Meditation is a personal practice, but it doesn’t mean you can’t share it with the others. Sometimes you may prefer to stay alone, and it’s fine, and sometimes your friends or family can complement and deepen your practice. Furthermore, you all can benefit from mutual mindfulness experience.
The physical presence of people at this moment helps you connect with the others and feel supportive towards each other, thus, enriching your meditation experience. You can also share feedback, discuss how you felt through that meditation, listen to the others. Those who are new to meditation can find the answers addressing difficulties with the process. Besides, mutual meditation has a great bonding effect and can develop a habit, though, when you are practicing alone, you may find many excuses not to meditate.
So, how to invite your friends or family (or both) into meditations?
Tell your story: how you got into meditation, any challenges you’ve experienced in the beginning, if there were any. Talk about your progress and how you feel now, what benefits you experienced. Be a living example.
Reply to all the questions asked by your friends or family. If they’ve never tried meditating before, they may have doubts - help dispel them. Starting something new is not easy.
Don’t commit people to “long-term, but effective” meditations. Let them give it a try and see how it goes.