The Vital Force Archive

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.

Anita Vestal, the only accredited teacher in Costa Rica, answers questions on teaching rural villagers in Spanish, loosening their tightened muscles, and leading her construction workers in fifteen morning minutes.

Stephen Ryter describes the 6:45 a.m. T'ai Chi Chih class he teaches to Blue Cross of Idaho employees, from a November sunrise over the foothills to the closing Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Mark Moloney recounts a caseworker at a children's psychiatric inpatient facility who stayed centered through a shouted, threatening family conference, crediting the 40-minute T'ai Chi Chih class held that morning in the same room.

Sheila Leonard collected testimonials from her Newfoundland students, including relief from torn rotator cuff pain, night knee pain and migraines, plus a lunchtime employee wellness session and an NTV news segment featuring Sharon Snow learning TCC.

Larry Bloom, drawing on a career as a corporate executive, argues that TCC softness is itself a business "soft skill", quoting Justin Stone on bamboo, water wearing rock, and changing habit patterns.

Larry Bloom, a former public company executive and student of one year, argues that TCC can counter corporate toxicity, listing benefits like clearer thinking and better communication while honoring Justin's warning against commercializing the practice.

Three writers on harmony: Renza Baker regains mind-body connection after cancer when her rigid knees finally soften, Becky Watkins opens classes with a struck brass bowl, and Nancy Werner-Azarski's colleagues notice she is less angry at work.

Dale Buchanan drives rush-hour traffic from Herndon into Washington, DC, staying centered on his T'an T'ien, and recounts how an artist's email found through his website led to four weekly classes in a downtown gallery and a first class at AOL.

Roseann Heinrich, doubting whether to keep teaching after two small company classes, asked the Universe for guidance and days later received an engraved plaque from three of her first students.

Aida Wilks outlines plans for the first Day of Joy Thru Movement on November 20, 2000, suggesting campus, mall, bookstore and workplace demonstrations, posters and flyers to honor Justin Stone.

Christeen McLain offers to share curriculum guidelines and procedures with anyone wanting to teach TCC for college credit, drawing on her classes at Minnesota State University Moorhead since 1996.

Richard Detert and two university colleagues tested 35 education professionals who learned T'ai Chi Chih at a weekend workshop, measuring stress manifestations and well-being after four weeks of journaled practice.

Carmen Brocklehurst describes presenting T'ai Chi Chih to 150 state employees at the New Mexico Governor's Conference and then to her granddaughter's junior high honors literature class, where students felt the chi immediately.

Margery Erickson signed up 70 support staff at her intermediate unit before administrators shut the class down, so she folded T'ai Chi Chih into the health curriculum for her life skills students instead.

Mark Moloney describes how an open, drop-in health club class in St. Louis led to workplace sessions for county health nurses, a school grant proposal, and a living-room lesson for a woman with breast cancer and her family.

Jan Marshall-Thoreen describes teaching at a university health center and a bank's noon hour, and a year of remission since committing to twice-daily practice; Sr. Antonia Cooper likens mu shin to Centering Prayer.

Carmen Brocklehurst surveys T'ai Chi Chih's reach in 1998: teachers in 42 states and abroad, HMO prescriptions, corporate classes, nursing CEUs, Folsom Prison teacher training and the PBS series.

Mary Stebbins, a museum educator, found that doing T'ai Chi Chih over her lunch hour changed how a restless boa constrictor behaved during her live animal demonstrations.

Teacher updates spanning Theda Gillespie's newspaper feature and regional TV interview in New Zealand, Marlene Brown's coaching visits in Lausanne, Kaiser Permanente and corporate classes in California, a Minnesota prison inmate's letter, and Dale Buchanan's new Virginia studio.

Mark Maloney describes how weekly TCC practice in the room where his agency teaches men to be non-violent partners and parents coincided with healed staff in-fighting, new classes and financial stability.

Brief notes on seven 1996 conference workshops, from Steve Ridley on refining moves and Corinn Coyde's paired Pulling Taffy practice to Carmen Brocklehurst on corporate insurance liability and Lia Ridley's top-rated dance session.

Barbara Joy writes from Battery Park City about leaving her job teaching at-risk high school students to build her own practice, teaching T'ai Chi Chih to Wall Street lawyers, financial whizzes and New York City school teachers.

Timothy Stuetz outlines which state nursing boards must approve continuing education providers, the plan to let teachers in other states work under one approved provider, and Transformations' bid to serve attorneys and accountants.

Carmen Brocklehurst counts more than 78 T'ai Chi Chih teachers in Albuquerque, where the practice began at the University of New Mexico and now reaches hospitals, corporations, senior centers, churches and trade fairs.

Ellen Tatge, given only five minutes before hospital employee wellness delegates in Albuquerque, dropped the talk and simply did two movements, watching the room relax and later fielding numerous calls.

Susan Webster reports on the nineteen graduates of Steve's August 1993 accreditation course, new classes for San Diego city employees, Mercy Hospital and an AIDS program, and her bid to add TCC at Grossmont College.

Linda Sanchez describes the noon-time class she teaches for staff at UC Santa Barbara, where students report less stress after a few weeks, and notes her own tense areas softening.

Gordon Wade reports from Edson, Alberta on restarting his seniors classes and trying half-hour noon-hour sessions for working people, plus praise for The Vital Force's teaching tips on yinning and yanging.

Marlene Brown, newly accredited in Cincinnati, describes teaching at the Procter & Gamble and GE fitness centers and the 14-year-old student whose mother noticed the sparkle return to her eyes.