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This paper presents qualitative data from a pilot study on lived experiences of ecological grief and examines how nature-based sports and physical activities shape attachment to proximal natural spaces and contribute to cosmic attunement through embodied, meaning-making and micro-sensory processes. More specifically, we turn to the framework of body ecology and cosmic sport, herein conceptualized as a relational ontological posture, to examine place-attachment processes and shed light on the ways in which nature-based sports can foster human-nature solidarities and unsettle dominant utilitarian and colonial narratives in sport philosophy. Drawing on embodied narrative methodology and inspired by the ‘bodymindspirit’ method of walking pláticas (conversations) rooted in Chicana/Latina feminist epistemology, go-along interviews (n = 8) were employed to bear witness to the moving, sensing and doing bodies of nature-based sport practitioners who experienced ecological grief caused by anthropogenic actions. Data reveals that ecological loss transforms everyday active living habits and nature-immersed activities, a process that aligns with the concept of ‘dismosis’ and limits opportunities for the body to restore homeostasis. Place-attachment, enabled through nature-based sports, appears as a primary gateway forge symbiotic and cosmosic relationships to proximal green/bluespaces through three main processes: 1) Valuing place-based cultural identity; 2) Decelerating into symbiosis and 3) Connecting to the cosmoses through the infinitesimal. The discussion calls for a critical sport philosophy of place to strengthen engagement with relational ontologies, urging the field to take a more assertive role in addressing urgent ecological challenges by restoring body-land-cosmos relations through cosmic sport.
Emmanuelle Larocque (Mon,) studied this question.