The name of your business is Jax-Zen. What type of business is this?

Jina: We call ourselves a wellness and creativity studio. That’s because we have the floatation therapy and massage therapy. Floatation therapy is the main component of the wellness side. The creativity side is the art studio and the music studio. We provide creativity coaching and workshops and we also have life wellness workshops. The umbrella is Jax-Zen, then we have The Community Canvas, which is the art side of things and Jax-Zen Float is the wellness side.

How did you come up with the name Jax-Zen?

Jason: We were living in Belhaven at the time and we were sitting on our porch and drinking wine. All of a sudden inspiration came through me and I said, “Jax-Zen.” We went ahead and bought the domain name. This happened two years before we opened. We had been talking about it for a while and it happened two years later.

Jina: It wasn’t for a couple more years that it all came together. We wanted to have something representative of Jackson as you can see by the play on words and we wanted to have that zen mindfulness.

Is Jax-Zen the only business like this in Mississippi?

Jina: Yes, we were the first to bring floatation therapy to Mississippi at least this time around. Apparently, it was attempted by someone in the 1980’s, we’re not sure exactly, but from a commercial standpoint we were the first. Since Jax-Zen opened, there has been one more to open in Mississippi and we’re sure there will be more. We are the only one to combine floatation with creativity.

Are there certification requirements for the floatation therapy?

Jina: No, you don’t have to be certified, but there is a level of science that goes into it. You have to make sure you know the right amount of Epson salt and water. It is just a matter of having the ratios correct and we do not use chemicals.

What is floatation therapy?

Jason: Essentially, the floatation is a surface area about the size of a queen size bed. It has about ten inches of solution and it has a cover. It has a cover because it has ten inches of solution, 850 pounds of Epson salt and almost 200 gallons of water. The solution is heated to 93.4 degrees which is the outer temperature of the skin. The cover helps the air temperature to equalize with the temperature of the solution and the temperature of your skin. It feels like a neutral sensation and this is what gives you a loss of sense of body, coupled with the density of the solution. It cradles your body in a way which is almost like a zero-gravity environment. The other side of it is that it is really quiet and really dark. It causes a major sensory restriction and gives you a reset and lets your body and mind rest. You are actually floating. You just let go, lay back and float. This is to promote wellbeing. It is used for several things. Many top athletes use floatation therapy because the Epson salt helps to sooth muscles and it promotes muscle recovery. The other side is that it restricts stimuli sort of like meditation. It tunes everything out and it helps them to focus clearly.

Jina: There are also studies from a brain institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called the Libor Institute, where they study the effects of floatation therapy and anxiety. They are publishing articles about how it really helps anxiety, PTSD and other conditions. Navy seals use it for brain concussion recovery, and it can be used for accelerated learning. It is such a simple method that helps in so many areas. The reason we linked it to creativity is because it helps with innovation and being creative. Being creative not only in the sense of being an artist, but also coming up with a business idea or problem solving. That’s why we say body, mind and expression because it runs the gamut of overall wellbeing.

Jason: It takes you outside of your ego and helps you to sort things out clearly.

Are you both from Mississippi?

Jina: No, I’m from Arizona and Jason is from California and we met in Northern California. We moved to Nashville, Tennessee for several years and we have been in Mississippi for six plus years. Initially, my corporate job brought us to Mississippi.

Jason: Being into music, Mississippi is the bread basket if you will of American music and just the opportunity of being here was great. Being able to read books, live here, breathe the air and drink the water sort of gave us an understanding of Mississippi on a deeper level.

Jina: We’ve always been drawn to the South, especially Jason from a musical standpoint. When we got here, I thought we would only be here for a couple of years, but we really started to like it here and so we decided to put down some roots.

Why did you choose to bring your business to Midtown?

Jason: We caught a vibe and I have always had an infatuation with commercial real estate. When we came to Jackson, we cruised around a bit and when we got to this street, I got a good feeling.

Jina: We started looking into the area and found out about all of the cool things going on in the area with OffBeat, The Hatch, The Hanger and Pearl River Glass. We knew we wanted to be somewhere artsy and that had a creative economy and we knew this was it.

Jason: Our whole business came together in a DIY kind of way and we just felt this area was suitable for that and how we were trying to go about it. We didn’t want to be in a strip mall or anything like that.

Jina: When we lived in Nashville, we lived downtown, and I liked living in the city. At the time there was not a lot of residential property downtown. We liked the fact of the infrastructure growing all around us there. When we started looking into Midtown, we felt like there was so much potential here for growth all around us and we got the vibe we were looking for here. The infrastructure will grow around us here as well and we want to be a part of that.

Do you live in Midtown?

Jina: Yes, we do now. We lived in Belhaven first and then we moved here and our business was already here. We’ve been in Midtown for about a year and a half now. Everything lined up well with our plan. We found a very reasonable home here and I was able to leave my corporate job so that I could concentrate on Jax-Zen full time.

How has being in Midtown helped to stimulate your creativity and has it helped your business grow?

Jason: Honestly, it has helped all the way around. We have had so much support with our Midtown partnerships and BAM. On a creative level, we are next door to OffBeat, AND Gallery is around the corner and there are a lot of musicians across the street. When you surround yourself with so many like minded people, the creativity just flows. There is so much creative expression around us and it is great.

Jina: We plan on staying here and in fact we are already pondering and dreaming about what our next business adventure will be. We really want to continue to grow Jax-Zen here too.

What do you like most about Midtown?

Jason: The people mostly and it goes back to the vibe here. We love being around creative people doing creative things. The artists, painters, musicians, people who paint murals just so much creativity. It is different because Midtown for sure has its own personality.

Jina: Personally, I like the simplicity of our new life here. We have gotten rid of a lot of material things and ego and it has really been freeing. It has helped us to expand our creative juices. Midtown is really situated perfectly to someday connect with downtown Jackson and that is going to be awesome.

How has being a member of BAM helped you all connect more with the Midtown community?

Jason: It has helped a lot. Jina has organized a lot of the events in Midtown and we’ve been able to meet the community that way and plus living here has helped.

Jina: I think it is very important for business owners to have a great network and good communication with the community because as we continue to grow as a community we all need to have a voice in what happens here. We need to be able to speak up when things we don’t want to happen come in and we always want to be able to attract like minded people to bring their businesses here and live here as well. We do try to attend some of the Midtown Neighborhood Association meetings so that we stay up to date on what’s going on as residents here.

Jason: We’ve branded ourselves as Made in Midtown, which helps the community have a sense of pride in this area.

Where do you all see Midtown in the next five years?

Jason: The beer garden is coming soon and Millsaps is doing a lot of construction to be more geographically connected to Midtown. CS’s is opening at night now and we have Coffee Prose. I believe we’ll get our own neighborhood market soon.

Jina: I would say that within the next five years you will see more businesses come in. We are already seeing where more people actually want to live here. We believe we will see a great deal of expansion in Midtown, but we just want to make sure that it keeps the same culture. I would like to see more of an intentional liaison between the neighborhood association and BAM. I know they are working towards that and I think within the next five years we will see more of that.

If you could describe your business in ten words or less, what words would you use?

Jason: We are trying to make it so that when people leave here, they feel a little bit better than when they came here. Hopefully we are the epicenter of positive vibration. I know this is way more than ten words.

Jina: We want people to be in their flow or be their best. All of the things we do here are to help people nurture their flow whatever that is. It can be through floatation or art.

If you had only thirty seconds to persuade someone who has never heard of Jax-Zen, what would you say?

Jason: Jax-Zen is a staycation on so many levels. If you want to just have a place to come and get away for a little bit, whether for floatation, a massage or doing something creative, we are here for you all under one roof. We have groups of friends who come in and sit around the table to hash out ideas. We are a different kind of incubator.

Jina: If you want a place to come and zen out, this is it.

What do you all like to do in your spare time when you are not helping other people discover their best selves?

Jason: We like to travel and have family time with our nine-year old son. We do stay pretty busy, so whenever we have time to stop and hangout with each other, we like to do that.

Jina: Personally, for Jason it’s playing music and for me it is painting or making something. Really our hobbies brought this whole concept together. This is still fun for us because we love what we do. We do Community Canvas, where I take big canvases out and people paint all over it. Jason named it because of the community aspect. When the canvas is all covered up with paint or graffiti or people are finished doodling it up, I take it and I make things out of it like fabrics. Its great because it is infused with community energy. We sell those items here as well and we use the proceeds from those to put back into community events, like workshops and events for kids. Another project that we do is Kidi-Zen which is a multicultural art camp for kids and it expands beyond art. We also want to expand into providing S.T.E.M. camps and other enrichment activities for kids in this community.

Jason, tell me about your music.

Jason: On my mother’s side, I have relatives that were in the music business back in the late 1950’s in Missouri and both of my uncles went into radio and writing songs. They eventually made their way to Nashville writing and producing music. As a little kid, I always wanted to be a musician and a professional football player. Having people in the music industry to look up to, I suppose I got it from them. There have been times where I strayed away from music, but I always seemed to find my way back. When we decided to move to Mississippi, we decided that I would start treating music as a fulltime job and put most of my time into it. I usually do a run out to Colorado and a run out west to perform every year. Here I have played in just about every joint in town and I perform every year in Nashville at the fourth annual Magnolia Roads American Roots Hoedown. Currently I am cutting a record at Malaco Records and I am putting my energy into that and I am doing a whole rebranding with releasing it. I’m still doing some shows, but mainly trying to get this album out. I call it “American Roots”. It is a hybrid of country, blues and funk. The majority of the songs on this album I wrote sitting here at Jax-Zen on the front porch. After our current president was elected, I started getting into a little despair, so instead on getting into the negative, I wanted to be positive. The album in entitled, “Downloads from the Universe.”

What do you guys have coming up?

Jina: We have Paint and Sip coming up in May. We host two every month. We have probably five or so workshops coming up and something is going on every week here. Most of these workshops come under The Community Canvas. Jason’s new album is coming out. We will be doing more of the camps for kids. I also offer one on one art classes and small groups. We have added more retail. We have crystals, gemstones, essential oils, candles, jewelry, books and local made art.

For more information on Jax-Zen Float, visit the website www.jax-zenfloat.com and visit www.jasondanielsmusic.com for more information on Jason Daniels and the Jason Daniels Band. You can also visit and follow the social media sites:

Facebook: facebook.com/Jax-ZenFloat; facebook.com/JasonDanielsBand

Instagram: @JaxZenMS; @J asonDanielsMS @creativeflowcoach

Twitter: @JaxZenMS

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