This month for the ANFT Guide Spotlight feature, we are honored to share a conversation with Phyllis Look.
Phyllis Look is Hawaiʻi’s first certified forest therapy guide, and the owner and founder of Forest Bathing Hawaiʻi (based in Honolulu on the island of O‘ahu). She is also certified as a global consultant with Wellbeing Inspired by Nature and an ANFT forest therapy trail consultant. Her walks were named one of 2021’s best green travel experiences in the world by Treehugger, featured in in-flight magazines for United and Hawaiian Airlines, and recommended by The New York Times, Forbes, National Geographic, and Lonely Planet.
Could you tell us how you first got involved with Nature Therapy?
In the decade or so before I retired from my “day job” in marketing communications, I began thinking about what might come After. I considered becoming an interpreter for the Deaf – I’ve always loved American Sign Language and had some previous opportunities in my earlier career in the theatre to interact with the Deaf community. I threw myself into evening ASL classes at a community college, but a combination of factors led me eventually to abandon that course. I picked up the quest for a post-retirement vocation when I rediscovered my love for hiking and began to consider how I might, in my own modest way, contribute to more environmental action. Forest therapy was not as well represented online back in 2017, nevertheless, articles about it and about ANFT specifically made their way to me. Without knowing much about the practice, I signed up for the training of Cohort 19 in Costa Rica. I was blown away by the quality of the pedagogy and had a memorable visceral experience of coming back to my own “medicine” during the walk we co-guided at the conclusion of that one-week immersion.
How long have you been guiding?
I’ve been guiding since March 2018. I remember clearly that first practice (unpaid) walk in our third month of training with ANFT and look back now with some amusement at how differently I guide today.
How many walks have you guided?
At this writing, I’ve guided 395 in-person and remotely guided walks.
What might other guides be surprised to know about you?
That my first career was in the theatre and that I have an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. As an actor, I also had the privilege of portraying two famous “Ann”s. These real-life characters and their words live with me still:
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.” – Annie Sullivan, The Miracle Worker
“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” – Anne Frank
What is the most remarkable thing that has happened since you started guiding?
How much the Way of the Guide has also become a way of life! I’m so much less judgmental, more easy-going and patient. I’m so grateful to have received this “personality transplant” and look forward to deepening into this wisdom as I age.
Could you share a favorite invitation with readers?
I call this original invitation “Remember Me.” Partner up with someone you came with. You’ll both have an opportunity to be “remembered,” but first: one of you (in each pair), choose a patch of earth to lie on and assume whatever pose you would like. (Think Keith Haring figures or chalk outlines at a crime scene.) Just rest there; allow your body to fall into the earth. Your partner will be adorning the silhouette of your body with whatever gifts of the forest they find nearby. When your outline is complete, your partner will signal you to slowly come to standing. (Try not to disturb the objects which are indicating where you lay.) As you look down on your outline together, what are you noticing? After sharing, switch roles.
Some notes from the field: This invitation works best when the pairings are people who know each other (there may be some edges about invading a stranger’s personal space). I sometimes offer this invitation after we’ve traveled a short distance during which they’ve been invited to find a “gift from the forest” (anything that calls to them that’s already on the ground). Using those “gifts” in hand, the group can practice together a shorter version of this invitation by creating a “crown” around the head of one participant who has volunteered to lie on the ground. I would then introduce the full/partner version with the language above. “Remember Me” works well right before Sit Spot, too. As an option to wandering out to find their spot, I suggest that they may prefer to sit right in the middle of or next to the outline that remembers them.
A crown of gifts from the forest
“Remember Me” – sharing intentions and noticings. PC: Ana Kaʻahanui
MAUI FIRES – HOW YOU CAN HELP
I’ve been invited to say something about the relief efforts underway after wildfires destroyed the town of Lāhainā, and about how those who are reading this newsletter and/or blog might support those efforts. While I am not from Maui, I can speak as someone who belongs to Hawaiʻi, where we are all connected by our love for our island home.
There has been an outpouring of aloha from afar and on behalf of everyone here, mahalo nui loa (thank you very much). As we know from other fire-ravaged communities, the people of Maui will be experiencing the impacts of this tragedy long after it has left the headlines; meanwhile, their immediate needs are huge. If you’ve not already given, and would like to help them on the road to recovery, most effective is a monetary donation to a reputable non-profit in Hawaiʻi. The Maui Strong Fund ranks at the top of these. And here are some other suggestions.
Tending to the mental health of those affected, as we know, is an essential component of recovery and I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be offering a series of forest bathing walks on Maui in early November. These walks were originally conceived as part of an Arbor Day program at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, but may now take on a heightened therapeutic purpose, especially for the displaced residents, first responders, volunteers, and those who’ve suffered losses of all kinds.
ANFT will be sponsoring one of these nature therapy walks, allowing Maui residents to attend at no cost! You can help match ANFT’s gift and contribute to making another walk free to Maui families. Sponsor a ticket for a keiki (kid) or their parent/guardian here.
Your generosity is greatly appreciated! *
Finally, many have also expressed concern about the 150-year-old banyan tree that was a symbol of Lāhainā. In this extended news interview with one of the arborists working on treating the tree, you can hear him say that “there’s still life in every one of the roots and the main trunk, so that’s where our hope is…and the rest is up to the tree.”