How to Meditate When You Feel Stuck (The James Bond Method)

If you feel stuck in a feeling, a thought, or a pattern that keeps returning, this is how to meditate with it. It is simpler than what you are probably doing, and it is also harder.

The practice

You sit down. Whatever comes up, a feeling, a thought, anything going on, you basically ignore it. You allow it. You can give it some attention, but you are not going to do anything with it.

That is it. It is a deep practice in non-reactiveness and non-resistance.

I do not offer this lightly. I have been stuck in my own process many times, with conditioning surfacing, feeling bad, feeling triggered, with a great deal coming up at once. That is what happens in an awakening process. All of it comes up to be processed, and while it does, it tricks you into reacting to it.

What the trick actually is

The trick is that it makes you believe you have it. I have shame. I am like this. I have this problem.

That is not true. You do not have shame. Shame is passing by. Shame is moving on. Shame is already in the process of letting go. It only stays when something turns around to meet it, either by resisting it or making a story out of it.

So the question to ask in every moment is short: flow, or resist? Am I accepting, or am I resisting?

Accepting is your nature. Non-reactiveness is your nature. That is the default, unless you do something with whatever arises.

The image that makes it click

Picture James Bond walking into a bar. There is a casino, there is gambling, there are crocodiles in a pit somewhere. He does not respond to any of it. He is non-reactive, but he is also not resisting. He is not fighting what is happening. He is laughing, being charming, having a good time. He is not making a big deal out of it, because he has the most absurd missions every day and this one is no different.

That is how you sit down to meditate. Bring it on. It is fine. I am not going to react to it.

And notice what Bond does not do. He does not look away from the villains and hide in the toilet. He sits there watching everything openly, and when the moment comes he interacts with it. He responds, without ever being energetically reactive. That distinction, responding versus reacting, is the whole (inner) practice.

Reactiveness in disguise

Most of the time reactiveness feels like (subtle) tension. It can disguise itself with thoughts:

I need to do something with what comes up. I need to work with it. I need to do shadow work. I need to inquire into it. I need to focus my attention on it. It’s an energetic tension

None of that is necessary. You are bigger than what is arising.

The two errors

There is a real distinction to make here, and it matters.

On one side there is spiritual bypassing: you have a genuine theme in your life, a behaviour, something that affects people around you, and you ignore it completely while telling yourself it is all just arising or consciousness anyway. That is not what I am describing. That would be ignoring actual suffering.

On the other side there are people who are over-healing. Always looking at everything they are doing, examining every pattern, never finished. That used to be my style. If you recognise yourself there, the way through is not more examination. It is learning not to be reactive to your own patterns, and learning to stop fighting with yourself.

What happens when you stop reacting

You will notice something quickly. The pattern comes up and says: hey, hey, look at me, look at me. It gets louder. It can feel like sitting with it is making it worse.

It is not getting worse. It is asking for your reactiveness, because your reactiveness is what feeds it. Energetically, resistance gives it something to bounce off. That is the investment that keeps it in place.

You can make that investment in two ways. With importance, telling yourself this is so significant, this matters so much. Or with rejection and disgust, telling yourself this should not be here. If you give it neither importance nor rejection, the only thing left for it to do is move on.

This is also how you protect your energy

People talk a lot about protecting their energy. The key is not defending it. The key is not responding, not reacting, and not believing that anyone can touch what you actually are. They cannot. Source cannot be touched.

If you feel a sensation and you think someone else is doing something to you, which does happen, the move is the same. Do not react to it or try to fix it. Do not do anything with it. Let it pass.

One more place this shows up

Watch the way you describe yourself. When you say I am like this, I am like that, and it is negative, you are resisting a part of yourself. It can be painful, and it also holds the thing exactly in place. Naming yourself is one of the most effective ways to keep a pattern alive.

So if you do not like something in yourself, do not resist it. Allow it, without giving it energy.

The practice, one more time

Sit down. Do nothing. Whatever shows up, let it be there without giving it any extra tension. Do not work with it. Do not own it. Do not say I am like this. Let it glide off.

Instead of resisting, try flowing with it. And let me know what happens.

If you want to ask a question about this directly, The Open Hour is a free monthly live session with a meditation, a short talk, and a Q&A 👉🏻 https://fromdoingtobeing.org/open-hour