The Vital Force Archive

Jessica Lewis pushes back on the claim that only specialists can teach Veterans, giving three reasons T'ai Chi Chih suits students with PTSD and advising class-wide suggestions rather than individual corrections.

Anita Vestal, Jessica Lewis, Adam Lacey and Greg Berg report on their Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale survey of over 400 practitioners, and an abstract submitted to the 2026 Osher Center conference.

Carol Love makes the case for taking practice outside, from Nature-derived movement names to choosing a spot where uneven ground sharpens balance and birdsong replaces traffic noise.

Fred Lorch credits his ongoing T'ai Chi Chih practice with better balance, flexibility and strength as he ages, plus blood pressure averaging 20 points lower and improved coronary health.

Lois Vermilya's prose poem gathers energy from the most distant star into fingertips and soles, naming a paradox of force and letting go that might fuel her activism of fierce hope.

Marie Dotts uses the pearl formed from an irritant to describe how her longstanding struggle with the forward and back weight shifts, and the gripping tension it caused, became her deepest gift to students.

Daniel Pienciak recounts studying Seijaku with Justin Stone in Albuquerque in 1997, the last course Justin taught, and argues that the Seijaku principle is the entree of a seven-course meal.

Amy Tyksinski followed an impulse to buy peonies at the grocery store, watched them open over days at a TCC retreat, and links the urge to Justin's "pointing arrow."

April Leffler recounts her travels to meet UK, Italian, Dutch and German teachers, the UK conference presentations that drew accreditation candidates, and the EU teachers' monthly Zoom practices open to Americans.

Adam Lacey and Laurin McDonald outline the UK effort to train new TCC teachers, from the first two candidates in 2008 through to four preparing for accreditation in 2025, with timelines and costs.

Stephen Thompson takes Loraine Lepine's pronunciation of "E-motion" at the October accreditation as a starting point for how moving first lets the mind rest, separating and reuniting yin and yang Chi.

Cristina Minelli adapts Italian meditation teacher Andrea Magrin's WhatsApp pairing system for TCC, where practitioners post a request like "10/10" and video call a partner, each leading half the movements.

Amy Tyksinski describes the New Teachers' Cohort pilot, six monthly Zoom sessions after the November 2024 Colorado Springs accreditation, in which 13 of 15 graduates became actively teaching.

Four written assignments collected by Donna McElhose: students describe emerging from bipolar isolation, easing fibromyalgia fatigue, practising anywhere after 2005 cancer surgery, and discussing Justin's Climb the Joyous Mountain chapter by chapter.

Sue Kenney notes that most TCC groups gather similar people, and challenges teachers to carry the practice into mental health clinics, public housing projects and drop-in centers, raising funds to pay teachers when students cannot.

Nancy Frost's four-hour drive to a Cape Cod church for Jessica Lewis's weekend retreat ends among nearly 30 practitioners, where teaching each movement seated first becomes a new awareness.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts how Justin Stone received T'ai Chi Chih without knowing its effects, from the woman whose narcolepsy eased to his own cure for writer's block.

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.

Nine new teachers were accredited by April Leffler in Leavenworth, Kansas, and candidates including Gilbert Pagat, Barbara Starke and Roksan Biktimir recount refinements, presentation nerves, PTSD healing and long delays.

Transcribed from a recorded lecture, Justin Stone answers audience questions on why concentration rests in the soles of the feet, why softness frees the meridian channels, and how karma builds habit energy.

Linda Braga read a podiatrist's brochure on plantar fasciitis and found its recommended lunge stretch and heel-walking exercises already present in the Six Healing Sounds, Anchor Taffy and Rocking Motion.

Tina Wells traces her path from a first class with Wendy Helms in California to teaching T'ai Chi Chih at Oxford's Restore charity and the Oxfordshire Recovery College, where students use grounding to interrupt panic attacks.

Chris McLain credits her daughter Carrie's recovery from an unexpected heart attack to more than 400 days of solo daily practice, and traces three generations of accredited teachers in her family.

An open invitation to a Zoom support group for teachers accredited from 2020 onward, and for teachers accredited any time who want to jumpstart their teaching again.

Silvia Coffey sets her own habit of self-criticism, learned in middle school, against a passage from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on how self-pity and gratitude cannot share a breath.

Dr. Ofelia Olivero describes how lowering the foot slowly and deliberately keeps the practitioner rooted, sharpens awareness of shifting weight, circulates chi evenly, and becomes an expression of presence.

Kate Polk credits her T'ai Chi Chih practice with two reductions in her blood pressure medication, calmer recurring visions of a traumatic experience, and comfort during radiation for a skin cancer on her scalp.

In a note to her teacher Parker Reynolds, Liz Emmer asks whether love and chi are linked, wondering if the walls hatred builds block chi the way open hearts let energy flow.

Marcella K. Levie asked her senior students why they return each week, and Madelon, Olga, Ariette and Sima describe calmer minds, better balance, repeating guitar and flute music, and effort without effort.