The Vital Force Archive

Lisa Stroyan recounts Marie Dotts leading September and October teacher practices on the t'an t'ien leading the weight shift, level pelvis, locked psoas muscles, and her "Kate Winslet on the Titanic" exercise for beginners.

Lisa Stroyan describes offering suggestions rather than corrections in ongoing classes, from a nervous newcomer discovering effortless rise in Light at the Top of the Head to catching her own unrolled right wrist in Bass Drum.

Mary Wichmann describes leading twelve widows of fallen servicemen in one hour of T'ai Chi Chih on a deck at Holbrook Farms Retreat, with minimal instruction and no goal beyond peace and joy.

Thirteen accredited teachers, among them Michelle Sarubbi, Pam Towne, Barbara Kristoff and Shirley Cross, name what teaching T'ai Chi Chih has given them: grounding, community, patience, creativity and companionship through grief.

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.

Carol Love recalls the phrases her teacher Marie Dotts repeats in class, including "You can't do bad T'ai Chi Chih" and the advice to move just the arms or just the feet.

Terry Jennings passes along Elizabeth Tyler's teaching image of the pelvic area as a fruit bowl that spills if you rock too far forward or back, plus her own Rocking Motion one-liners.

Adam Lacey describes a year of bringing T'ai Chi Chih into Banbury primary schools, with five-minute videos for teachers and shorter films for families, and asks North American teachers for guidance.

Darlene Benton, newly accredited after years of teaching qigong and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, filled her first classes with massage therapy clients aged 18 to 80 who kept returning and brought friends.

Greg Berg recounts his first eight-class beginner course, crediting written class plans, co-teaching with Jim Eagle, Justin Stone readings and closing stillness, while admitting 14 students was too many.

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.

Catherine, accredited in November 2024, took the training to deepen her own practice, then found herself teaching when three friends asked for classes in her home.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey on why a teacher who does not practice is "somewhat of a fraud," teaching beginners to flow slow motion in a dream, and self-clinging as the root of suffering.

Sandy McAlister recounts how her breath settles naturally as she sinks into stillness, citing Justin's insistence that no breathing technique be coupled with T'ai Chi Chih, and a class experiment that found regulated breathing distracting.

Lisa Otero counts the hundred-plus students who have come through her five classes in 15 years, including a new athletic student she misread completely, followed by Annie Braudy's discovery of soft hands.

Dina Ajlenberg found that Israeli students, unlike Canadians raised on parades and big bands, had no image of a bass drum, so she teaches the arm movement as a train's wheels.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia recounts three classroom moments from 2001: a reluctant husband who called his practice "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," a quip to Justin about "umm" versus "OM," and her own trip up the stairs.

Tara Stiles, accredited by Justin Stone at Green Gulch Zen Center in 1978, recounts a beach seal watching her practice, her 'chi drawing' crayon exercise, and letting a joyful student flow uncorrected.

Newly accredited, John Marquez compares himself to an artichoke shedding layers, and finds that demonstrating movements while talking, correcting, pacing and counting is harder than he expected.

Diana Daffner mistook Bass Drum for a drum beaten on top, substituted the image of caressing a tree trunk, and later told beginners the story when teaching the movement.

Rebecca Paulson turned a snow day into imagery of snowballs for every circular movement and ball of energy, then pretended Working the Pulley launched them at a seniors class; Linda Braga adds how ten Chinese-speaking beginners learned by watching alone.

Amy Tyksinski describes the "Flowing River Moments" she offers her high school class, then prints students' own written reflections on self-love, the effort of no effort, polarity and balance.

Dora Wiemann, accredited in 1989, recounts losing her fear of public speaking and teaching wrong, Justin calling out "You're doing arm exercises, dear," and his bookshelf question about awareness.

Sue Bitney said yes to teaching outdoors at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in September 2020, and when fifty students asked to learn every movement, she began walking them through all nineteen in a single thirty-minute session.

Daniel Pienciak explains why he teaches Bass Drum before Around the Platter and Pulling in the Energy, breaking each into hand circle, weight shift, then both, with eyes forward for balance.

Margery Erickson recalls hiding behind a tree at her first outdoor class, hosting her accreditation in her home weaving studio, and Justin shaking his head at her Daughter in the Valley.

Carolyn Pogwist describes her post-accreditation difficulty putting T'ai Chi Chih into words, and how one-on-one work with a breast cancer survivor in radiation treatment taught her to teach beginners.

Debby McLister recounts teaching Bass Drum in her first beginner class, where a fist-and-release hand exercise worked until week two, so she brought 12-inch balloons to keep hands cupped and apart.

Kay Rydeen describes "set induction," the teaching trick of opening a class with a prop or placard, from a French professor's bulging pockets to dimes taped on a cardboard foot outline.

Drawing on three decades as a Special Education teacher, Linda Braga argues that partner practice, where classmates observe each other and trade feedback, should be a standard part of every TCC class.