Let's connect!
Enjoy Mill Valley
  • HOME
  • EVENTS & GUIDES
    • 2020-21 EMV Guide
    • 2020 Mill Valley Wine, Beer & Gourmet Food Tasting
    • Winterfest >
      • About Winterfest
    • Calendar
    • Special Events
  • EAT
  • Stay
  • VISIT
    • Muir Woods
    • PLAY
    • Tour
    • Map
    • PRESS
  • SHOP
    • Enjoy Mill Valley Store
    • Shopping Areas
    • Apparel and Jewelry
    • Automotive
    • Banking & Financial Services
    • Biz, Consumer & Professional Services
    • Beauty & Grooming
    • Fitness & Sports
    • Food & Wine
    • Home & Garden
    • Kids & Pets
    • Health & Wellness
    • Nonprofit Organizations
    • Real Estate
    • Specialty Shops
  • A&E
  • EMV Films
  • BLOG
  • Mill Valley Chamber
  • City of Mill Valley
  • CONTACT US
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise on Enjoy Mill Valley
  • ShopMV

For Hunter Cressman, a Personal Quest Leads to The Modern Mind, His Thriving Vedic Meditation Practice

5/15/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Modern Mind founder Hunter Cressman. Courtesy image.
From the outsider’s view, Hunter Cressman’s life was flourishing.

After idyllic years at Park School, Mill Valley Middle and Tam High, the Mill Valley native garnered a degree in mechanical engineering from Loyola Marymount University and impulsively took a “leap into the unknown” and moved to New York City. He landed a job at David Yurman Jewelry Co., the nearly 40-year-old designer jewelry firm that spawned from its founders’ artistic pursuits in sculpting and painting.

Cressman did quite well, working with Yurman’s design team and managing product lines, determining the manufacturability of new designs and mechanizing the assembly process. But while his professional accomplishments grew, Cressman says he knew all was not as well as it seemed.

“On the outside, I was doing pretty well, but on the inside I was feeling totally all over the place and out of sorts, and it had been that way since college,” he says. “There was this internal stress that was eating me from the inside out, and I leaned on alcohol and cigarettes. I realized, ‘this is not going in the right direction. I needed to course correct.”

That course correction was spurred by the first friend Cressman made in New York City, a Vedic meditation teacher who espoused the benefits of finding ways to slow down.

“He was just a regular guy and not some monk,” he says. “That helped me see the benefits with an open mind and think, ‘maybe I have a chance to realize this for myself.’”
PictureThe Modern Mind's Hunter Cressman. Courtesy image.
​With a bit a of lingering skepticism but a strong desire to calm his self-described “overly analytical engineering brain,” Cressman did a four-day course in Vedic meditation and learned the techniques. It worked quickly, he says, and his insomnia and depression subsided completely. He was practicing meditation twice a day.

“After a few weeks, I was sleeping like a baby and happy for no particular reason, walking down Broadway,” he says. “My mind was calm without all the chatter and distraction, with the chaos of New York around me. That really motivated me to keep it going – to be in that sort of peak mind flow state felt really good. And it got better the more I did it.”

That fevered enthusiasm for his personal meditation practice triggered a strong desire to share it with others, a quest that only grew over time. Five years ago, he moved to the Himalayas in India for a 12-week intensive training program under the guidance of world renowned master teachers. He began teaching Vedic meditation soon after through his The Modern Mind practice.

Cressman describes Vedic Meditation as different from other forms of meditation, which generally involve concentration (focusing the mind through effort) or contemplation (thinking about the meaning of something) – both of which keep the mind active. Instead, Vedic Meditation is an effortless technique that naturally and spontaneously de-excites the mind and body.

“You get to sit comfortably with your back supported, close the eyes, and silently use a specific sound (or personalized mantra) to settle into a state of deep physical and mental rest,” he says. “To anyone watching, it simply looks like resting.”

Cressman’s practice, working with individuals and consulting with startups seeking to incorporate well-being into their mission, flourished in New York and provided opportunities to regularly come back to the Bay Area for conferences and other events.

Earlier this year, he decided to come home.

“It’s been amazing to be back in Mill Valley,” he says.

PictureHunter Cressman teaching Vedic meditation. Couresy image.
​While Cressman continues to grow his practice, he also earned his two-year degree in the science of Vaastu design, which comes from the same body of knowledge in India as meditation, yoga and ayurvedic medicine but instead focuses on physical structures and “bringing about a specific energetic effect within a space,” he says.

Part of the program through the American University of Mayonic Science & Technology is virtual via reading and writing assignments, and the rest of hands-on, with trips to India to tour temples to see Vaastu design in practice and to “meet some of the families who are keeping that knowledge intact and alive.”

“It’s about knowing that you can follow these design principles and bring about an experience of upliftment and well being where you feel at peace and calm and happy from the architecture itself,” Cressman says. “It’s very exciting and I’ll be consulting on building projects locally and giving lectures as well.”

​The 411: Hunter Cressman's The Modern Mind specializes in Vedic meditation for both individuals, groups and organizations. MORE INFO.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!​​

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Subscribe to the free Enjoy Mill Valley Blog

    * required
    Click here to subscribe to the free Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

    RSS Feed

    Blog Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    142 Throckmorton
    Art
    Arts & Entertainment
    City Council
    City Of Mill Valley
    County Of Marin
    Depot Plaza
    Downtown Mill Valley
    Emergency Preparedness
    First Tuesday Artwalk
    Food & Drink
    Holidays
    Kiddo!
    Live Music
    Local Laws
    Marin Mommies
    Marin Theatre Company
    Miller Avenue
    Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival
    Mill Valley Film Festival
    Mill Valley History
    Mill-valley-in-the-news
    Mill Valley Library
    Mill Valley Market
    Mill Valley School District
    Mount Tamalpais
    MV Chamber Biz Buzz
    Parks & Recreation
    Philanthropy
    Public Restrooms
    Restaurants
    Shopping
    Strawberry Village
    Sweetwater Music Hall
    Tam High
    Tam Junction
    Tam Valley
    The Redwoods
    Volunteerism

Picture
   
85 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, Callifornia 94941
415.388.9700
info@millvalley.org



Copyright 2018 Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center
All images used with permission and/or source attribution.
Site Design by Linda Rosso Marketing and Communications