As we start to tell our stories, there’s an emotional content that starts to move. There’s an aliveness. There can be a myth about meditation that the goal is to make these things go away. But it’s really about coming into a relationship with our emotional life that’s wise and skillful, where we can allow what’s there to move through and know it for what it is. Then, as artists, we can allow it to infuse our story.
Anne Cushman
Residential Retreat Teacher
As a teacher and writer, Anne Cushman explores the intersection between meditative practice, creative expression, and the down-to-earth details of embodied human life. A practitioner of both dharma and yoga since 1982, she is a Spirit Rock residential retreat teacher; core faculty for Spirit Rock’s Dharma Yoga Mindfulness Training; director of mentoring for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program; and a founding teacher of Cloud Sangha, an online mindfulness community. She is the author of the memoir The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Path of Motherhood; the novel Enlightenment for Idiots; the India pilgrimage guide From Here to Nirvana; and Moving Into Meditation, a mindfulness manifesto for yoga practitioners. Her essays on spiritual practice in daily life have been widely published in venues that include the New York Times; Yoga Journal; O, The Oprah Magazine; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; Lion’s Roar; and many other publications. She mentors writers and practitioners of embodied mindfulness worldwide, teaches retreats in person and online, and leads courses that combine creative writing, meditation, and yoga.
Anne Cushman's Upcoming Programs
Class Series | On-Land | Dharma Institute | Hybrid
February 7 - March 7, 2025 | 2 full days and 3 half days. Times variable - see details. | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Write to Wake Up: Creative Writing and Meditation
Unleash your stories, stir your imagination, and reclaim your voice through immersive weekly sessions of creative writing and meditation. Together we’ll practice writing in a way that helps us wake up. We’ll settle our minds and open our hearts through meditation in movement and stillness, so we can write and share our stories with each other from a deeper place. Through weekly sessions and between-session journaling prompts, you’ll establish or deepen a practice of writing as a transformational path.
Anne Cushman
Class Series | Online | Dharma Institute | Hybrid
February 7 - March 7, 2025 | 2 full days and 3 half days. Times variable - see details. | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Write to Wake Up: Creative Writing and Meditation
Unleash your stories, stir your imagination, and reclaim your voice through immersive weekly sessions of creative writing and meditation. Together we’ll practice writing in a way that helps us wake up. We’ll settle our minds and open our hearts through meditation in movement and stillness, so we can write and share our stories with each other from a deeper place. Through weekly sessions and between-session journaling prompts, you’ll establish or deepen a practice of writing as a transformational path.
Anne Cushman
Retreat | On-Land
July 4 - July 8, 2025 | Friday - Tuesday | 4 nights
Moving into Meditation: Mindful Yoga and Embodied Dharma
Registration Opens - February 19. Nourish your body, mind, and heart and reconnect with what matters most to you. Through gentle, mindful yoga—suitable for all levels of physical ability—you’ll calm and balance your nervous system, unwinding the physical and emotional knots that can block your connection to open-hearted presence. You’ll also practice meditation seated, standing, walking, and lying down, learning skills that can help you stay grounded, centered, and open-hearted as you take your practice off the mat and cushion and back into the world.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Anne Cushman through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.