Are yoga and Tai Chi similar?

Of course, yoga and Tai Chi have a lot in common. Many practitioners who are deeply involved in the two fields even think that they have the same goal in reaching advanced levels. However, because they were born in completely different cultural soils, the core logic and entry path are also very different.

I have been practicing Hatha Yoga for 6 years. In the past two years, I followed Master Chen, the successor of Chen-style Tai Chi, in the park downstairs of my house. I practiced yoga for three years. The first time I felt the similarities between the two was when I was doing hip-opening exercises until I was covered in sweat. Master Chen casually said, "Relax, not relax." "Tight but not stiff" suddenly coincided with my yoga teacher's repeated emphasis on "activate the muscles without compensating, and stretch until there is a stretch but no pain" - Oh, the things passed down by the two ancestors have already made it clear on the matter of "not competing with the body". The similarities in breathing are even more obvious. Yoga poses require Ujayi to breathe and move at exactly the same frequency, exhaling when bending and extending. Tai Chi pays more attention to "using Qi to control the shape, and using Qi to reach the strength". You must not hold your breath while performing the movements forcefully. I was too late to catch up with morning classes, so I did 12 sets of fast-paced sun salutations in a row. After my breathing became disordered, I became more and more dizzy as I practiced. It was exactly the same as when I first learned Tai Chi, when I was rushing to catch up with the movements, my breathing failed to keep up, and I was out of breath after completing a set of 24 poses.

Of course, there are many practitioners who feel that the two are not the same thing at all. Old-school Tai Chi practitioners always feel that many yogas on the market today are too "external". They pose for photos with difficult waist and leg injuries. The essence is fitness or even performance, but Tai Chi is "internal". Even if you stand still for half an hour in a round pile, the circulation of Qi and blood and the adjustment of the mind have already gone through several rounds.； On the other hand, there are also many young yoga practitioners who think Tai Chi is too slow. After sitting all day at work, their shoulders and necks are as stiff as stone slabs. They can immediately relax after practicing flow yoga for 20 minutes. Their legs are numb after standing for ten minutes, and they cannot find any sense of relaxation. There is actually nothing wrong with both of these statements. They are all about the intuitive feelings given by the two sports in the introductory stage.

Last year, I participated in an exchange event on physical and mental healing. I met an Indian teacher who had been practicing Ashtanga for more than 40 years. He was able to smoothly master a set of 24 simplified Tai Chi. He said that the "Yoga Sutra" of yoga stated that the ultimate purpose of practice is to "connect with the true self and calm the mind." He learned that the core of Tai Chi's "forgetting the two things and myself, and the unity of nature and man" is actually the same thing. It is to draw your attention away from unfinished work, unanswered messages, and unfulfilled goals, and focus on your own breathing and body feelings. When I am too anxious to fall asleep, I either do ten minutes of baby pose to adjust my breathing, or I stand in a round position for five minutes. Often my breathing becomes smoother and my mind settles. From this perspective, there is really no difference between the two.

To put it bluntly, it's like the bean curd in the north and the south, one is sweet and the other is salty, and the ingredients and seasonings look very different. They are essentially made of soybeans, and they are both warm and irony when you drink them. Which one you choose depends on what your body prefers.