Welcome home, I'm Dr. Tama, a minister, licensed psychologist and sacred artist.

And this is Homecoming, a podcast to facilitate your journey home to yourself.

While I will provide weekly inspiration and mental health tips, this podcast is not the

same as personalized therapy.

I'm so excited you're on the journey.

If you want to request specific topics or to submit a poem for me to read on the podcast,

email me at homecomingpodcastsatgmail.com.

Also to build our community, don't forget to like, subscribe and share.

Let's begin.

Welcome home co-journers, I'm glad you're here for another episode and I'm grateful we have a

poem from Daniel C. in Los Angeles and Daniel writes, boy, come back to you, thrive in clarity,

truths, rest. Go play, boy, be free. Yes, Daniel, thank you so much for sharing your poem

and it is aligned with what I want to talk about today, which is the power of play,

the power of play, the healing power of play. And I don't just mean play for children.

There are many articles about why play is important for the development of children,

whether they are young children, early childhood, middle childhood, even adolescence.

But I want to talk about continuing to have playfulness in your adult life and there are many

benefits to play, to enjoyment, to pleasure. And I know for some of you, even hearing those words,

play, enjoyment, fun, pleasure, for some of you, even hearing that can be uncomfortable.

There is this idea that you have to constantly grind, constantly struggle, constantly press,

constantly pursue. And you can look up and you have spent a lifetime chasing, chasing titles,

chasing degrees, chasing status, chasing respect. And we can get to a place in our lives

...