Friendships can have a major impact on your health and wellbeing. Friends can be there for you to celebrate the good times but also be a wonderful support when things get tough. Aside from preventing loneliness, friendships have many benefits, such as:
Boosting your happiness and reducing your stress
Enhancing your sense of belonging and purpose
Helping you cope with traumas such as job loss, divorce, serious illnesses or the death of a loved one
Encouraging you to change your unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of exercise
It can sometimes be difficult to maintain a healthy friendship when most of us are busy running around with so many tasks to do on a daily basis. Take five minutes of your day today to see how your friends are doing. Letting your friends or acquaintances know you care about them and appreciate them can help strengthen your bond. It is just as important to be a good friend as it is to be surrounded by good, uplifting friends.
Here are some tips that can help you nurture your long-time friendships as well as new ones:
Be kind. Kindness is the core of a successful and healthy friendship. Think of your friendship as an emotional bank account. Every act of kindness deposits money into this account, while unhelpful criticism and negativity draw down the account.
Listen up. Start a conversation and find out what’s going on in your friend’s life. With eye contact, body language and an occasional brief comment, let them know you are paying close attention. When your friend is going through a tough time, be empathetic, but don’t give advice unless your friend asks for it.
Open up. Being able to willingly reveal personal experiences about yourself can show that your friend holds a special place in your life and can deepen your connection.
Show that you can be trusted. Being reliable, responsible and dependable is important in making a friendship stronger. By keeping your word and following through with commitments, you show that you value them. And always make sure that when your friend shares personal, confidential information, you keep it private to build trust.
Make yourself available. Making an effort to stay in touch or checking in to see how they’ve been can help strengthen your friendship.
Manage your nerves with mindfulness. Use mindfulness exercises to help you reshape your thinking instead of always imagining the worst of social situations. Each time you imagine the worst, pay attention to how often the embarrassing situations you’re afraid of actually take place. A lot of times, these scenarios we play in our heads never happen. Even if embarrassing situations do happen, just remind yourself that these feelings will pass.