TAKE 2 MINUTES: You can do this anywhere, at your desk, on the bus, waiting for a train.
Sit down and take a few deep breaths, focusing on how your body feels. Notice your body pressing against the chair, your feet on the floor, your hands resting in your lap.
Then do a mental body scan: starting at the top of your head, mentally scan your body, noticing which parts feel relaxed and which areas feel tense. Don't try to change anything - just build up a picture.
TAKE 30 SECONDS: Next, think of the people around you who are affected by your anger and grumpiness; the times when you feel most stressed are mainly whehn you are focusing on your own problems.
'If you sit down to do your meditation thinking, 'I feel stressed and I want to feel less sstressed', that's understandable, but as long as your mind is focused selfishly on you, it tends to stay closed,' says meditation and mindfulness teacher Andy Puddicombe.
'Thinking of impact on friends, family or partner can make it easier to release tension.'
TAKE 2 MINUTES: For step three of your five minute meditation session, focus on how breathing creates a rise and fall sensation in your body. Don't try to force your body into a state of relaxation, just notice how it feels.
Count one with the rising sensation and two with the falling sensation. Count to 10 then repeat.
TAKE 30 SECONDS: For the last 30 seconds, allow your mind to be completely free. Don't focus on breathing or body sensations, just let your mind do whatever it wants to do.
'It's like having a wild untrained horse, sticking it in a big open space and just letting it run,' says Andy. 'Most people find that when they give their mind freedom, it tends to quieten naturally.'
Once you've completed this final step of your five-minute stress-busting meditation, you should find you have a renewed sense of perspective, and intense emotions will have been taken down a notch.
Want to know more? See Get Some Headspace by Andy Puddicombe (Hodder & Stoughton, RRP £12.99) or visit the getsomeheadspace website.
