i have a lot of resistance to metta / loving-kindness practices, or any kind of deliberate cultivation of positive emotion, and i think a lot of it has to do with feeling like as a kid i was constantly pressured into pretending i was happier and more satisfied than i was
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the practices i've been drawn to instead, like circling or bio-emotive, have felt so tremendously relieving by contrast because they create space for me to express all the unhappiness and dissatisfaction i've been storing up over a lifetime
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yes! big agree.
I was once part of a group exercise where, in pairs, we had to repeat to each other:
"you are enough."
"I know."
every other person really, genuinely *was* enough; but it still felt dumb because I so lacked the freedom to say they weren't.
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yeah i really dislike exercises like this unless there's specifically a lot of room to disagree or otherwise have whatever experience you're having, without the exercise prescribing that experience in advance