The powerful benefits of hanging out, with Sheila Liming

My guest this week is Professor Sheila Liming, author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time which shows us how just getting together can be a potent act of resistance. Almost every day it seems that our world becomes more fractured, more digital, and more chaotic. But Sheila has the answer: we simply need to hang out more. 

The book is called Hanging Out and in it, she explores what it means to kill time socially, in the presence of others, and why doing that matters. It’s styled a manifesto – a defense of what once felt very normal and has now started to feel like a dying practice, especially since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
 
She is reminding people that social relationships take work and that, if they feel like work, that’s okay and potentially good, even. She is arguing for a reclamation of our collective social investments and also for increased awareness about what it is that we produce when  we appear to be “non-productive,” in the traditional or superficial sense of that idea.

Her vision for the future would be one in which social priorities are recognized as priorities. It would be one in which all facets of life – from work to urban planning, to the structuring of public space, to social behaviors and manners – are organized around the expectation of social activity and the need for humans to hang out and relax in each other’s presence. That’s a vision that also hinges on the taking of time; we have to take the time to allow ourselves to be less productive in a strict, material sense and more productive in a social, communally networked sense.

When we are more socially connected we are more likely to feel a commitment to our community, and a sense of responsibility to our wider world. Being locked away in our silos, only encourages a self-centred approach to life. We need a whole and heart-centred connection to others and to the eco-system that sustains us.

Thanks Sheila sharing the simple art of hanging out and the powerfully positive impact it can have in our lives.

Thank you also for showing us that not one size fits all when it comes to the concept of hanging out, but that we can all find ways to connect that suit our individual personalities.

You can find out more about Sheila’s work on www.sheilaliming.com/ and follow her on amazon @sheilaliming 

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