I mentioned on Twitter that to a significant extent, Circling taught me what “just be yourself” means to such an extent that I have a consistently good time on dates because I don’t feel like I need to perform. Somebody asked me to elaborate, so here's what I wrote in response:

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For those who don’t know, Circling is… a practice that's infamously hard to try to describe or define. That's because it's structurally anti-structure and anti-expectation, which is what allows for “being yourself”.

(At least, that's my experience. There are different schools of it; my experience is from the Circling Europe style and may not apply to others.)

Many activities have rules: “soccer is played by two teams that…”. Circling mostly does not have rules, though it does have principles.

It's done by people coming together and sharing their experience of what's happening.

[...]

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First published:
December 16th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KXZS7Ew9mZFeB8NoA/circling-as-practice-for-just-be-yourself

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“Circling as practice for ‘just be yourself’” by Kaj_Sotala 07:42 Share

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“Circling as practice for ‘just be yourself’” by Kaj_Sotala