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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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snav

@qorprate

Mar 11

this snapped something into place for me: the tension between the "[superegoic] imperative to enjoy" (which only really emerged in the last 100 years or so) and the explicit cultivation of positive emotion, which is something i tried casually once, but ended up feeling hollow abt

snav

@qorprate

Mar 11

i don't have a lot more to add to what you already said, but i agree that the difficult part now + first step is becoming attuned to *negative* emotion in an expanded space of awareness

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

Replying to

@qorprate

oof that imperative to enjoy tho and then for me i’ve had to slowly go back to positive emotion too after becoming very comfortable with negative emotions!

3:51 AM · Mar 11, 2022Twitter for iPhone