The Vital Force Archive

Amy Tyksinski gathers six UNM college students' written responses to the Softness passage in Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey, from bamboo and oak temperaments to jaw clenching, political argument and caring for a crying baby.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, Justin describes the tingling fingers, healing heat and three confirmatory signs of Chi flow, quotes Lao Tzu, and outlines a maximum Chi program for athletes.

Richard Karasik takes up Justin Stone's puzzle of smoothness and continuity, arguing that whether you drop the hands between movements matters less than keeping the drop inside the practice rather than treating it as a coffee break.

Sue Kenney describes a student returning to George Manning's Tuesday class at Hope Cooperative's mental health program after two years away with long COVID, recalling the Taffy variations and finishing seated.

Linda Braga lists how nutritionists, neuroscientists, astrophysicists and others define human beings, then cites Justin Stone's claim that regular TCC practice can speed up evolution and heighten awareness.

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.

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.

A transcribed lecture in which Justin Stone traces the Yin and Yang Chi back to the Tao, compares T'ai Chi Chih with Zen meditation, Hatha Yoga and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and recounts early student results from 1974 onward.

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.

Gregory Berg notices how seldom the body moves sideways in daily life, from supermarket aisles to the Pecos River, then follows that thought into Carry the Ball to the Side, where the margin becomes the new center.

Steven Huskey teaches a weekly 45-minute seated class for brain injury survivors, emphasizing weight shift felt through the sit bones, upright torso, and compact hand movements in the side-to-side movements.

Christian Gunning, accredited in November 2024, traces 25 years of practice from Athens, Georgia through a midlife reckoning to the Colorado accreditation week with Sandy McAlister, where a long-carried sense of not deserving to be lifted.

Steven Huskey, accredited in November 2024, sets out what his accreditation week gave him in an acrostic spelling T'ai Chi Chih, from grounding and coaching students to establishing new classes and camaraderie.

Accredited in November 2024, Joan Sheehan describes the intention she set during accreditation week, the absorbed attention she now brings to mashing potatoes, and the clarity of practising at the Poudre River.

Laurin McDonald and Adam Lacey describe how a breakout session at Mindfulness Now's 20th anniversary conference in Birmingham drew twelve therapists, four of whom are now Zoom students heading toward accreditation.

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.

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.

Gail Terriff describes the self-care habits that keep her replenished, from journaling and singing aloud to her morning T'ai Chi Chih practice, and quotes Thich Nhat Hanh's book Anger on mindfulness as the energy of being present.

Marcella Levie recounts first seeing T'ai Chi Chih at sunset on Siesta Key Beach in 1991, then training over Zoom with Lesley Nell and being accredited in the UK in 2022 with Orly Mani, and the three Dutch groups they now teach.

Anita Vestal recounts ten years of offering free Spanish-language classes in rural Costa Rica, where clubs supplied transportation and space, and calls for Foundation grants and a new video of TCC worldwide.

Beverly J. Miles recounts an eight-day trip to Corozal, Belize, where visiting teachers held morning and bayside practices, opened The T'an Tien platform, and won Mayor Rigo Vellos's pledge to promote TCC.

Dorian Tippet recounts a boat trip up a snake-like Belizean river to the Maya ruins of Lamanai, past crocodile warnings, herons and Mennonite fishermen, arriving late to two carved stone temples.