How I Meditate with My Man

By Lisa Lewtan

I had been meditating on and off for a few years when my husband finally agreed to try joining me for a session. Deepak Chopra and Oprah's latest 21-day Challenge was about to start and I casually implied that it might be fun to experience it together. Once I got past the shock of his acceptance, I was almost giddy with excitement. The student was ready, but could the teacher deliver?  I knew the best I could do was bring him to the water and then it was truly up to him to take the drink.  So we began. Three days after we started, I was out of town for a girls' weekend, and was floored when he called me to make sure I wasn't falling behind in the challenge. The rest is history.

Since then we have literally made our meditation practice our own. Here are some tips to help you do it too:

Pick the Right Time

Right after school drop-off is the right time for us. Attaching this new habit to an existing habit made it much easier to incorporate into our daily lives. Although weekends and holidays continue to throw us off track, as with our breath, we just return to our practice again and again.

Find the Perfect Place

Weather permitting, we head outside and face the trees. Otherwise, it's off to our sunroom we go, where it is full of natural sunlight and quite peaceful. Having our designated locations pre-decided takes one more potentially derailing decision out of the way.

Compile a list of Enlightened Guides

We really enjoy guided meditations and our favorites are the Deepak/Oprah Series, Jack Kornfield, and those found on the many apps out there. I try to pick a topic that is pertinent to what is going on in our lives at the time or just something that seems thought provoking.

Savor the Pithy Recap

Following each session we take a few minutes to talk about our particular experiences. Often it is about how our minds wandered more than usual or how ironically we both do this crazy thing where we look up and backwards with our closed eyes. It reminds us that this is a journey and, though every day our experiences will feel different, this practice is highly beneficial to health, happiness, and relationship.

Add the Special Sauce

I saved this for last because it is a newer discovery that has connected us in a way above and beyond anything I imagined. In the beginning of each guided meditation, we stare into each other's eyes for a few minutes. The first time we giggled, the second time I cried, and by the third time we were hooked. Trust me, the benefits go way beyond the meditation experience!