Are there any similarities between yoga and Tai Chi

Of course, many practitioners who have worked on two projects at the same time have had a moment when they suddenly felt "how are these two connected?"

I took morning Ashtanga classes in a yoga studio two years ago. When I adjusted my breathing while standing in mountain pose, I deliberately lowered my breath into my abdominal cavity. I stretched my spine upwards section by section starting from the tail vertebra, relaxed my shoulders, and touched the ground with my ten toes on the soles of my feet. In an instant, I suddenly remembered the state of standing on the Hunyuan Zhuang with Master - I couldn't hold my breath or pant, the messy work and trivial matters in my mind disappeared inexplicably, my whole body's center of gravity was as stable as if it was rooted in the ground, and even the numbness on my skin was exactly the same.

In fact, not only somatosensory, the core logic of the two also has many coincidences. Yoga talks about "controlling the senses", which means to retract the attention that has drifted outward and focus on the feeling of the body and the rhythm of breathing. Don't compete with your body. When it hurts, retreat a little, and then go deeper when it is stable; I used to have a student with an old knee injury. When she started practicing Downward Dog, she always put weight on her knees and it hurt. Later, I taught her to use the logic of "loosen the hips and round the crotch" in Tai Chi to shift the center of gravity to the roots of the hips and the back of the legs. Within two times, the pain in her knees stopped, and even the sense of extension in Downward Dog was stronger than before.

But there are also many people who feel that the two are not similar at all, and even the cores are far different. The old Chen style Tai Chi masters I know always say that Tai Chi was born out of Taoist culture and talks about the transformation of yin and yang. When practiced deeply, it has martial arts attributes. The force generated by punching is rooted in the feet, generated in the legs, dominated by the waist, and shaped in the fingers. It is completely consistent with the stretching and meditation pursued by yoga. There are two approaches; some senior yoga teachers also say that yoga originated from the ancient Indian practice system, and ultimately aims at improving self-awareness through the practice of postures, breathing, and meditation. It is different from Tai Chi in terms of cultural roots and ultimate goals, and is far from similar.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with both statements. There is no need to argue about "whether they are exactly the same." For ordinary practitioners, the parts that can help themselves are useful. My current daily practice is to stand on the Hunyuan Zhuang for 20 minutes to build up some "straightening" energy, and then do yoga for 15 minutes to open the shoulders and hips. The core stability gained by standing in the posture will not cause the waist to collapse at all when using the yoga backbend.

If we really want to make an analogy, these two trees are like two trees growing in China and ancient India. They grow different branches and leaves, and bear different fruits. But at the root, they teach people how to feel their bodies and how to get along with themselves. Whether it looks like it or not, you can try it for two months each and your own experience will be the most accurate.