Like I genuinely like the people in my life. But somewhere along the way the skill of going deeper just atrophied.
You get into patterns with people. You talk about the same things. Someone asks how you are and you say fine and they say fine and you both move on. And it's not that either of you doesn't care, it's more like nobody knows how to break the pattern.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The vulnerability muscle feels weak from disuse. Like even when I want to go deeper I don't know how to get there without it feeling forced or weird or making it a whole thing.
Has anyone found anything that actually helps? Not therapy, just in regular friendships?