Power of Hanging Out
In an age of busy, do we allow ourselves the luxury of killing time just hanging out?
When we are 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.
If the Pandemic taught us anything it was the power of hanging out in real life, without a screen between us to muffle emotional connection and the release of endorphins. My Brave New Girl podcast guest this week is author and associate professor Sheila Liming and in her book Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time she shares why the simple art of hanging out can powerfully impact our lives.
Not one size fits all when it comes to the concept of hanging out, but we can all find ways to connect that suit our individual personalities. When we connect, we participate, and care and make efforts towards looking after each other and the world we live in.
That seems like reason enough to put the brakes on busy and welcome in a bit more chilling in the company of other folk.
THE ART OF KILLING TIME
Connecting is a human necessity. Without it we become isolated, lonely and feel less responsible towards our fellow humans and the world we need to care for.
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.
In her book 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.
HANG OUT & SHARE STORIES
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story can make all the difference to the lives of others and the world we live in. If you are working in a way that positively impacts the future health of the planet please get in touch.