Life

Prince Harry Just Revealed His Wellness Routine & Meghan's Influence Is SO Clear

by Sophie McEvoy
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If there is one thing I can rely on in my life, it's my daily ten minutes of meditation. From relieving stress and anxiety to just connecting with my mind, the combination of meditation and mindfulness in my daily routine has totally benefited my wellbeing. And it looks like a certain member of the royal family has also picked up on this practice. According to reports from the Daily Mail's royal correspondent Rebecca English, Prince Harry revealed he meditates every day during his and Meghan Markle's royal visit to Birkenhead on Monday.

During their visit, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex officially opened a supermarket and café named Number 7. The supermarket is run by Feeding Birkenhead, a coalition of several organisations "working together to eliminate hunger" in the local community. While there, Harry and Meghan sat down with staff and customers to discuss the role Feeding Birkenhead has within the town, and the topic of meditation arose during a conversation between Harry and Buddhist monk Kelsang Sonam. In response, Sonam gave Harry 8 Steps to Happiness, a book that focuses on the Eight Verses of Training the Mind, one of Buddhism's well-known teachings.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Harry's practice of meditation may have been influenced by Meghan, who has been very outspoken about the benefits of being connected to your mind and harnessing silence. In a 2015 post from her blog The Tig (which is no longer in use), Markle detailed how she found Vedic meditation through coach Light Watkins, and how the Buddhist teaching had a lasting effect on her wellbeing.

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According to Markle, Vedic meditation is perfect for those with a hectic lifestyle. As she wrote, it's a practice "that people say changes their life and trajectory of their future — more success, more fulfilment, more happiness, less worry." And while she found the prospect of silently sitting alone with her thoughts "endlessly daunting at first," Vedic meditation "soon became the quietude that rocked [her] world."

The Duchess continued:

"I know you'll think of a million excuses as to why this is silly or why you don't have time for it; much like the day I told Light I didn't have enough hours in the day to do it, and he told me that's why I needed to meditate twice as much. Not gonna lie, I rolled my eyes thinking 'Oh give me a break, mystic man.' But low and behold, this mystical man was right."
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And it looks like she stuck to practicing Vedic meditation. During an interview with InStyle in May 2018, Watkins revealed that Markle checked in with him and told him that she meditates twice a day. "I think it ended up being a lot more profound than she originally thought," Watkins told the magazine. "It seems like she was in a relatively good space beforehand and in a better space afterward."

With their first child on the way, practicing meditation will totally calm the pre-parent nerves before the baby's arrival... I can't be the only one who's imagining the couple engaging in joint meditation sessions right now, can I? I mean, how cute is that thought?