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NFTLA Live Twitter Space: Wellness + NEW YEAR's SPECIAL With The Peace Inside Live Team, Shira Lazar & Jordana Reim
Web3 right now is in need of the most wellness. The burnout is real. Health has to come first, especially in this fast-paced industry. Fortunately for us Web3 nerds, beautiful people from the wellness space are taking notice, and they are building things that will impact our growing industry in positive ways. Among these is the team at Peace Inside Live, who are thinking hard of innovative ways to integrate health and wellness into Web3. Joining us on this NFTLA Live Twitter Space are Shira Lazar and Jordana Reim. Tune in as they tell us more about their exciting project as well as some things to look forward to in the horizon. Plus, get to hear some incredible insights from other figures in the intersection of wellness and Web3 as well!
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NFTLA Live Twitter Space: Wellness + NEW YEAR’s SPECIAL With The Peace Inside Live Team, Shira Lazar & Jordana Reim
You may or may not have found out that we are doing Twitter spaces with the NFTLA Twitter account in collaboration with Howl Labs, our partner in promoting NFTLA. We’ve had some incredible guests and incredible sessions. We are attracting hundreds of audience. It’s been going great. We wanted to share a couple of those Twitter spaces with you. This episode will feature one of them. Hope you enjoy it.
We are very excited to do the space. Taylor Swift’s song was very appropriate because she’s talking a little bit about some insanity or the feeling of craziness in her life. All of us have been there in the last few years. We have some wonderful guests. I’m going to have them sound off and tell you a little bit about them, what they’ve been working on, and why they’re attracted to the Web3 space. First up, we have Shira, who, if you’re not aware, is one of the biggest voices and advocates in this space. She is a very well-known Emmy nominated and, in fact, a participant in the Web3e space and evangelist for all things good. What’s up, Shira?
I appreciate it. Getting right into the New Year, I’m at CES in Vegas. Top of mind is the future of Web3 and also, for us, the importance of integrating mental health and wellness. I’m excited about this conversation.
I’m going to follow up with somebody else in the wellness space that is bringing great peace and wonderment into the minds of everyone at the Peace Inside Live. We have Jordana on that one. Can you say what’s up, Jordana?
I love the word wonderment.
It’s a wonderful wonder word.
I’m stoked to be here on the Peace Inside Live. As a Cofounder of Peace Inside Live with Shira, we are excited to bring wellness to Web3. It’s a space that is open for it and also needs it. We’re thrilled about it. I’m glad to be here.
We have Jana from your team as well too. I don’t think we had a chance to catch up beforehand. Say hello to everybody. We’re happy to have you on stage here.
I’m happy to be here too. I’m always proud to stand beside Shira and Jordana wherever they are. I’m happy to be here and have this conversation with all of you. I’m excited to meet you and get a little deeper together.
The last but not least, from the Healing Hippies account, we have one of the founders, Shahab.
I’m glad to be here.
I want to kick things off with a very general question and dive right in. Can you tell me, each of you, a little bit about your projects and what got you into Web3 space? What are some of the things in wellness you’re working for in 2023? I’m going to go ahead and start in order with Shira.
Me and Jordana, who’s in the Peace Inside Live handle have known each other for several years through previous lives in media. She can share a bit about her background. We reconnected a few years back when we went on a retreat to Everest Base Camp. As you can imagine, it was a pretty life-changing trip. On the trip, we started talking a lot about co-creation and, “The stuff that I was juiced up that I would talk about behind the scenes and my life, how could I bring that to the content on my platform?”
When we got back, we started producing a series called The Weekly Mindset. Right before COVID, Jordana went to Thailand for work and retreats. She got stuck there because of COVID. Her IRL retreat stopped, but then she ended up doing a virtual retreat at the beginning of COVID. I attended that and was blown away by the different modalities and ways we could connect and work on ourselves even virtually. We all know this now. At the time, it was new.
Over the next month, we worked on launching Peace Inside Live, which was a virtual studio where we had two classes a day and facilitators from around the world. It was donation based at the time. Over 2020, we saw thousands of people through our classes and workshops. We had a burnout moment. The questions I asked myself, which is helpful for everyone when I feel like that burnout moment is like, “Does it still bring me joy? If not, why? Is it part of the process that needs to be tweaked, or is this not relevant to me anymore?” which is a real question or, “Do I still love this?”
Ultimately, we both decide we still love doing this. It’s just we’re maybe not doing it the right way that works for us. That’s when we pivoted. We started seeing some success working with big companies we’d worked with. It was an ability for us to bring wellness programming to their companies and not have to do the marketing and all of that which can be some people to get pumped by it. It can be very draining when you’re begging people to come to classes and all that. You want to help people.
We’re like, “Where are people? In companies and communities, why don’t we help those people add more wellness?” That’s what we started doing with big companies like Capital One, HBO and Spotify then we started doing it for Web3 companies. I personally started to dive into Web3. Josh of NFTLA, introduced us to Dyno Man. We started doing wellness in their Discord. We started building more in Web3. Now, what we’re looking forward to is building a wellness company in Web3, customized wellness programs for Web3 companies, communities, and teams, virtually an IRL, as well as a portal that incentivizes you to continue to work on your well-being in between those other experiences.
Peace Inside Live: What we’re looking forward towards is building a wellness company in Web3.
Web3 is probably in need of the most wellness. I’ve been here for a couple of years. I’ve seen the burnout. It’s real. Some of my best friends in the space have already hit that point. Some of them are taking a much-needed hiatus and rest. Some of those have already taken that hiatus and rest and are coming back. Something I have to be reminded of constantly is your health has to come first. This is such a fast-paced industry.
Sometimes it chews you up and spits you out. At the end of it, you might love it, but even passionate things can become hardships on our health. I’m grateful to have you here. Hopefully, we’ll be giving the readers some tips and tricks to dealing with their own personal wellness as they try to navigate this space and get them queued up into some communities that advocate for these things. With that, I want to throw it to Shahab to talk about Healing Hippies because it’s such an interesting project, and you’re such a multifaceted individual. I’d love for you to give your background a little bit, and then we’ll pass it back over to the rest of the Peace Inside team.
I work a lot. My background besides marketing has always been in athletics and fitness. Before coming into Web3, I had a fitness startup that first of its kind of all wellness recovery center. I sold that to a franchise that they’re going to be booming soon. It’s very important to be to live a healthy lifestyle. Going to the gym and having a healthy lifestyle has done much for me, my self-esteem, confidence, and my mental health that I know how important it is.
The Healing Hippies is aiming to solve a problem. I myself since COVID had been sitting behind my computer for 10 to 14 hours a day, not getting up and communicating with people who are doing the same, not getting up, slouching, eating badly, not going outside, and not having believed that healthy lifestyle. We aim to go ahead and incentivize, encourage, and hold people accountable.
I’m building not just the healing hippies but the Heal app that comes with it with move-to-earn technology where people are incentivized and rewarded for moving, communicating with their communities, doing outdoor activities, and bringing on a full-on marketplace where your rewards can be exchanged for goods. We’re onboarding 60 wellness coaches and specialists. We’re working with Impact Suite as well. They’re going to go ahead and bring in the mental health aspect of it. We aim to go ahead and fill up that problem that we’re going to have in Web3, where no one’s going to be going outside. Everyone’s going to be doing work in the Metaverse. That’s why this project started.
Before we jump into that, I do want to share a bit of my own personal story. I suffer from OCD and anxiety I have had for a very long time. I was almost hospitalized for it when I turned 22 because I went undiagnosed for most of my adolescence. It’s important to take that time to take care of yourself because hitting that breaking point shatters you. A lot of the things that you don’t think you’re going to contribute to that diet, exercise, and all the things that you were mentioning are huge things. I also think it’s very important. This is my own mantra for dealing with stuff. Being vulnerable and talking about these things seems like a very innocuous thing, but holding stuff starts to eat at you from the inside. I’m grateful to have people like yourself joining us to talk about these things.
It helped me out so much, and those around me, my cousins and my siblings. it’s very important to me. I’m honored to be up on the stage with all you.
I wanted to weigh in there as well. This goes well beyond tech, Web3, or anything that requires humans, which is anything we care about. At its absolute fundamental and foundation are health and well-being because, without it, our energy is either inefficient or entirely wasted. It doesn’t matter what you’re playing for. You should be making that the foundation of everything you do for your own well-being.
What we’ve seen, which Shira brought up as a fun example with that Dyno’s project, and I’m sure almost everyone here has probably experienced it, is a trend that it’s not always actualized. It’s for having mental health awareness inside of communities that are built here. This comes out of the fact that much of this movement did happen and was fueled by the wackiness of COVID when we, all of a sudden, were spending much time online, on Twitter or Discord. One cool thing about how communities have been developing is that there’s been that support and open dialogue around mental health. That’s something I like, and I want to do whatever I can to foster it. It’s one of those things that we can do differently here in Web3 than has been done previously.
I do want to throw to Jordana and get a little bit about her story as well and some additional context here. What’s up?
I totally agree with you about the space and the communities. What we’re seeing across the board is that there’s this openness to having these conversations about mental health. As part of what we’re doing in Peace Inside, we’ve got a Mega Mindful Monday. Every Monday at noon, we’re having different conversations here on Twitter spaces. In this new environment, we make wellness part of the ground that we’re building. Whereas in Web2 and certainly in the corporate space, where I come from, it’s always been an afterthought.
“People are quitting their jobs. People are burnt out. Maybe we should give them a happy hour. Maybe a little bit better is to give them a yoga class.” That doesn’t work. You’ve got to make it part of the culture. That’s what’s exciting about this space. What we’re doing with Peace Inside is we’re trying and working to make this part of the culture of Web3. I’m loving this conversation.
The reason I do what I do is because I’ve had anxiety pumping through my veins since birth. I get it about having an anxiety disorder and panic attacks and how isolating that can feel. I worked in production and technology for over ten years and got to the top of my field there. I also had a practice at the same time. I had a meditation and yoga practice that butted heads with my work. Ultimately, I realized that I was unfulfilled in my work. I was defining myself by it. I was in this strange conundrum of what I do with my life when what I’m doing with my life is not who I am yet I don’t know the answer.
Several years ago, I left it all to live in the question of, “Who am I if I’m not defined by what I do?” That was a terrifying journey, especially for my anxiety that roared its evil head as soon as I stopped working and started telling me these stories about how I needed to make money. I started doing things to make money, then I realized what I was doing. I had to take myself off of that and set an intention for myself. At the time, that intention was to learn and travel.
I went to the place where I thought I could learn the most. At the time, it was India. I spent about six months there and dove deeper into my personal practice of meditation and yoga. I trained in sound healing in Nepal and breathwork. I spent time working at a center in Thailand with critically ill people who are seeking an alternative way to live out their lives and hopefully survive and thrive rather than face some pretty harsh diagnoses, then I came back to Los Angeles.
Since I came back in 2018, I’ve been teaching meditation, full-time. At first, I was teaching in studios. I have over 200 recordings out and about on different apps. I wrote a book called Inner Peace, and then started Peace Inside Live with zero when I was in Thailand and continue to run retreats. I’ve got a couple coming up in April 2023 to Nepal and Thailand.
It’s such a real thing you’re talking about where it’s like, “I’m going to stop and quit doing this unhealthy thing.” The terror of the silence sets in, and you’re like, “I got to jump into the next thing so I don’t have to deal with my baggage.” I feel that. I’m one of those people that hops around quite a lot from thing to thing. Anxiety can be such a superpower too. It puts you on a high level of alertness, but the end result of being exhausted is not worth the trade sometimes. Learning to find that inner peace is huge. Especially, with a lot of emotion in Web3 space, euphoria is high and despair is low. It’s learning to manage your emotions while stepping into this world and figuring out where you sit creatively and functionally. Finding your place in the world unapologetically is huge.
Jana, I’d love to throw it to you as well and get a little bit of your backstory. What got you involved with these two and what made you discover Web3?
The answer to the first question is the grace of God. That’s how I got involved with these two. I’m exceptionally blessed to work with Shira and Jordana. It is a huge blessing. I was in Web3 with my own little project that I had created from the desire to no longer use money as a currency. I wanted crystals to be currency because I had had it with the system. I was like, “When comes the time that my massive crystal collection has the value that I can bring it to the grocery store and trade my Citrine for bananas?” We weren’t there yet, so I made a little NFT project that let me do that.
I started talking in spaces and pulling myself into Web3, which connected me to Shira. The vibe was there. I was passionate about what Shira and Jordana are doing in this space that I was able to connect and start to build with them. I’m lucky enough to work with them and all of the fun and interesting ways that we are working together. How I came about all of this is that I, too, had trauma living in my bones from birth. I went through a series of mental health spurts and issues. In the journey of that, I found energy healing and spirituality, which I had always tied into my religion, my upbringing, and the traditions that I knew, and started to find my own psychic gifts and passions for being able to connect with spirit and with the other side.
The more I started to do that and flex those muscles, the more I was able to help a lot of people through that practice. I’ve been guiding other people, doing readings, and healing. That was part of the crypto offering that I was bringing into the space. Now I feel like I get to make a much bigger impact than the little bit that I could do. There’s an opportunity to connect with lots of people because people are in this deep need of wellness now.
I’m a big believer in doing it better together and being able to affect more people when we are working on ourselves together. It’s why I say that the grace of God has brought me to these two women because they both are doing the work on themselves, for themselves, and the collective. It is such a blessing to be here. Thank you much for allowing me to share the stage with you all.
Peace Inside Live: There’s an opportunity to connect with lots of people because people have this really deep need for wellness right now.
We are grateful to have you. What’s your favorite crystal?
I’m obsessing over Sugilite and Rhodonite, but Clear Quartz always has me. It’s the base mineral of our planet. Your phone is operating because of Clear Quartz. Your TV, watch, and everything we do is functioning because of crystals. I got to give it to the Clear Quartz always, first and foremost.
What can we do to get crypto quartz caught in crossovers?
Tell me what you mean by that.
It’s like involving crypto in quartz, the foundational base of our planet.
Literally, it already is. All of our technology is operated with teeny tiny little quartz crystals. It’s already happening.
You gave me a nice segue because we were talking about opportunities for wellness. I want to pivot and start with you, Zach, about opportunities for wellness in Web3 because you probably have some interesting perspectives as you’ve been navigating this space as well. What opportunities do you think are out there for people and wellness in Web3 crossover?
On one hand, it’s almost limitless. It is foundational. It’s one of the promises of any revolution, but certainly, this one, which many of us look at as a way to build things together without necessarily falling into the trap of chasing monopolies. A lot of these behaviors end up driving people, unfortunately, toward more misery than anything. We can quite intentionally build wellness into all of the structures, or business models, even the tokenomics of what we’re doing. Shahab can certainly elaborate on what Healing employees are doing there. It’s almost infinite, the amount of ways we can do it. Where it’s going to be powerful is when we weave it right into the foundation for what we care about.
Shahab knows a lot about building with intention. When people are pitching projects and things like that and going through and looking at white papers or whatever, somebody’s talking about their project and the assumption on whether it’s going to do well or not. One of those factors that people don’t think about is sometimes you’re building something, and it’s cool, but you’re not thinking about the toxic underbelly of what that might lead to.
It’s called a toxic environment.
That is turning it on its head there.
Shira, what’s up?
That’s Jana.
Zach, what’s up?
I want to say what’s up with Jesse.
How are you doing?
I love going to Bob Marley events.
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About Jordana Reim
I spent over a decade as an executive, holding leadership positions in production and technology at global companies. As my career grew, I noticed a pattern of overwhelm, anxiety and stress inside me and within my coworkers. This limited them and held them back from performing at their fullest potential. On a quest to find and conquer the true source of these limiting beliefs, I set out on a journey that took me to ashrams, monasteries, and to the “babas” of Nepal, India, and Thailand. I emerged feeling radically transformed.
About Shira Lazar
Shira Lazar is the founder and CEO of the Emmy Nominated digital media brand What’s Trending.
She is a Web3 advocate, collector, and advises as well as consults with companies in the space relating to cryptocurrency, NFTs and the metaverse. As a broadcaster, Shira uses her platforms to create content and education around Web3, bridging the gap between the industry, creators and consumers.
She hosts weekly Twitter Spaces shows, #AlphaMondays and Women in Web3 Weekly, brings viewers the top five NFT stories of the week on Instagram and just launched Inside Web3 airing weekly as a podcast and on KNX News 91.FM in Los Angeles.