ten years earlier.

Lisa Stroyan, one month into teaching, watches a student discover she can feel her feet standing but not moving, and answers the question of how T'ai Chi Chih feels with images of sand, carousels and waterfalls.

April Leffler compiles reflections from five of the nine teachers accredited at the June 2016 Pennsylvania course with Pam Towne, including Janet Starr on befriending Carry the Ball to the Side.

Annette McNeil's rhyming poem recounts the Pennsylvania accreditation course: nineteen movements and a pose, the worry doll under her pillow, tears and stitches of laughter, and storing chi in the bones.

Daniel Pienciak passes along the techniques he uses most in accreditation courses and intensives: sliding down the wall to loosen the waist, starting beginners on Rocking Motion seated, and leading the weight shift from the knee.

Michael S. Isaacs lists twelve keys to moving the Vital Force as seven S's, three C's and two P's, each with a caution, followed by poems from Diana Daffner and Diana Bahn.

Dr. David Parrish traces his move from years of sitting meditation to TCC as moving meditation, settling and grounding in the rest pose, dropping attention to the soles of the feet, and teaching students to let go between movements.

Lisa Stroyan, a teacher candidate in Northern Colorado, describes her teacher Marie's advice to make her movements smaller and ground longer, and how each correction turned out to require softening rather than more doing.