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You weren’t born cursing yourSelf or others. This is the province of someone other than you. The voice of bane is not your voice... not your authentic voice. You were born with unlimited resilience and love. Since then, what’s happened? You’ve felt the fear and anger, and it distracts you. Now, you’re mindful, but it requires constant vigilance. The reptilian brain of your limbic system, which has warned mammals of danger for 150 million years, also transforms fear and anger from temporary feelings into a state of mind. When attachment to fear and anger becomes state of mind, mindfulness goes out the window. Meeting fear and anger with more of the same only produces more fear and anger in the world. This isn’t your vibration. You’re a spiritual gangsta. Spiritual gangsta’s are just as hard, but without the aggression, and you see more. You count your blessings and the blessings around you. This doesn’t mean you don’t see problems. It just means you see problems as a necessary part of finding solutions. You have the opportunity to see problems as barriers in your path, or part of the path itself. It’s going to take all of us, working together, to bring Serendipity to life. Imagine if everyone became mindful in the same moment, together. Fight fear, not people. ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

“See More in Others to Like YourSelf More” Want to like yourSelf more? It’s all about resonance. You’re most creative when you’re open to seeing more potential in the world all around you. You know what it’s like to see less… only noticing the negatives. It closes you down. All “seeing less,” allows you to see is problems… in others and in yourSelf. Fear and anger takes hold and you attach right back. You become a fear and anger factory. It’s incredibly hard, if not impossible, creating anything other than fear and anger when you’re a fear and anger factory. Then, there’s the opportunity to see more. You can find an opportunity in each moment. You see the shadow. You see the light. You can even sometimes see the light in the shadow…and this is when it all opens up to you. Things make sense. You’re vested with the ability to transform the shadow into light and bask in it. On top of this, the insightful act of transforming the shadow empowers you. Inspiration takes hold and your portal to the creative space opens. You’ve created value, and this contributes to the net amount of creativity in the Universe. Mindful in the moment, you like what you see. Open yourSelf to seeing more and you’ll see the delightful and unexpected… Serendipity! ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

Looking for ways to experience more of the good energy generated when you become a muse and inspire others? Caring for others is a “double positive whammy” according to the Center for Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the premier contemplative research labs. Read the article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/g24kVMX

“Go Deeper Creatively by Becoming a Muse YourSelf” Creativity is a noble pursuit in any personal or professional effort; but you can use your creativity to become even more… a source of creativity for others. Teachers know this. Become one who inspires. This is how “the work” adds up to total impact greater than the sum of each of your purposeful efforts. “The work” of a muse is a higher calling within your reach. Your effect scales beyond what you can directly produce. The purpose of the muse is to inspire. From inspiration, value is created. Inspire many, and value grows beyond what you can do on your own. There’s no doubt that you have a lot to do. People count on you. You must prioritize your time. It seems like your creativity should be focused on efforts that create immediate results, to which you can attribute direct benefit. You aspire to generosity of spirit, but you’re also compelled, for good reason, to seek the direct benefit of your efforts. Recognize what the famous Zen Koan calls your original face – the face of the Universe unfolding. You cannot name the barriers between your spirit and your mind, your mind and your body, your body and all else - because there are none. You and the Universe unfold together. Accept this truth for yourSelf, and you realize that value creation is a net contribution not only to the Universe, but to you and those you love as well. Even removing yourSelf from the equation – the world you wish to give those you love is one in which inspiration and creativity run rampant. You don’t need to jealously possess credit because you already benefit from the impact. Create value and live into the purpose of inspiration. ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

“Size DOES Matter…When It Comes to Having Heart” When it comes to having heart… size matters. Do you enjoy competing but get disturbed by the level of aggression you observe in competition? There’s fulfillment in doing something better than it’s ever been done, and joy in the pursuit of singular achievement, but where’s the fun when the name of the game is to dominate? “The last man (or woman) standing,” is a place you must enjoy loneliness to be, but to be “the one and only,” all you have to be is you. Want to take it to a level no one before you has achieved? You don’t have to go it alone. Your “one and only,” plus “the one and only” of others adds up to a “one and only” greater than the sum of its parts. You have what you need. You’re an essential expression of the Universe. This is the nature of the authentic value that’s yours to give. You’ve got to trust yourSelf to know what’s authentic. It takes mindfulness to maintain this level of transparency and honesty. Mindfulness isn’t something you do once a day, like a trip to the gym. It’s a practice you return to moment after moment. Miss some because you forgot? No problem. There’s more on the way. Put off mindfulness until later? That’s not mindfulness. Do you believe in your infinite capacity for love? Do you trust that love leads to inspiration? Will you create with all your heart? When you can trust yourSelf to give your authentic 100%, you’re there. Your heart is HUGE and if anyone has the heart for this, it’s you. ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

“You Can’t Create Harmony by YourSelf and You Don’t Work Alone” Nothing’s more uplifting than harmonious collaboration... personally or professionally. You feel safe and fulfilled. Like so many other good things, harmonious collaboration leads to more of the same. Virtuous cycles have the power to become self-sustaining. The most fun you can have is to go on a mission with friends. Some folks are always pushing for a close… and it seems like they really dig it. You’re happiest when you collaborate with others – and friendship grows from it. What would you say if your child asked, “Mommy, do you work with other people or work alone?” Your first answer in a society that is increasingly time-shifted and distant might be, “I mostly work alone,” but then perhaps you add, “other times I get to work with a team of people.” The more you think about it, the more you realize, you never work alone. Collaboration is what brings “the work” to life, whether it’s the collaboration of colleagues or an artist with their audience. You feel like you’re going it alone when you find yourSelf pushing for a close over collaborating. It feeds your soul to demonstrate value rather than talk about it. You know you’re pushing for a close when you get so attached to an outcome that you lose sight of the joy of value creation. Get too attached and you’re afraid of missing out or losing something. Instead of counting your chickens before they hatch, count your blessings. Instead of pushing for a close, create value collaboratively and share the love. When you hear the harmony, the whole’s become greater than the sum of its parts. You have a passion for purpose and creativity is how you unleash it. The creative space is a place you can go to make your hero’s journey each day, multiple times a day. You can live the heroic life you’ve always dreamed of, ever since you were the same size as your tiny child… and you don’t have to take the journey alone. You’re part of something greater. ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

Looking for a way to practice a more inclusive perspective? This study found that Mindfulness decreases racial and age biases and the automaticity of response. Read the article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eFyrMV7P

Up with they/them! Up with she/her! Up with he/him! Up with planet Earth! Imagine what it could be like if more people shared this perspective. The common good doesn’t originate in hate, greed, jealousy, or any of the other fear-based emotional inventions of society. For winners to exist must there also be losers? Someone may have taught you that there must be both winners and losers, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Two teams play in the Super Bowl. Certainly, everyone doesn’t get a blue ribbon. Only one team becomes the champion. Even then, members of either team of professional athletes remain incredibly fortunate. Strong, fast, wealthy, admired… when you’re mindful, it’s hard to see compulsory losers here, no matter who grabs the brass ring. Forget about, “there’s always next year.” There’s always life (as long as you’re also rooting for our planet’s environment). Life can only be beautiful when you hold the intention to make it that way. A life of greed is a life of fear. To live a beautiful life, you’ve got to contribute and do “the work” to surround yourSelf with beauty. This has nothing to do with looking good in a mirror and everything to do with how you live. Regardless of how little, or how much, money you may have, life can be beautiful if you start from a place of unity and compassion, as opposed to a place of division and isolation. Start with compassion for yourSelf, and you’ll experience true compassion for others. Instead of meeting fear and anger with more of the same, begin seeing the fear and anger itself as a root cause. Instead of allowing yourSelf to become pitted against another, play for the common good. Choose unity over division. Stand with humanity and fight fear - not people. ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

“Respect Authenticity to Become Authorized by Authenticity” Want to pay homage to your own authentic nature? Make sure you pay homage to authenticity in others. You've got to accept it in order to stand by it - in truth and honesty. If you think you can help someone, great! However, in order to authorize the authenticity you project, you’ve got to respect the very same in those around you. Whatever someone else feels, authentically, is just right for them (as long as it’s not oriented towards denigrating or hurting others). They don’t need someone to save them. Every time “up at bat” with their own shadow is another chance to grow. As you generate authentic value, there’s no need to seek credit or gratification. If someone doesn’t like your stuff – that’s okay. You do that authentic thing you do because it’s you, not because someone else likes it or not. Not because someone gives you credit for it. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s who you are. You’re not doing this in order to get a million followers. You’re doing it because it’s a net contribution to the universe. If someone says, “I don’t like that,” respect the authenticity of their feelings. Maybe they’re not being authentic. Maybe they don’t admit to themselves what actually IS authentic. But you do, and you wish to surround yourSelf with a world full of beauty and peace. This is what matters. Compassion is a good example. Until you look for what’s genuinely authentic and give it authority, who will? You’ve got to be compassionate with yourself to know true compassion for others. If you loathe yourself, you won’t be able to see others as valid and valued. The people who walk out of arguments, who either will not, or cannot, talk with you from a foundation of common human empathy are not acting out of strength. It’s not powerful to walk out – it’s powerless. It’s their weakness that dictates their inability to work together or see things as they are. It may hurt like they have power – but it’s really you reacting to their pain. It’s a reflection of their fear, which leads them to possessiveness, because they’re afraid of losing something. This is the zero-sum game. You cannot feel like it’s your fault just because someone else doesn’t see something. They can only see what they allow themselves to see, and the value you create may be beyond their ability to see. All they see might be the shadow – and if shadow is their total reality, what a terrible place to exist, only seeing the shadow. Shouldn’t we feel compassion for those who only see shadow? Change will only come when we are able to move the people who cannot feel compassion to feeling compassion – and it has to start within each of us. We must honor what is authentic within ourSelves and others. If not us, then who will do it? ~From the Desk of Jeff Nelder, Chief Mindfulness Officer, Cloud9 ? Jeff Nelder 2024

Looking for a way to become porous, conserve your peace of mind and, “win the battle against false narratives and divisiveness?” Dr. Amishi Jha runs a lab within the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami and has researched this subject. Here’s how mindfulness helps. Read the article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/deY87Ke