Friendship

In life, many of us go through periods of friendships – good or bad. Ever heard of the phrase, people come into your life for a lifetime, season or a reason? Well, I’m a firm believer in that. People will be gravitated towards you for all different reasons; could be your fun personality, humour, life experiences, your values, or being very similar to each other. But apart from those things, it’s something that’s built for a period of time and it’s what you do to keep and earn those friendships.

When you are a lot younger, it is about gaining as much friendships as possible but over time, when everybody moves on to other things in their life, it’s more focused on quality, not quantity. Focus on the ones who want to still be part of your life as much as they want you in theirs. In these modern times, it’s good to do your own thing and it’s normal to be wrapped up with life, but never neglect the people who are always going to be there for you, no matter what.

I only knew the benefits of having friendships and that being the obvious of being sociable and not good to feel alone. There’s a lot of health benefits.

• Good friendships significantly lowers blood pressure
• Increase your sense of belonging and purpose
• Boost your happiness and reduce your stress
• Improve your self-confidence and self-worth
• Help you cope with traumas, such as divorce, serious illness, losing a job or the death of a loved one
• Encourages you to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of exercise

These all sound good, right? There’s other important things that need to be taken into account:

• Loyalty
• Companionship
• Trust
• Love
• Care
• Communication
• Respect

One other thing, is to initiate things. Yes, we can get caught up with work, family life and other priorities, etc. But never let yourself be that person who will wait for something to be initiated. You will want to be able to be one hundred percent committed to doing something that you would surely want to spend time doing with your friends, right? So make the effort. The less you spend effort, the more you will start to push people away. Social media has undeniably made it a lot harder to make friends long term. It’s quick use, dispose, ghost.

If you have done all those things bullet pointed, then that that’s great! You’re a decent, worthy friend. If a person isn’t willing to make an effort from their end, cut them off and move on. You did your best and that person was in your life for a season. You have yet to meet the ones for a reason or even better, a lifetime!