Theda Gillespie: Vital Force in Action

Teacher Profile

Interviewed by Carrie Kinsey, VFJ Staff

“Live in the now, be in rhythm with nature and the cosmic energy.” This is some advice that Theda Gillespie gave in a recent telephone interview. As she describes her remarkable schedule it is easy to be impressed with Theda. She seems filled with the boundless energy that comes from sincere practice and a positive attitude. More remarkable is that fact that Theda keeps up her schedule at age 81.

In the newspaper article she sent to VFJ, Theda describes herself as “youthing” rather than “aging” and she attributes this to the lifestyle that she has kept up for the past 23 years. At age 58, Theda began her journey into the world of alternative therapies and decided to retire from her position as an agricultural economics researcher at Iowa State University. She started her journey with a yoga class and along the way has learned T’ai Chi Chih, Seijaku, reflexology, massage and more. She continues to learn, and has recently been doing vision strengthening exercises which have enabled her to set aside her glasses.

In her life journey Theda has been an activities director at a small, private health spa near Guadalajara, Mexico and has traveled extensively to learn and to teach. Theda was accredited as a T’ai Chi Chih instructor in May 1983 and has been teaching classes in New Zealand for the past 8 years. Her many classes include instruction on breathing, eating, thinking, feeling and, of course, moving with T’ai Chi Chih. Theda seems to ask her students to be mindful of every aspect of their lives. The flyer for her “Wellness Workshop for Willing Workers” tells us that Theda’s classes are “always popular as her enthusiasm and natural rapport are infectious and inspiring.”

Theda’s enthusiasm is infectious enough that two of her students came from New Zealand to take T’ai Chi Chih teacher’s training. Her classes are well attended. Some students drive as many as 20 to 30 miles from towns around the Hawke Bay area on the New Zealand’s North Island. While it is important to her to always stress the positive, Theda has one frustration in her teaching, and that is the difficulty she has in converting videos so that they can be shown in New Zealand. The cost of the conversion is prohibitive so she has converted just one tape that she keeps in the library for her students.

She says that at first the women there seemed to be more interested in T’ai Chi Chih than the men, but as time goes on she is getting more and more men as students. Theda has her work cut out for her as there are only four accredited T’ai Chi Chih teachers in New Zealand.

She believes in bringing the Vital Force into our bodies through the way we live, the foods we eat, being in the sunshine and living in harmony with nature.

“Never give in to shuffling along,” she says, “Walk erect” and “What you think today is the kind of person you’ll be tomorrow or ten years from now.” But listening is not enough, she reminds us, “It takes practice.”