Holy moly, where has the year gone? I jump on the mic to say hello and share a quick life update. I talk about what I am learning in this season of life and what this might mean for the future of the podcast. (Hint: the topics of lifelong play and creativity isn’t going anywhere!) Have an amazing end of 2021 and happy new year!

For the shownotes from this episode visit http://louisepanwo.com/s4e9. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

We are starting 2021 with more tensions than ever. What is it going to take to bring us together from all across the different spectrums? Could play be the answer? In this episode I speak with Jeff Harry, positive psychology coach, speaker, workshop facilitator and my favorite person to collaborate with on TikTok! We discuss the choice between understanding and being right and the power of play to heal our divisions. We talk about what Jeff has learned about how play can change the world through everything from consulting for companies like Google and Facebook to being a black man. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Why the lack of shared humanity has contributed to the divisions we see in our world today
• How play can help us to see each other's shared humanity
• What you need to do before engaging with someone who shares different beliefs than you.
• Examples of how play has healed relationships and divisions in our world

For more on Jeff and the shownotes from this episode visit http://louisepanwo.com/s4e8. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

*Content Warning: This episode contains a slur word that refers to black people that is shared in the context of a story from Jeff's past (46:50 - 47:15).

When Shawnrey Notto describes embodiment, it sounds like it has a lot in common with play: engaging the senses, feeling fully alive, savoring every moment. Yet most of us understand play as a concept way more than embodiment. 

In this episode,  I speak with Shawnrey, a sex and intimacy coach and dancer about how embodiment and play are interconnected and how both are key to feeling fully alive. How can we feel good when a lot of our worldly pleasures have been stripped away from the pandemic? Embodiment might just be the answer. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The definition of embodiment and how it relates to play
• How Shawnrey came to discover embodiment through trauma
• How to feel embodied when we are isolated during a pandemic
• The challenges that come with culture's conflation of sensuality and sexuality

For more on Shawnrey and this episode's shownotes visit louisepanwo.com/s4e7. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes!