Are mindfulness meditation and Tai Chi the same thing

Factual Questions
1

I have tried to practice mindfulness meditation but it is very hard to keep my mind focused while doing it. Tai Chi however is alot easier to do since I have to focus on balance so I find I can do Tai Chi much easier than mindfulness and my mind doesn’t wander while doing it. Since the purpose of mindfulness is to just focus on your body and Tai Chi accomplishes the same thing is it safe to say that mindfulness meditaiton (with its deep, rhythmic breathing and focus on the body) is the same as Tai Chi which also has deep, rhythmic breathing and focus on the body?

I ask because mindfulness is shown to improve mood by increasing traffic in the left prefrontal cortex (which is associated with good moods) and I am not sure if I’d still get that benefit with Tai Chi.

2

The effects are essentially the same and I suspect that yoga (or Qi Gong, et. al.) would also do the trick as it were.

If the physicality of Tai Chi works better than silent meditation, go for it. Worrying about whether or not it’s working kind of defeats the purpose.