Walking the Web of Interbeing With Your Heart
Amos Clifford is one of the most influential global contributors in the world of forest therapy. He was among the first to introduce the practice of forest bathing in North America and founded the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, which has trained and certified over 2000 guides in 60 countries.Join Amos on a stroll through the Joshua Tree desert as he explains the philosophical foundation for his lifelong work as a guide: a practical vision in which humanity lives in close, creative alliance with the earth. In Amos’s insightful story, each person's individual genius holds a part of what's needed for our species to evolve beyond crisis into wholeness. The specific skills and craft of a guide are a vital asset on the journey to discover the forgotten, wilder parts of the self and build a reciprocal relationship with the sentient intelligence of the earth. The topics of this conversation include:The wisdom tradition of guiding.Why our current times are especially calling for guides.Why we are never separate from nature.What to do when nature isn’t a comfortable place.The power of curiosity to create meaning and relationship.Nature connection in every day life.At the end of the episode Amos Clifford shares a guided forest bathing practice: 'Walking the Web of Interbeing with Your Heart'.Amos Clifford is the author of the best selling Your Guide to Forest Bathing (Conari Press 2018). After studying Buddhist philosophy for over 20 years, in 2004 Amos founded Sky Creek Dharma Center in Chico, California, where he emphasized the importance of meditation practice in wild places. By 2008 he no longer identified as Buddhist, instead preferring the nameless and sometimes unnamable experiences he had in natural settings, and had been having since early childhood. This led to a deepening inquiry regarding relationships between humans and the more-than-human world. Between 2010 and 2012 Amos took his inquiry into wild places, and with the help of School of Lost Borders and Men of Spirit he had a year of intense wilderness practice, which led to the vision for the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs. Inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, Amos founded ANFT in 2012 and over the next two years developed what is now known as the "Standard Sequence" of the ANFT school of Forest Therapy. Amos holds a BS in Organization Development and an MA in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. He teaches about Forest Therapy and leads retreats internationally.natureandforesttherapy.earthBook titles referenced in the interview:Spretnak, Charlene. Resurgence of the Real.Plotkin, Bill. Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche.Support the show