Jessica Hinds
Creator of
Creator of
Jessica Hinds was born the youngest of six girls in Contra Costa County California. After a complicated childhood filled with bow hunting, religious exhaustion, animal rearing, electrocution and poetry, Jess made her way to New York City on September 9th 2001. On her way to the World Trade Center the morning of September 11th 2001 a numbness set in that a year later thrust her into a decade long depression of insomnia, self-destruction, isolation and mental instability. Awful to herself and to most of those around her (after all "Hurt people hurt people"), the desire to become a professional writer was the only thing driving her forward.
After a second failed suicide attempt (she couldn't even do THAT right) she sat down and asked herself the following questions... Q: What do I need to be happy? To keep from ending my life? A: To become a professional writer. Q: What would that give me? A: Daily creativity, connection to others, a chance to share my unique view of this world with others, the possibility of making a difference. She then realized she could have all these things without being a professional writer. She could do each of these things every day without other people having to say "yes." So she began her research and exploration of Meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Neuro-Linguistics, Jungian Psychology, Behavioral Economics, Neuroscience and Yoga. She developed a style of meditation that has had incredible results. Suddenly she didn't need her social anxiety medications, she stopped having panic attacks, sleep came regularly, her depression disappeared along with the ruminating negative voices that used to plague her daily. She became excited about life. A life, where she didn't even need to be a professional writer. Ironically, six months later she sold her first screenplay and made more money in two months than she had in the past three years. Damn. She didn't need to become a different or "better" person, she just needed to take off all the crap that her family, old teachers, the world had placed on her, and honor her true self. When we are authentic, others want to be around us, to work with us, even if you are a foul-mouthed queer non-hippie yogi with a love of B-list horror movies. She further developed her process and created Meditative Writing ©. Now she has helped thousands of others do the same thing through her Meditative Writing class. Nothing delights her more than reaching into the mind, the inner world of another and assisting them in the discovery of their true self. From memoir and poetry to TV series outlines to feature films, Meditative Writing has created a pathway for artists (tortured or not) to create universal yet novel stories. |
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Jessica S Hinds is an award winning writer, teacher and creator of Meditative Writing © . She began her career as a published poet at the age of 12. She wrote the award winning film “Stranger at Home”, and best screenplay winner "The Mending Wall" (Stonefair International Film Festival, Oregon Film Awards Gold Winner). She has been a finalist in over a dozen major competitions and festivals including the Austin Film Festival, O’Neill Conference, Made In NY Writers Room, The Van Gogh Award and The Heidman Award. Her plays have been developed and produced at theaters across the country including La MaMa, Cherry Lane, Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, Primary Stages, The Amoralists, The Flea, The Claque, and the New York Artists' Community. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.
As a teacher Jessica has mentored thousands of writers including Sundance Award-winning filmmakers, Emmy Award-winning writers & producers, Tony Award winners, best-selling authors, professional musicians, TV showrunners, reality TV stars, published poets, and emerging artists in the fields of screenwriting, playwriting, novel writing, TV writing, memoir writing, poetry, journalism, and music. Jessica has been a guest teacher & speaker at the Columbia University Teachers Conference, The Breakk with Karen Kirkland, The NYC Women Filmmakers, Stage32 house @ Sundance, The New School for Drama, NYU, The Writers Digest Conference, ITV Fest, The English Writers of Buenos Aires Collective, The Curious About Screenwriting Podcast, and a dozen other schools, festivals, and conferences around the world from California to Indonesia. Most recent engagements include The Napa Valley Film Festival, Imagine This Film Festival, the Mystic Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival. She is the founder of Meditative Writing, and The Science and Art of Writing, and is currently building curriculum for the Jnana Yoga School of New York. Jessica has built programming for various theatre companies and schools including Playwrights Horizons, The Jacob Krueger Studio, The Einhorn School of Performing Arts, and The New York Artists Collective. She has been a guest teacher & speaker at the Columbia University Teachers Conference, The Breakk with Karen Kirkland, The NYC Women Filmmakers, Stage32 house @ Sundance, The New School for Drama, NYU, Columbia, The Writers Digest Conference, ITV Fest, The English Writers of Buenos Aires Collective, The Curious About Screenwriting Podcast, and a dozen other schools, festivals, and conferences around the world from California to Indonesia. Most recent engagements include The Napa Valley Film Festival, Imagine This Film Festival, the Mystic Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival. Her current research involves the neuroscience of visual storytelling and the use of popular media to combat unconscious biases. |