Namaste 🕊️

Hello there! The WIP offers you a serene Thursday greeting on this Mental Wellness week… as serene as our rowdy crew can muster, anyway. 📣

This week was Mental Wellness Week in Decentraland, and our friends cooked up some amazing virtual venues and experiences! From meditative monkeys to silicon sages, there was no shortage of meditative mindfulness from meditative monkeys to enforced embraces! 🧘

And a huge shout out to the amazing Bay Backner for coordinating and corralling the WIP crew (not an easy feat!) and to Mesh Fair for contributing to these amazing virtual spaces! Collaboration is the most refreshing part of Web3, and the folks at Decentraland keep it front and center. 🤝

About The WIP Meetup: Welcome to the longest-running, community-first metaverse hub, delivering the metaverse’s greatest hits every Thursday at 7 pm UTC. 🕖

Relaxing Intro 🏖️

We first landed in Decentraland at the Mesmerizing Meditation Space. 👋

This space is all about blending mental mindfulness with physical posture – the object of the space is to rotate statues of yoga poses into their correct order and maintain mindfulness while doing so. 🧠

As someone who regularly twists themselves into a pretzel, I highly recommend giving yoga a try! 🥨

It feels great, is extremely healthy, and anyone can do it – it’s easier than ever before to get started! No matter your situation, a light stretch can help calm your mind. ⚪

Peace of the Lunar Primate ⛩️

We then teleported to the Monkey and the Moon parcel, a 3d virtual narrative encapsulating the journey of mindfulness and meditation, topped with a garnish of enlightenment. ⭐

You start by engaging with a portly yet serene Racoon, who prompts you to arrange the Zen stone garden after the rain. Afterward, you’re directed to a frog for a tea ceremony that takes some time to prepare, encapsulating the step-by-step nature of daily life that we tend to forget in our modern world. 🍵

We proceeded to the mountain's summit with the themes of mindfulness in action and acceptance of the reality of the moment. Here, a monkey hung delicately from a tree, observing a reflection it thought to be the moon. 🌑

Alas, the moon was a reflection – each time the money grasped at the moon, it would ripple apart in the water. Much to the monkey’s frustration, conscious effort reliably led to an inability to grasp what it saw. 😖

Perhaps we can learn some things from our virtual friends here:

• All things are impermanent 🦝

• Our relationship to time and effort is subjective 🐸

• Sometimes, letting go and not consciously trying so hard is the way 🐵

But experience is subjective! What did you take away from it? 🙂

Silicon Serenity 🌐

After the tea, we were off to ASCLEPIEION by OgiWorlds, where we experienced a guided meditation session unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ⚡

A hybrid obstacle course and cypherpunk meets Tibetan monastery, this build feels a lot larger than the physical space it occupies. ⛰️

The color choices and ambiance of the deep-voiced guided meditation keep you coming back for more every time you misstep on your journey toward the top. I initially wasn’t sure if we were supposed to climb, but the upward movement of the piece gave a natural, subtle suggestion to rise with it. 🧗

We were rewarded at the top with a representation of the silicon sage of wisdom, which imbued us with a deeper understanding of the metaverse and its role in the evolution of human consciousness and mindfulness. 🧘

Such an awesome piece. 🔥

Towering Hope ❣️

We topped off our Decentraland Mental Wellness Week tour with a tour of the Tower of Hope by Trollbot. 🗼

Esoteric analogies can help convey complicated information. But sometimes, what we need is some good old-fashioned encouragement! 🤗

The Tower of Hope does just that, offering words of affirmation and praise as you ascend the tower. Once at the top, you look over the world of Decentraland, hopefully with a fresh perspective on your value! 👀

Because you are enough. Yes, you! 👈

Life goes fast… too fast. We don’t even realize it most of the time. Be kind to yourself – nobody is more qualified to be you than you! 👏

If you need a little extra love, we have you covered! The Hug Zone is right next to the Tower of Hope, so you can recharge with all the embraces you need for where you’re at.

Mindful Conclusion 🧠

Another massive shout-out to Bay for setting all this up and supporting the amazing creators who built this space! 💥

Teamwork makes the dream work. We all dream of a better world, so collaboration is a great step in that journey. 🌐

But the first step? 🤔

That starts inside. 🧘

The WIP’s support for creators extends far beyond Mental Wellness Week. If you’re a creator, we want to support you! Get in contact, and let’s talk about how we can help!

And don’t forget to join us on Thursdays at 7 pm UTC on Discord, and follow on X for insights and updates! 📜