Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

This playshop was a fantastic experience, despite not being what I had planned. Instead of following the syllabus I had created and followed in the New York version of this playshop, we went into a discussion of how to make each Nia class a self-healing experience. The main pearls of this playshop were: "You need to be in the driver's seat of your Nia class experience" "Add your personal focus to the teacher's focus" "Be aware of yourself first" "Explore the best way to do each movement" "do it your way" "you have permission to do it 'wrong'" "every sensation you experience is your choice" "choose pleasure" Here are some comments made by students in this playshop: ---I had a blast dancing with Jason this weekend. It is always so cool to watch a master at work, then have him discect what he did and why it was so effective. Especially enjoyed the male energy he brought to "Bond Girls...

February's Playshop-of-the-Month was an exploration of how to recognize and utilize the Healing Arts in Nia. These Healing Arts are, namely, The Alexander Technique, The Work of Moshe Feldenkrais, and Yoga. The common elements of all three of these arts is an inward focus and awareness with a desire to change old habits and to move in a way that is more in keeping with our natural-born ease and simplicity. Many of our movements are learned and then relegated to 'habit'. This allows us to do things automatically and prevents us from having to use a lot of brain energy for simple things like walking, getting up out of a chair and tying our shoes. The downside of these habits is that they aren't necessarily always the most efficient nor simple way of doing the activity. Our body will recognize it as "familiar" and we will interpret that familiarity as "correct" even though it may be fraught with lots of excess tension, physical imbalance and extrane...

Dear Participants of the 2010 Healing Arts of Nia Playshop, Thank you so much for being there today and helping to make this playshop such a success. I had a great time and learned things and I hope you did too. Here are my notes from the playshop: THE WORK OF MOSHE FELDENKRAIS: PEARL: relax in order to idealize We did three exercises. LAYING ON OUR BACKS, LIFTING OUR ARMS FROM THE SHOULDER MOBILIZING THE PELVIS USING THE CLOCK SITTING AND TWISTING OUR TORSOS USING OUR EYES The purpose was to slow down to such a degree that we heightened awareness of choices about our movements that we were making unconsciously. Extraneous effort. And eventually our bodies find the least amount of effort necessary. We learned to examine our own movements through repetition and relaxation, which is directly relatable to when you're in Nia. Each movement starts anew. Rather than letting the repetitions build on each other, you relax into a neutral position in between each movement...

1- I can control the music 2- I can control the temperature 3- I save about half an hour each workout just on the commute alone 4- I can wear whatever I want 5- I save about $1000/ year 6- I don’t have to wait my turn for anything 7- I know it’s clean 8- I don’t have to be self-conscious or compare myself to others 9- I don’t have to hear other people’s inane conversations while I’m trying to focus 10- I can do it any time of the day or night and on holidays 11- I can take my workout with me when I travel 12- I can choose to do it outside 13- I can work out with friends even if they’re not “members” 14- I’m not distracted by people dropping weights, grunting or yelling 15- it smells much better

I don't get the Times, but I started getting emails from my friends asking if that was me in the cheese shop in the New York Times. I checked it out and it was definitely me. Or, at least, it was my head. Capital One Bank had taken a shot of a guy standing in a cheese shop and photoshopped my head onto it. It was pretty surreal to see me with a completely different body. I've never had a gut like that. The best scan I could get, because of the size of the ad and the size of the scanner, is here: It's a pretty good job. I can't tell it's photo-shopped, but it kind of gives me the creeps to know that someone was meticulously cropping my head and neck and cutting and pasting it onto that other guy's body. It showed up on Page 7, Metropolitan section, Sunday, Feb 1. New York Times. If anyone can get a scan of the entire full-page ad, I'd love to get a copy of it. The original shot, where my head was taken from, is here:

Written and Directed by Dikayl Rimmasch "Ringers" shows the nightmarish trip of a man whose little plan didn't turn out like he expected. Dikayl has created a world in which one is never sure what's real or what anyone is really up to; a world somewhere near the corner of David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock. Jason says, "When I first read this script at the audition, it read, to me like an episode of The Twilight Zone; and I loved that show growing up. I immediately knew I wanted to do this movie." Dikayl has said that his choice in casting JAG, was mainly for his tendency to seem completely non-confrontational. He said that it was hard finding a New York actor who didn't read as 'tough' during those intense scenes. Follow this link to view the movie. Total running time: 16:24 The original title of this film was The Case. Here is one of the first promo cards made: Playwright John Gruen said, "Just saw "Ringers" -- totally terrify...

Hi Here are some books that have changed my life: I would consider them indispensable for anyone interested in running as a pastime. And especially long distance runners. "Born To Run" reminds us how having fun and not getting too serious will go a long way toward improving the longevity of your body and your running. And Body, Mind and Sport goes into the benefits of staying calm and relaxed, and actually improving your times and distances by training less hard. I just recently started reading Born to Run, and immediately it was inspirational. Even though I'm not typically a runner, I have started to find myself breaking into a run at random times. The book talks about a tribe of people who run for 100 miles. Their perspective on running is that it is fun. It is a joy. It's playful. This whole new outlook on the practice of running makes it fun to do, so I just sometimes run to the corner instead of walking. I feel like a little boy again. Written by a runner an...