Couples Meditation

In the first flush of romance, it's easy to get lost just gazing in your lover's eyes. But with time, a things can get a little ho-hum. But there's hope for the long-paired lovers...and it comes in the form of meditation.

"Many forms of meditation are popular now because baby boomers are highly stressed and are actively creating a refuge," says Saki Santorelli, Ed.D., director of the Center for Mindfulness Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. The clinic has been teaching mindfulness meditation for more than 20 years.

While some people get hooked on meditating together via secular experience, others are pursuing meditation as part of a religious practice. Celebrity gurus like Deepak Chopra extol the virtues of meditation on television shows and Web sites and in books and magazines.

That's how Sam Kozah and Sarah Sloane of Los Angeles, learned mindful meditation...from reading books on the subject. "We spend 20 minutes in the evening meditating side-by-side," Kozah says, "and it's a quiet way to feel deeply safe and relaxed together."

Other couples meditate together to help heal the planet. Angela and Kurt Magness of Santa Barbara, Calif. built a simple altar in their house that they meditate in front of at least once a day for world peace.

Members of Soka Gakkai International, an organization of lay practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism, the couple says that meditating together helps increase their capacity for love, hope and courage. "Meditating together is a deeper way to cultivate and share love and compassion," Angela explains.