If zoning out is the issue, bring yourself back to the moment by focusing on physical sensations, like the feeling in your toes or your breath flowing in and out of your body. If impatience is the issue, handle it by delving into the minute physical sensations you’re feeling. Then get back to the person. Once you have the right mindset, how do you ensure the right behaviors? Effective listening means behaving in a way that makes whomever you’re speaking with feel truly understood. Good listeners know never, ever to interrupt—not even if the impulse to do so comes from excitement about something the other person just said. No matter how congratulatory and warm your input, it will always result in their feeling at least a twinge of resentment or frustration at not having been allowed to complete their sentence. One of my clients told me: “This one practice alone is worth its weight gold. To stop interrupting others could be the single most important skill I’ve learned from working with you.” Great listeners know to let others interrupt them. When someone interrupts you, let them! Were they right to interrupt you? Of course not. But even if they were wrong, it’s not worth making them feel wrong; your job instead is to make them feel right.