The Vital Force Archive

April Leffler, who has taught at Widener University since 2008, reports what her PE Director said would persuade a college to hire a TCC teacher, plus class formats and credit arrangements elsewhere.

Becky Watkins arrived at her family's beach vacation burned out, angry and sorrowful, and found that eight days of swimming, news-fasting and practicing in the sand left her healed and light-hearted.

JoEtta Heck, a registered dietitian worn down by stress and constant left shoulder and neck pain, found Marie Dotts' recreation center class and went on to accreditation.

Rebecca Paulson recounts the meals, late-night talks and community-style presentations of her teacher accreditation course, and answers the question of why she wanted to teach with "How could I not?"

Julie Heryet previews her conference presentation on teaching at Folsom State Prison, describing the noise and stress inmates face and giving practical steps for approaching a correctional facility about a moving meditation class.

Kathy Starrick recounts her talk at a holistic nursing conference on building resilience, covering stress management, the Lavretsky depression and Irwin sleep studies, and grounding through the soles of the feet.

Roseann Heinrich wonders what it would be like to be a rock in the moment, then recounts a whirlwind year of travel, deck repairs and shrinking retirement accounts steadied by daily TCC, yoga and Zumba.

Art Loche returns to T'ai Chi Chih as a moving meditation, describing how the circularity of Pulling in the Energy, attention in the t'an t'ien and imagined ocean motion inspired his published sketch.

Tracy Immordino strings together quotations from Justin Stone and the Buddha on habit patterns to argue that circulating and balancing chi changes thought, metabolism and mood, leaving practitioners calmer and less reactive.

David Fryd came to T'ai Chi Chih at the Shoreview YMCA for his balance, stumbled through his first classes under Judy George, and kept returning until she began telling new students to follow him.

April Leffler collects weekly journals from her college students and quotes their entries, from a freshman slowing her walk across campus to a resident assistant who practised alone for two hours.

Gail Horlick recounts first feeling the energy at a women's mountain retreat and a year of weekly classes with Sheryl Adair that left her calmer and more emotionally balanced.

Maja Sofie Kristiansen recounts failing at candle meditation, mindfulness CDs and yoga before an ad in Seal Beach led her to Suzanne Roady-Ross's class, where her mind finally quieted.

Hope Spangler's 15-week for-credit college course moves outdoors to a campus sculpture garden waterfall, where honeybees and a metallic green hummingbird come to drink as the class practices.

Dr. Pauline Quimson taught T'ai Chi Chih to government groups, NGOs and farming communities in the Philippines, including seventy girls healing from sexual exploitation who reported peace, deep sleep and the beginning of forgiveness.

Roseann Heinrich, who could never sit still to meditate, describes how the slow weight shift across the soles of her feet let her stop taking medication to relax and become a daily practitioner since 1999.

Seven students in Tracy Gibbons's U.K. classes describe what T'ai Chi Chih has given them, from clearer memory, weight loss and better sleep to the calm they never found in other T'ai Chi and Qigong forms.

Tiffany Anne Mangalindan, juggling two jobs, summer courses, an internship and wedding planning, recounts how a summer TCC class eased her anger, sharpened her focus and reduced her asthma inhaler use.

Dr. Pauline Bacani Quimson traces her recurring loss of voice to overwork, including typhoon relief in Leyte, and describes how a week of cancellations returned her to daily TCC and Seijaku practice.

B. Clouser was taken to a first class by her friend Tracy on her birthday in January 2012, doubted her coordination, and has since gone on to Seijaku and a Tuesday evening group.

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.

Sheryl Adair, after sharing T'ai Chi Chih with nearly 50 women at a retreat, takes up the Yiddish word pekele from Rabbi Pamela Jay Gottfried's book and applies it to setting down our bundle of troubles during practice.

Mary Lou Kilgore spilled a tube of wood stain on her living room carpet and, hearing her teacher April's words about staying in the here and now, cleaned it up calmly with dish soap and cold water.

Dorene Krause's poem traces a life spun too fast until her body demanded she slow down and breathe, letting her hear the quiet inner song she had written herself.

Henry Smith was referred to a hospital T'ai Chi Chih class for work-related anxiety after two emergency room visits, and now pairs weekly floatation tank sessions with near-daily Seijaku; Pyramid Poems follow.

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.

Larry Bloom, awake after a thunderstorm with his thoughts racing, describes redirecting attention to his breathing until "no thought" emerged, and credits three years of T'ai Chi Chih for the inner stillness he now calls home.

Laurie Jacobi notices how fourteen years of practice have changed her: calm about a business trip lodging crisis, hurt rather than amused by a friend's put-down humor, trusting an inner voice about her body.

Students in Sue Bitney's Minneapolis classes describe why they came and stayed, from rheumatoid arthritis and post-stroke practice to using Rocking Motion, physically or mentally, to steady themselves under stress.

April Leffler collects metaphors written by her Spring 2012 Widener University students, who compare T'ai Chi Chih to a heartbeat, storm clouds releasing rain, invisible air carrying chi, and an ocean wave lifting stress away.