Aloha JeffreyC,
I think the masters went to the caves or sent the kids to the monastery.
Sometimes you can't choose your environment, but you can choose your mental environment. Enjoy the 30 minutes of training. The rest of the training comes during the rest of the day in learning to be in that loving, appreciative, and accepting place. I find that he more consistant I am with my Spring Forest practice and in doing good things for others, the less likely I am to get hooked by a situation or person.
It it handy to look at the ends of the response spectrum. Look at those people who would handle a situation like yours without any problem - you know, the way you are thinking you "should" be responding
Next look at people who handle situations like yours, or even easier one very, very, poorly. So now, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being abusively handling the situation , and 10 gliding through it in a loving, yet effective way), where are you at right now? Okay, why did you choose that number and not one lower?
Looking at it this way focuses on the tools that you already have. Now what would be one thing you could do to bump up just one point on the scale? Great, practice doing that. You could even support your skills and behaviors by using the New Behavior Generator Paraliminal.
Know too, that you can change your response and focus with one breath (or three as when you start your exercise/mediations).
Much Love, Shawn
