9. Wellbeing is the Feeling of Being “one with the world and my surroundings”: Reflection about the Environmental Dimension of Wellbeing in Brazil

Environmental Spirituality and Wellbeing - Integrating Social and Therapeutic Theory and Practice - Jeff Leonardi

Bettina E. Schmidt [+-]
University of Wales Trinity St David
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Prof Bettina E. Schmidt is a cultural anthropologist and currently professor in study of religions at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre. She received her doctorate and post-doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany. Previously she worked at Marburg University, Oxford University and Bangor University. She was also visiting professor at the City University of New York and visiting scholar at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. Prof Schmidt is the current President of the British Association for the Study of Religions. She has published extensively on Caribbean and Latin American religions, religious experience, anthropology of religion, identity, cultural theories, gender, and migration. Her main fieldwork has been conducted in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, New York City, and Brazil. She is the author of Spirit and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experiences (2016, Bloomsbury), Caribbean Diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City (2008, Ashgate), Einführung in die Religionsethnologie (2008, Reimer Verlag Berlin), and co-editor of Spirit Possession and Trance: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2010, Continuum), and of Handbook of Contemporary Brazilian Religions (2016, Brill).

Description

Based on research about spirituality and wellbeing in Brazil, this chapter reflects on the idea that wellbeing is more than living well, even more than living well together. Instead, it puts forward the notion that the sense of wellbeing depends closely on our relationship with others, human and non-human agencies, as well as with the world we are living in. The environmental aspect within the notion of wellbeing was long neglected despite the importance founding scholars of the study of religious experience such as William James and later Alister Hardy attributed to nature. More recently the ‘connectedness to nature theory’ (Restall & Conrad, 2015) which points to the importance of the relationship with the natural world for wellbeing, gained attraction among scholars. Starting will a discussion of nature as an importance place for spiritual experience, this chapter illustrates that our environment is more than the place we live but a living entity with which we develop relationship. Enriched by excerpts from interviews and surveys conducted in Brazil the chapter illustrate the interconnectedness that is at the core of the expanding understanding of wellbeing.

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Citation

Schmidt, Bettina. 9. Wellbeing is the Feeling of Being “one with the world and my surroundings”: Reflection about the Environmental Dimension of Wellbeing in Brazil. Environmental Spirituality and Wellbeing - Integrating Social and Therapeutic Theory and Practice. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. Jun 2025. ISBN 9781800505841. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=45140. Date accessed: 28 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.45140. Jun 2025

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