Stop and take 4 or 5 breaths. What's going on right now, as you breathe? Look to see what's going on. Is part of your energy still irritated with your co-worker? Are you hungry? Do you feel calm? Are you tired? Is part of your energy worried about someone? What is your mood?

Don't try to change this, just notice it. If it's something you'd rather not feel, accept that it has a right to be there, and see it with kindliness, even affection. We can handle almost anything for 4-5 breaths. Be willing to stay with it for this short time. Then finish up and go back to whatever you were doing.

This meditation can be done anywhere, anytime. Make a habit of doing it: perhaps just before each meal, or after you've gone to the lavatory, or when you first get up in the morning or last thing at night before sleep. Try it just after stepping outside or when you're just sitting down on the streetcar or subway. Keep up the habit for 3 weeks and you'll find it comes automatically. The results may surprise you.

There are no right or wrong ways to do a meditation. The instructions are guidelines; adapt them to who you are and to your needs at that particular time. Be curious about the process itself.

Remember most meditations become richer the more you practice them. They reveal more of themselves. It can take practice to remember to do a meditation when you need to, and it can take practice to go through the steps. But that's why it is called practice, and for most of us, we practice for the rest of our lives.