There has been a tremendous amount of literature published about the health benefits of Taiji and in recent years there have been numerous scientific studies undertaken to try to validate the claims made by various Taiji proponents.

My personal take on all these studies is that while I believe most of them to be genuine in intent and formula, the bottom line is, they deal in generalization.

There is no way that anyone can say that if you do Taiji, this will happen to you. There are just to many variables.

Having said that, what I can rely on is my own personal observations gleaned over many years of practice with hundreds of students and my first hand experience has shown me some remarkable healing benefits.

From a physical perspective I have seen a woman limp into class using a cane and fifteen weeks later, there’s no cane in sight and she’s performing the 10 forms.

Some other benefits I have personally witnessed are significantly enhanced mobility, decrease in lower back pain, alleviated arthritis pain in the hands and I have seen stress related skin problems completely disappear.

From and emotional perspective, a woman joined class with severe anxiety and had been in the hospital three times due to heart palpitations. She took me aside and related to me what she thought was making her so unbalanced. I listened to her story and then pointed out a few simple truths to her, one of which is that all stressed is self-imposed. Even though that conversation didn’t go over too well, within a few weeks of working with her she began to see the light and started to shun the external stimulation and concentrate on the internal. Happily after a short fifteen weeks she had totally transformed emotionally, intellectually and in some ways physically. The false demons she had nourished were discarded and her whole being was shinning from head to toe! Even her relationship with her husband had changed for the better!

From a spiritual perspective I have seen an enormous amount of personal growth over the years that students have directly attributed to having started a genuine Taiji practice.

So if you are looking for scientific data to base an opinion on I would suggest visiting Pub Med and looking around but I’ll continue to base my opinion on my own experiences.

Peace
Rod