Shira Lazar and Deepak Chopra Launch NFT Collection with Focus on Mental Health

The Alpha:

• Digital wellness agency Peace Inside Live announced on April 12 that it will launch “The JOMO Effect,” a charity NFT campaign on Magic Eden in support of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, according to information shared with nft now from Peace Inside Live co-founder Shira Lazar.
• The project, whose partners include TimePieces, Deepak Chopra’s Seva.Love, and Polygon Labs, will include art from 40 artists in the NFT community based on the theme of “JOMO,” or the joy of missing out. 

• One hundred percent of proceeds from primary sales of the May 10 mint will go toward five mental health charities. Individuals who mint works from the campaign will receive perks and utilities, airdrops of original artwork from the popular NFT project Adam Bomb Squad, and an exclusive online meditation session with Chopra.

Dive deeper

A consistent advocate of both Web3 tech and mental health awareness, Peace Inside Live co-founder Lazar began brainstorming ideas for a mental health journal almost a year ago. That idea snowballed into The JOMO Effect, a mental health NFT campaign featuring 40 artists in the space, including Allison Dayka, Ashira Art, Brian Fanzo, Brittany Pierre, Gabe Weis, Krista Awad, Naibo Visuals, Postwook, Sierra Nawabi, The Ascendant, and more.

The blind mint will take place on May 10, featuring artists from across the community, and will cost minters 30-40 MATIC each. All proceeds from primary sales (apart from a three percent transaction fee from Pledge, the non-profit fundraising platform handling the initiative’s logistics) will go to five internationally-based mental health charities: Aakoma Project, Half The Story, The MINDS Foundation, LOVELOUD Foundation, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. 

“Each of [these charities] really focuses not just on overarching mental health issues, but on representation and making things more accessible to communities who don’t typically get access to these tools,” Lazar said while speaking to nft now, referring to the charities’ focus on underrepresented communities of color, gender, and sexuality. 

The campaign’s partners include TimePieces, Unstoppable Domains, PolyDoge, Intentional, Adam Bomb Squad, and House of First, each of which will be promoting the mint in their Discords and offering NFT holders unique utilities. TimePieces, for example, will be offering a spot at an IRL TimePieces event and Seva.Love is offering an exclusive online meditation session with Chopra and the Chopra Foundation team. Holders of varying levels (5 NFTs or more or those who collect the entire set from all 40 artists) will be eligible for different perks. 

​​”We’re excited to partner with some of the top companies and artists in support of mental health,” Tiffany Huang, marketing lead at Magic Eden, said in a press release shared with nft now. “It’s a topic that isn’t talked about often enough in Web3, but it’s really important. Magic Eden’s role is to make sure we’re bringing partners together to amplify their mission, and we’re proud that we can help them shine.” 

Web3 is notorious for its effects on mental health, so much so that the space’s biggest figures have called attention to the need for its enthusiasts to strive for balance and perspective while engaging with it. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, the campaign serves as a healthy reminder of the need for everyone, not just those in Web3, to keep these issues at the forefront of conversations.

FOMO, AKA fear of missing out, is a tangible and often detrimental dynamic in the NFT space that frequently leads to negative emotions and experiences as community enthusiasts feel they’ve missed out on projects whose speculative value can lead to life-changing financial windfalls.

“The idea is to continue this conversation outside of Mental Health Awareness Month in May,” Lazar continued. “And our hope is to be able to continue the discussion about the intersection of digital culture and wellness.”

What’s next:

Peace Inside Live will also launch the physical JOMO Journal on an as-of-yet undisclosed date, featuring 12 artists from the JOMO mint to help collectors “cultivate their joy daily.”

Interested parties are invited to engage with the campaign via Peace Inside Live’s weekly Twitter spaces led by the company’s social media manager Jana Stern as well as the Peace Inside Live Telegram group in partnership with Held Mind. Those interested in taking part in the mint can find more information here and sign up for the Joy List here.

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