Losing our Ability to ‘Huddle’ Hindering Human Connection

If we pay attention to what the research tells us, we are an extremely lonely generation.

Key points:

We may have hyper-connectivity, but we’re starved of the human connection needed to thrive.

There’s consequences to this on a personal level, but also an ecological one as our consumption of resources is motivated by individualistic pursuits and not what’s healthy for the whole.

Jade Miles and her partner Charlie Showers run Black Barn Farm in Victoria, promoting the benefits of regenerative farming and restoring community-focused ways of living.

Huddle encourages us to build a future focused on the togetherness we’ve abandoned.

“The story of ‘separation’ has been pretty prevalent for the entirety of the Industrial Age,” Jade told Hope 103.2.

“What that does is allow us to say, ‘what’s in it for me?, what’s in it for me?’ and we say that endlessly [without] asking, ‘how much is enough?’.”

Jade’s book Huddle encourages us to build a future focused on the togetherness we’ve abandoned and see the benefits of reacquainting ourselves with nature.

“’Huddle’ signifies a moment of closeness and coordination among individuals,” Jade said.

“We’re not machines, we’re really beautiful intimate, intrinsic, complex creatures.”

“How structured or organic it is remains entirely up to you.”

City-dwellers aren’t excluded from participating in changing our rituals of consumption or connection.

In fact, it’s from the cities that a lot of beliefs about social need and “enough-ness” spread.

“The narrative that comes from the masses of media channels that shout at us all every day, [speaks] to us about and endless ‘growth’ story,” Jade said.

“An endless ‘bigger-ing’ and ‘more’ story that sets in all of us this belief that we don’t have enough.”

“It reduces us down to [being] industrial pieces of cogs in a machine,” Jade said.

Listen to the full conversation in the player above.

“But we’re not machines, we’re really beautiful intimate, intrinsic, complex creatures.

“Since the beginning of time have had a really beautiful connection to the natural world, but we don’t do that anymore.”

In suburban or apartment living, “huddling” could look like slipping an invite under the neighbours door to go to the local park for a picnic, or gather in the complex’s courtyard for afternoon tea.

“It takes courage to do that,” Jade said.

To move toward a huddle mindset, Jade suggests a “self-audit”.

“Because we’ve all become so frenetically busy and – in many ways – so isolated in our own individual worlds that stepping back into that human, relational way of being can feel a bit confronting.”

To move toward a huddle mindset, Jade suggests a “self-audit” where we ask ourselves questions including: how we define enough, where we’re actively collaborating, who’d we rely on in an emergency and where we’re unnecessarily isolating.

“It takes bravery to put rituals on the ground that you share with people,” Jade said.

“[But] we need to bring intentional awareness to the way we navigate through the world.”

Jade Miles book Huddle is out now.

Listen to the full interview with Jade Miles in the player above.

Feature image: Book cover used with permission