Creativity is often framed as something you either have or don’t. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is frequently associated with quiet stillness, restraint, and discipline. At first glance, these two worlds can seem at odds: one wild and expressive, the other calm and contained.
In this conversation on Integrating Mindfulness and Wild Creativity for a Braver Artistic Life, two hosts draw on the work of Anne Cushman, a teacher, writer, and mentor known for weaving together Buddhism and yoga and for teaching at Spirit Rock and Kripalu. They follow her roller-skating dream, the retreats at Spirit Rock that mix silent sitting with painting, writing, and movement, and six principles that contemplative practice and creative practice share.
This episode is for anyone who has felt blocked, intimidated by creativity, or unsure how mindfulness fits into an expressive life. You don’t need to identify as an artist. You only need curiosity.
Sponsored by the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification MindfulnessExercises.com/Certification
Episode Overview:
Key Topics Covered:
- The roller skating dream as a symbol of inner conflict between sage and trickster
- How Spirit Rock integrated silence with painting, writing, and movement
- Creativity as reclamation rather than talent
- Process-focused training over outcome-based art
- Mindfulness and focus, resilience, and divergent thinking, as the hosts describe them
- Six shared principles: space, body, emotions, sacred time, golden thread, letting go
- Simple practices for tiny sacred windows and playful creativity
- Approaching difficult material with protection and gentle bravery
- Presence as the common ground between art and awakening
Show Notes:
From Silence to Color: A Story of Integration
The hosts describe a tension in Anne Cushman’s life between her contemplative practice and a playful, artistic side that wanted color, words, and movement. They say that to move forward she had to stop trying to pick one and integrate them.
A recurring roller-skating dream became an image of this tension. In the dream she glides around an ice rink in a black velvet bikini and white fur-trimmed rollerblades, until she imagines running into Jack Kornfield One side is the sage, the serious meditation teacher. The other is the trickster, the playful, irreverent artist.
At Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the hosts say, the integration took shape in the Spirit of Creativity retreat, held within the structure of a silent meditation retreat with a schedule adjusted for painting, writing, and improvisational movement workshops. Upstairs rooms were for seated meditation, and the downstairs painting studio filled with color.
Creativity Is Reclamation, Not Talent
One reframe offered in this conversation is that creativity is a practice of reclamation, not a display of natural talent.
The hosts say Cushman was told bluntly early on that she had no talent and couldn’t sing, and that those words knocked the voice out of her. To reclaim it, she sought out classes that focused on the process rather than the result: painting with Michele Cassou, drumming, Five Rhythms dance, and writing workshops with Natalie Goldberg. The goal, they say, was always liberating something inside, not performance or publication.
How Mindfulness Supports Creative Flow
The hosts say research backs up the connection. In their account, practicing presence without judging yourself calms the prefrontal cortex, which they call the inner critic, and helps switch on divergent thinking, the ability to generate many different ideas. They add that mindfulness improves focus and builds resilience for the setbacks, rejection, and failed drafts of a creative life.
According to the hosts, mindfulness practice supports:
- Divergent thinking (the ability to generate multiple ideas)
- Focus and sustained attention
- Resilience when meeting setbacks and self-doubt
Presence, they conclude, is the common thread that unites art and awakening.
The Six Principles of Mindful Creativity
The hosts walk through six principles from Anne Cushman’s work that contemplative practice and creative practice share.
1. Space
Creativity needs room to breathe, and a packed schedule tends to suffocate it. The hosts mention a self-guided phrase to counter time anxiety, “there’s plenty of time, there’s plenty of space,” and practical steps such as leaving 15 minutes unscheduled after lunch or deciding not to fill every gap.
2. The Body
Creativity is built from sensation: what we hear, taste, see, smell, and feel are the raw materials of art. The hosts suggest quickly jotting down sense data, such as one thing you see, one thing you smell, and one thing you hear, as a doorway into deeper observation.
3. Emotions
Rather than obstacles, the hosts describe emotions as fuel, “compost” for awakening and creativity. They cite writer Joyce Carol Oates’s advice to students who complained about drama in their personal lives: put it in your writing. Art, they say, gives that energy a container.
4. Sacred Time
The hosts borrow two yoga concepts: abhyasa, the effort of showing up consistently, and vairagya, non-attachment, or letting go of the outcome once you are there. They suggest calling the time “playtime” instead of practice or work to take off some pressure, and they point to Anne Lamott’s advice to send one email a day to a friend about what you want to write.
5. The Golden Thread
The poet William Stafford, the hosts say, described every fleeting thought or image as the end of a golden thread. The job of the writer, or any creator, is to follow it humbly rather than force a plan onto the work, which takes deep listening.
6. Letting Go
The hosts call this the toughest principle for people raised on performance and grades. The inner military commander who demands perfection has to be kindly asked to step aside. They cite William Stafford’s advice for writer’s block, “I lower my standards,” and Anne Lamott’s idea of imperfect first drafts as the compost for later versions.
Tiny Sacred Windows and Playful Practice
One of the most practical takeaways from this conversation is the idea of tiny sacred windows.
You don’t need hours of uninterrupted time or a perfectly curated studio. The hosts give three examples: 15 minutes left unscheduled after lunch, one email a day to a friend about what you want to write, and the short poems the busy doctor William Carlos Williams wrote on a prescription pad between patients.
Playfulness is part of it too, which is why the hosts suggest the “playtime” framing above.
Approaching Scary Material with Gentle Bravery
Creative work often leads us toward material we would rather avoid. The hosts use a poem called “Fearing Paris”: if you are afraid of Paris, you might avoid all of France, and miss the richness the place holds.
They call Cushman’s approach gentle bravery, and give two examples of it:
- Journaling privately on an airplane, using a white-on-white screen setting so nobody can peek
- Putting sticky notes on pages of her novel, before giving it to her parents, that said, “Parents, skip this part”
It is about giving yourself permission, and also protection when you need it.
Presence: The Bridge Between Art and Awakening
Whether we are meditating or making art, the invitation is the same: to be here.
The hosts close with a line from the poet Jane Hirshfield, that Zen and poetry are tools for discovering what can be known when the world is looked at with open eyes. Mindfulness, they say, is the intentional practice of opening your eyes, and that feeds the creative process.
Next Steps: Practicing with Guidance
If this conversation has sparked something in you, Anne Cushman teaches online. She offers half-day and day-long events that combine meditation, writing, and movement. The hosts also encourage seeking out teachers and workshops that emphasize process over product.
You don’t need to become an artist to benefit. You only need a willingness to show up and explore.
Additional Resources:
- Free Training with Sean Fargo: How to Teach Mindfulness With Confidence & Credibility
- Certification: Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification
- Blog: How to Record a Meditation: The Ultimate Guide Based on Sean Fargo’s Expertise
- Blog: 60+ Self Care Quotes: Inspiration for a Balanced Life
