January 7, 2026 • 14 mins
In this episode of the Infinitely Precious Podcast, James reflects on presence, fatigue, and the wisdom hidden in a wandering mind. Drawing from his own experience of a demanding season of ministry and a long-standing meditation practice, he explores how mind-wandering can mean two very different things: sometimes it’s simply distraction that invites us to gently return to the moment, and other times it’s a compassionate signal that we’ve reached our human limits and need rest, self-care, or a sacred step back. With honesty about finitude—especially for those in helping professions—James invites listeners to practice discernment rather than judgment, learning when to let thoughts pass and when to honor the body, heart, and soul’s need for healing space. Throughout, he encourages gentleness with oneself, resisting cultural pressures toward constant productivity and presence, and remembering that learning to be present is itself a practice—one that includes caring for ourselves as the infinitely precious gifts we already are.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:00):
Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by
(00:03):
infinitely precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James. And I have been thinking
about presence, thinking aboutwhat it means to have our minds
wonder. Over the last severalweeks, I have been very busy. It
is a new year and leading up tothis new year, of course, at the
(00:34):
tail end of the year,particularly for people from a
Christian tradition, there's alot of opportunities to worship,
to gather, to connect with otherpeople, multiple worship
experiences, which in myposition I get to lead,
(00:54):
including one for New Year's,two for Christmas Eve, and then
every Sunday of the month, aswell as some other things like
weekly moments and infinitelyprecious podcasts.
So in the midst of all of that,I found myself getting a little
(01:15):
worn down. Now, I used to jokeas a younger man about my gift
being that wherever I go, thereI am. And the truth of the
matter was for a long time Ithought I could always be
present. But the bottom line issometimes what I thought of as
(01:36):
being present was simply beingphysically in the same room. It
wasn't until about fifteen yearsago when I took up a meditation
practice and began to get usedto letting go of all of the
wandering thoughts that I founda way to actually be present
where I was.
(01:58):
But over the last several weeks,as I paid attention to my own
mind, my own sense of beingpresent and noticed when my mind
was wandering, I began torealize that even with a
practice like meditation thatallows us to let go of the
(02:18):
wandering thoughts and not toget caught up wandering away
with them, that sometimes thewandering mind is something more
than just the inability to bepresent. It's kind of an
opportunity to say to myself andby extension for you to say to
(02:40):
yourself that maybe my mind, mybody, myself deep within is
trying to tell me something.That maybe I need a little bit
more self care. Maybe this isnot a moment for me to say yes
to being with someone, but totake a moment to step back,
(03:05):
however many moments it takes tosimply be with myself. I think
it's a healthy thing for ourminds actually sometimes to let
our minds wonder.
There are moments after mymorning meditation when I've let
go and let go and then at theend of the meditation when the
bell goes and I stop, close myeyes back and I let my mind just
(03:29):
go wherever it will go. Justkind of let it be creative and
imaginative and wander around abit and just see where it leads.
Sometimes I do that with myjournal as a tool. Sometimes I
just do it with my eyes closedto kind of see where the mind
will take me. So perhaps whenour minds are wandering, it's an
(03:56):
invitation for us to be selfaware enough to discern what's
up with our wandering minds.
So often we assume, particularlythose of us in helping
professions, that it's our jobto be present all the time with
(04:17):
anybody who needs us to bepresent. And I will just tell
you right now that from my ownexperience, that thought that we
could ever be present all thetime every time someone needs us
is an invitation to fail. Andit's an invitation to burn out,
(04:40):
to not recognize somethingthat's important to us as human
beings. And that is we arefinite. There is a limit to how
much we can do and it's notbeing less than, it's not self
denigrating to recognize thatsometimes all of us, all of us
(05:03):
would be better served by takinga moment, a Sabbath moment, a
sacred moment, a holy moment tostep back from whatever's going
on.
It's really hard to do that,particularly when there are so
many things in our lives, somany people in our lives that
(05:23):
could really use our attention,that could and our own desire to
help, our own desire to reachout keeps pulling us towards
doing that. Healthy steppingback is not a bad thing. It's
actually a good thing. You'renot running away. You're taking
(05:47):
a moment to be present enoughwith yourself to find the
healing, wholeness, completenessthat the divine wants for you in
your life.
Being whole, being complete,being healed is important for
(06:09):
all of us. So, when you findyour mind wondering, and if
you're anything like me, thatwill happen periodically. Let
that be a moment to check-in.Let that be a moment to ponder
for yourself what it is thatthis moment may be calling for.
(06:39):
Is it calling for you to do alittle self care, to take care
of yourself, to be protective ofthe resources you have to give
as the limited human being youare?
Is it time that you need torecover emotionally,
relationally, sensorially, youknow, just being overwhelmed by
(07:04):
all the things that might begoing on, the mind may be
quietly saying to you, this istoo much right now. Step back.
Unapologetically recognize thatthere are moments when what you
need is that healing space foryourself. Now, on the other side
of that, there are moments whenyou're trying to be where you
(07:27):
are, when you need to be whereyou are, and where it's not at
all about being overwhelmed,it's about the mind's natural
propensity to wonder. The truthis we are generating thoughts
all the time or thoughts arerising in us all the time,
whether we generate them orwhere exactly consciousness rise
(07:49):
from, that's a conversation foranother day.
But those thoughts areconstantly rising. We don't have
to grab ahold of them. We caninstead let them go. Years ago,
after I had begun a meditationpractice in my own life, I began
(08:11):
to notice little ways that Ilike to occasionally you know
how when you love somebodysometimes you get a kick, maybe
you're not like me. But youmight, you know, have a little
fun poking at them a little bit,kidding them.
But sometimes just not the righttime to do it. And so, when you
(08:33):
see that rising inside of you,and I found this to be true, I
could see a remark or astatement coming up and
sometimes it wasn't just aboutyou know, kidding with someone.
Sometimes it was about mewanting to correct someone else
because of course I was right orwanting to argue with someone
(08:54):
else. And I could feel thatthought rising up in me and
because of the meditationpractice, because of recognizing
what's rising, I could just letthat pass on by, didn't have to
grab a hold of it or act on it.And so perhaps you're in an
important conversation, it's notthe need to have some self care
(09:18):
to step back to recognize thatyour yes can't be yes right now.
Maybe it's an opportunity foryou to say, my mind is just
trying to distract me right nowand just let it go as it passes
by. Now, as it becomes apractice, as it becomes a habit,
(09:39):
it will become, I don't want tosay easier, but it will become
more natural to let go of what'srising enough so that you can
really come back to the momentyou're in without losing it. So,
(10:01):
in any case, no matter how youlook at this, be gentle with
yourself. We want to be gentleand kind with the whole rest of
the world, but sometimes weforget that sometimes we need to
be gentle with ourselves. Listento what your mind, your heart,
(10:21):
your body, your core, your soulif you will, is trying to tell
you.
Don't run roughshod over it. Iparticularly live in a society,
I know that people listen tothis from all around the world,
but I live in a society whereI'm supposed to where part of
the cultural milieu is to tellme to ignore my own needs on
(10:46):
behalf of others. That I alwaysneed to be present, that I
always need to respond, that Ialways need to be producing.
That's a false message. It mightbe a cultural one, but it's a
false message.
There are times when you need tostep back, to recoup, and to be
(11:08):
gentle with yourself. So whatI'm inviting you to do is to be
gentle, to notice when your mindwonders, to look for the signs
that the reason your mind iswondering is because you're
overwhelmed, overloaded, and youneed to take a step back. And to
also notice when that's not theissue at all, when the issue is
(11:28):
your mind is just jumping fromthing to thing, distracting you
from the moment you're in. Andgently, gently let it go. Don't
judge yourself for it.
The mind wanders, my thoughtsrise. Let it go and come back to
the conversation so you cantruly be present. We'd all like
(11:53):
to be wherever we go. Sometimesthat's possible, Sometimes it's
not. That kind of presencereally does take a kind of
practice, meditative practice,reflective practice, the
practice of letting go.
So, be kind to yourself and toothers. And remember that even
(12:22):
if your mind wonders, even ifyou're not able to be fully
present for someone, even ifyou're still trying to figure
out that what's going on insideof you and where you're meant to
be, it's not a failure, it's anopportunity. An opportunity to
invite gentleness, kindness, tostep back or to engage whichever
(12:47):
seems to be right for you. Andlife in many ways is trial and
error. You try it, you find out,oops, I was wrong about how far
I could extend myself.
Or I was right, I needed to stepback and give yourself space to
learn to grow and to engage. Inthe end you are truly infinitely
(13:12):
precious and unconditionallyloved for the gift you already
are. Learning to be present isone of the ways of giving the
gift of who you are, but notjust giving it away to others,
but to giving it to yourself.You are a gift and part of you
(13:34):
being a gift is recognizing itin yourself and being present to
experience that gift that youare. Thanks so much for joining
me today.
If this has been helpful to you,I want you to share it with
others, encourage you to shareit with others. If you have
thoughts, please feel free torespond. Send me an email at
(13:54):
infinitelypreciousllcgmail dotcom. Be delighted to hear from
you and to respond if I could.But wishing you all the best for
the infinitely preciousunconditionally loved gift that
you already are and thanks forjoining me.
Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by
(00:03):
infinitely precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James. And I have been thinking
about presence, thinking aboutwhat it means to have our minds
wonder. Over the last severalweeks, I have been very busy. It
is a new year and leading up tothis new year, of course, at the
(00:34):
tail end of the year,particularly for people from a
Christian tradition, there's alot of opportunities to worship,
to gather, to connect with otherpeople, multiple worship
experiences, which in myposition I get to lead,
(00:54):
including one for New Year's,two for Christmas Eve, and then
every Sunday of the month, aswell as some other things like
weekly moments and infinitelyprecious podcasts.
So in the midst of all of that,I found myself getting a little
(01:15):
worn down. Now, I used to jokeas a younger man about my gift
being that wherever I go, thereI am. And the truth of the
matter was for a long time Ithought I could always be
present. But the bottom line issometimes what I thought of as
(01:36):
being present was simply beingphysically in the same room. It
wasn't until about fifteen yearsago when I took up a meditation
practice and began to get usedto letting go of all of the
wandering thoughts that I founda way to actually be present
where I was.
(01:58):
But over the last several weeks,as I paid attention to my own
mind, my own sense of beingpresent and noticed when my mind
was wandering, I began torealize that even with a
practice like meditation thatallows us to let go of the
(02:18):
wandering thoughts and not toget caught up wandering away
with them, that sometimes thewandering mind is something more
than just the inability to bepresent. It's kind of an
opportunity to say to myself andby extension for you to say to
(02:40):
yourself that maybe my mind, mybody, myself deep within is
trying to tell me something.That maybe I need a little bit
more self care. Maybe this isnot a moment for me to say yes
to being with someone, but totake a moment to step back,
(03:05):
however many moments it takes tosimply be with myself. I think
it's a healthy thing for ourminds actually sometimes to let
our minds wonder.
There are moments after mymorning meditation when I've let
go and let go and then at theend of the meditation when the
bell goes and I stop, close myeyes back and I let my mind just
(03:29):
go wherever it will go. Justkind of let it be creative and
imaginative and wander around abit and just see where it leads.
Sometimes I do that with myjournal as a tool. Sometimes I
just do it with my eyes closedto kind of see where the mind
will take me. So perhaps whenour minds are wandering, it's an
(03:56):
invitation for us to be selfaware enough to discern what's
up with our wandering minds.
So often we assume, particularlythose of us in helping
professions, that it's our jobto be present all the time with
(04:17):
anybody who needs us to bepresent. And I will just tell
you right now that from my ownexperience, that thought that we
could ever be present all thetime every time someone needs us
is an invitation to fail. Andit's an invitation to burn out,
(04:40):
to not recognize somethingthat's important to us as human
beings. And that is we arefinite. There is a limit to how
much we can do and it's notbeing less than, it's not self
denigrating to recognize thatsometimes all of us, all of us
(05:03):
would be better served by takinga moment, a Sabbath moment, a
sacred moment, a holy moment tostep back from whatever's going
on.
It's really hard to do that,particularly when there are so
many things in our lives, somany people in our lives that
(05:23):
could really use our attention,that could and our own desire to
help, our own desire to reachout keeps pulling us towards
doing that. Healthy steppingback is not a bad thing. It's
actually a good thing. You'renot running away. You're taking
(05:47):
a moment to be present enoughwith yourself to find the
healing, wholeness, completenessthat the divine wants for you in
your life.
Being whole, being complete,being healed is important for
(06:09):
all of us. So, when you findyour mind wondering, and if
you're anything like me, thatwill happen periodically. Let
that be a moment to check-in.Let that be a moment to ponder
for yourself what it is thatthis moment may be calling for.
(06:39):
Is it calling for you to do alittle self care, to take care
of yourself, to be protective ofthe resources you have to give
as the limited human being youare?
Is it time that you need torecover emotionally,
relationally, sensorially, youknow, just being overwhelmed by
(07:04):
all the things that might begoing on, the mind may be
quietly saying to you, this istoo much right now. Step back.
Unapologetically recognize thatthere are moments when what you
need is that healing space foryourself. Now, on the other side
of that, there are moments whenyou're trying to be where you
(07:27):
are, when you need to be whereyou are, and where it's not at
all about being overwhelmed,it's about the mind's natural
propensity to wonder. The truthis we are generating thoughts
all the time or thoughts arerising in us all the time,
whether we generate them orwhere exactly consciousness rise
(07:49):
from, that's a conversation foranother day.
But those thoughts areconstantly rising. We don't have
to grab ahold of them. We caninstead let them go. Years ago,
after I had begun a meditationpractice in my own life, I began
(08:11):
to notice little ways that Ilike to occasionally you know
how when you love somebodysometimes you get a kick, maybe
you're not like me. But youmight, you know, have a little
fun poking at them a little bit,kidding them.
But sometimes just not the righttime to do it. And so, when you
(08:33):
see that rising inside of you,and I found this to be true, I
could see a remark or astatement coming up and
sometimes it wasn't just aboutyou know, kidding with someone.
Sometimes it was about mewanting to correct someone else
because of course I was right orwanting to argue with someone
(08:54):
else. And I could feel thatthought rising up in me and
because of the meditationpractice, because of recognizing
what's rising, I could just letthat pass on by, didn't have to
grab a hold of it or act on it.And so perhaps you're in an
important conversation, it's notthe need to have some self care
(09:18):
to step back to recognize thatyour yes can't be yes right now.
Maybe it's an opportunity foryou to say, my mind is just
trying to distract me right nowand just let it go as it passes
by. Now, as it becomes apractice, as it becomes a habit,
(09:39):
it will become, I don't want tosay easier, but it will become
more natural to let go of what'srising enough so that you can
really come back to the momentyou're in without losing it. So,
(10:01):
in any case, no matter how youlook at this, be gentle with
yourself. We want to be gentleand kind with the whole rest of
the world, but sometimes weforget that sometimes we need to
be gentle with ourselves. Listento what your mind, your heart,
(10:21):
your body, your core, your soulif you will, is trying to tell
you.
Don't run roughshod over it. Iparticularly live in a society,
I know that people listen tothis from all around the world,
but I live in a society whereI'm supposed to where part of
the cultural milieu is to tellme to ignore my own needs on
(10:46):
behalf of others. That I alwaysneed to be present, that I
always need to respond, that Ialways need to be producing.
That's a false message. It mightbe a cultural one, but it's a
false message.
There are times when you need tostep back, to recoup, and to be
(11:08):
gentle with yourself. So whatI'm inviting you to do is to be
gentle, to notice when your mindwonders, to look for the signs
that the reason your mind iswondering is because you're
overwhelmed, overloaded, and youneed to take a step back. And to
also notice when that's not theissue at all, when the issue is
(11:28):
your mind is just jumping fromthing to thing, distracting you
from the moment you're in. Andgently, gently let it go. Don't
judge yourself for it.
The mind wanders, my thoughtsrise. Let it go and come back to
the conversation so you cantruly be present. We'd all like
(11:53):
to be wherever we go. Sometimesthat's possible, Sometimes it's
not. That kind of presencereally does take a kind of
practice, meditative practice,reflective practice, the
practice of letting go.
So, be kind to yourself and toothers. And remember that even
(12:22):
if your mind wonders, even ifyou're not able to be fully
present for someone, even ifyou're still trying to figure
out that what's going on insideof you and where you're meant to
be, it's not a failure, it's anopportunity. An opportunity to
invite gentleness, kindness, tostep back or to engage whichever
(12:47):
seems to be right for you. Andlife in many ways is trial and
error. You try it, you find out,oops, I was wrong about how far
I could extend myself.
Or I was right, I needed to stepback and give yourself space to
learn to grow and to engage. Inthe end you are truly infinitely
(13:12):
precious and unconditionallyloved for the gift you already
are. Learning to be present isone of the ways of giving the
gift of who you are, but notjust giving it away to others,
but to giving it to yourself.You are a gift and part of you
(13:34):
being a gift is recognizing itin yourself and being present to
experience that gift that youare. Thanks so much for joining
me today.
If this has been helpful to you,I want you to share it with
others, encourage you to shareit with others. If you have
thoughts, please feel free torespond. Send me an email at
(13:54):
infinitelypreciousllcgmail dotcom. Be delighted to hear from
you and to respond if I could.But wishing you all the best for
the infinitely preciousunconditionally loved gift that
you already are and thanks forjoining me.
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