Practicing Presence
On tending your inner flame
It is sunny this morning, the sky is a wintery pale blue. Outside, the temperature is frigid. Inside, my toes are cold, but my coffee is still warm. I am practicing being present to the moment right here right now. Presence is one of my guiding words for this year.
The sun glints off the icicles hanging near the top of my window. And the violent, corrupt chaos continues. There is beauty right outside my window. There is destruction all too close.
I choose to focus on the beauty. I am safe in this moment right here right now. Practicing being present calms me.
What are you choosing to focus your attention on?
A radiant mandala in watercolor and ink — Mary Coffey
It’s so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of impossible horrors, which arrive one after another. It seems impossible to avert your eyes. But how does your body react to that? In mine, anxiety shows up as nausea and a clenched throat. My body eventually screams enough!
Eons ago, our ancestors lived in tribes and had only enough bandwidth to be concerned for about 150 people - the number of people in one large tribe. That’s about all we can manage even now. We were not built to carry the world’s burdens. Over-consuming the news leads to all kinds of bad things: feeling worn out, overwhelmed, unmotivated, hopeless, and depleted. We have not evolved to manage all the information that is delivered to us all day long.
Do you remember when you would have to go to a particular place in your home (or the library) to find the internet? Access used to be restricted in time and space - you could only sign on at the giant computer taking up half of your desk in the corner of your living space. Now, it follows you around like a dark menacing shadow, whispering empty promises of the return of greatness and shouting dire warnings all day and night.
Everything you read, hear, speak, eat, or drink influences you for better or for worse. Be aware of what you allow into your head, into your body, into your environment. That is one of the few things you do have control over!
What do you want to let in? How do you want to spend your energy today?
If you are growing overwhelmed with too much bad news, give yourself permission to recover the balance in your life. Spend ten minutes reading the headlines and calling your government representatives. Then, put your phone down and get back to your lives, everyone. We have work to do!
What is our work? What is ours to do?
This is a question I sit with almost daily. One of the activities that I put high on my list of priorities is creativity.
“We have to create. It is the only thing louder than destruction.” -- Andrea Gibson
“Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy.” -- Billboard somewhere in California
Creativity is good for you. It can help regulate your body. A 2025 study showed that just looking at art in an art gallery immediately brought an array of positive health benefits. Maybe call a friend and plan a museum visit?
“In essence, art doesn’t just move us emotionally — it calms the body too.”
Whether you are looking at art, creating your own, or playing or listening to music, the arts have a way of bringing you into the present moment, the only moment you have. Living in this present moment brings your mind back into unity with your body, and helps you feel fully alive.
In this moment right here right now, the cycle of nature continues to turn, even while our country is being dismantled, one ridiculous executive order or unhinged tweet at a time. Very slowly, the natural world is awakening to the creative energy of spring. OK, that sure feels like a long way off up here in the northern part of the country.
But we are just days away from Brigid’s Feast Day on February 1st. Brigid the Goddess who now wears the mantle of St. Brigid, is a light bearer in the Celtic spiritual tradition. Her element is fire, specifically, she is identified with an inner fire that burns with the love of Christ consciousness. I wrote about her in my recent post here.
At the last Creative Resistance session, I shared the story of what happened when Brigid returned from her duties as the midwife at the birth of Jesus. Burning with the love of Christ, she was filled with Christ Consciousness, focused on the Christ within her. On her return, she told the Druids about her experience, sharing that she was on fire with the love of Christ. They dismissed her as a young lass with a wild imagination. To prove her point, Brigid reached into her chest and pulled out her flaming heart for all to see! That sight did convince them, and even now, she continues to travel the world sharing her light, and encouraging us to tend our inner light and let it shine in the darkness.
Tend your inner flame.
What does that look like for you? What practices are helping you keep your light burning in these dark times?
Come away from the outside voices hollering for your attention.
Come into stillness and breathe deeply for a few minutes.
Light a candle.
Consider how your inner flame can bring light to those in your orbit.
Ask Brigid to show you what is yours to do.
Express yourself in colors, lines, shapes, words, or a combination of all.
These were some of the suggestions shared during our last Creative Resistance session. What would you add?
After our sharing, we created radiant mandalas.
“Art is the highest form of hope” — Gerhard Richter
You can do this too! Work with “radiating” colors to remind you to radiate your inner flame towards those in your midst. For many of us, this looked like using gradient colors on the warm side of the color wheel - yellows to oranges to reds - the colors of flames.
Next, draw mandalas using lines and small shapes radiating outward from a central medallion. I love to draw mandalas as a mindfulness activity. It requires you to be present and to stay focused on only one thing: choosing where to draw the next stroke on the paper.
Focusing on the present moment, the one right in front of you, helps calm your thoughts and your body. When you are focused on choosing the next stroke to draw, you are not pestered by the past, nor distracted by thoughts of future worst case scenarios.
Join us for our next session of Creative Resistance on February 14th where we will write a love letter to ourselves!
I leave you with this timely prayer to Brigid:
Brigid, you were a woman of peace,
You brought harmony where there was conflict.
You brought light to the darkness.
You brought hope to the downcast.
May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious,
And may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.
Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary.
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit.
Sending much love and bright blessings!
Mary