Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

SMILE Each time you smile it activates health and happiness in your brain and those around you. Smiling releases neuropeptides that help reduce feelings associated with stress. Neuropeptides are molecules that facilitate communication to the whole body when we are happy, sad, angry, depressed, excited. The feel good neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins and serotonin are all released when you smile. This not only relaxes your body, but it can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. These endorphins also act as a natural pain reliever without the potential negative side effects of synthetic analgesics. The serotonin release brought on by your smile also serves as an anti-depressant and mood lifter. Many pharmaceutical anti-depressants work by increasing the levels of serotonin in your brain; but with a smile, you don’t have to worry about side effects, dependencies or addictions (and you don’t need a prescription from your doctor). As an actor, I learned that I could a...

Ever since I was old enough to think for myself, I have been questioning life. And most specifically, I have been fascinated with humans; their bodies, their minds and their spirits. I have studied the body extensively though educations in massage, physical therapy, personal training, nutrition, dance and group fitness instruction. All of these endeavors brought me to a study of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology. 
As a personal trainer, I soon discovered that most people have unconscious mental blocks preventing them from achieving their fitness goals. So I studied the mental realm through human psychology/sociology and was certified in a form of therapy called Neuro-Linguistic Programming. 
As an actor, I deeply studied human feelings, their cause and their expression. I practiced tapping into very strong emotional pools and learned what powers they did and didn’t have over me. I became adept at controlling and understanding these wonderful, energetic expressions of energy called em...

I am responsible for my happiness.  One of the quickest ways I can make myself unhappy is to try to place the responsibility for my happiness on other people. Most of the time, they don't truly care about my happiness. And the reality is that they have no control over it. When I accept that I am in charge of how I feel, it is empowering. And then I can choose to be happy in any situation. For example, if someone gives me a gift, I can be thankful or critical. I can be suspicious of their intention or grateful for the thought. In any given situation, I have the choice of how to react. If I want to be happy, I simply choose happiness. I am sometimes wrong.  I am always doing my best, but sometimes I simply miss the mark. If I go through life constantly defending my position as the right way, then I could find myself in conflict over petty things. (see #8) One of the biggest gifts I gave myself was when I allowed the possibility to be wrong into my life. Being w...

IN THE BEGINNING (Setting the Stage)

 From what I’ve been able to ascertain, River’s life started out rough. I believe that he was trained to be either a guard dog or a fight dog. I believe that as part of that training, he was hit in the head by hand and with a stick-like object (perhaps a broom) by a large white man. My instinct also tells me that because of the dog’s inherited poorly-aligned knees, he experienced a lot of pain when he fully bent them to sit or lie down or even to use his weight equally on all fours. So he was probably considered a ‘bad’ dog for being hesitant to sit and lie down. In an effort to relieve himself of the pain in his back end, he pitched his body weight forward, which resulted in a constant forward momentum which made him seem like a ‘hyperactive’ dog because he couldn’t sit or be still. He was finally abandoned at about eight months of age. He was tied to an outdoor staircase railing near the waterfront in Seattle in the middle of August. No one ...

The following are snippets of text conversations I had with Zeke back at home each night after a full day of Quantum Canine Natural Dog Training with Kevin Behan. sustained Eye contact builds stress and gives him an easy way out of his problems. I have devoted our time together to strengthening his comfort level with me. I have trained him very well to give me his energy. My thinking was that I didn’t want his unbridled energy going off on strangers. Since I was familiar with him, and I knew his intentions weren’t violent, I could let him come at with me with his full intensity. And have developed a groove for him. He gets a charge from something in the outside world, and instead of bolting away, or toward the object of attention, he would turn around and give all of his energy to me in the form of a snarling, growling, tooth gnashing, frenzied pushing into my hands. So if we stop participating in it and don’t encourage it, it will help him solve his own problems.   ...

Several people have expressed interest in experiencing the nomadic Nia teacher lifestyle that I have been living since 2010 and have asked me for advice on how to make it work. I've come up with a list of 13 discoveries I've made about how to maximize joy on the road and how to make the most of this endeavor. 1- Do your homework beforehand. Before I go on a trip, I spend about two months putting it together. I map out a desired route and then make notes of which cities and recreational sites I'll be passing through. I then contact Nia teachers in the cities and start a conversation about my visit. I also look into any interesting sites along the way and work those into my schedule as well. By the time I'm hitting the road, I have all of my stops planned out. It takes a lot of anxiety off of me to know that I have a place to be every day. 2- Schedule breaks. While in the planning phase, it's very exciting. And it's tempting to totally fill my schedule ...