Back when we were kids, there was always an ample supply of potential friends provided through school, clubs, and sports activities. We didn’t have to go in search for friends, as kids just naturally gravitated toward other kids that they felt a kind of kindred spirit with. And how authentic those young, innocent connections turned out to be. Our childhood friendships may have been the most genuine friendships of our entire lifetimes.
As we get older, it isn’t as easy to make new friends. Sure, we manage to form meaningful friendships at work, at church, or among the neighbors, but busy lifestyles tend to keep these friendships somewhat limited in scope. Friendship takes time to nourish and grow, and time is something busy working parents may have little of.
Still, even amid the crazy schedules we keep in adulthood, friendship is essential to our maintaining positive connections in life—and positive connections contribute to our mental health and wellness.
How Friendship Impacts Mental Health
Just knowing we have positive friendships, those that add meaning to our life, is very beneficial to mental health. Our friends accept us just as we are, flaws and all, and choose to keep us in their lives. Friendship grounds us, giving us the knowledge that there are special people out there who have our backs and will always be there for us.
In this way, friendship fortifies our psychological state, helping us feel confident, secure, and loved. These assets keep us moving forward in a space of positivity throughout our days.
Studies have demonstrated the benefits of friendships on mental health. These benefits include:
- We have lower levels of anxiety and stress just knowing we have someone who cares about us
- Provides additional coping support when life throws some difficulties at us
- Helps us to work through challenges and encourages us to never give up
- Increases our sense of self-worth because they believe in our potential
- Helps us retain proper perspective when we feel like our world is falling apart
- Helps reduce loneliness and isolation
Building Positive Friendships
Simply put, people are hardwired for connection. As significant as our spouse and our family members are to adding meaning in our lives, the role of a dear friend is right up there—some would say possibly more so.
Friendship often changes over the years, sometimes taking a back seat during particularly demanding life stages, but its intrinsic nature never changes. This is why you can sometimes go for long periods of time, even years, without seeing a close friend, but when we do finally reconnect it feels like no time has passed at all.
The love and shared life experiences that are at the core of the friendship remain unaltered by the passage of time. With these people there are no pretenses, there is no need to boast or brag because an authentic friend won’t care a lick about any of the superficial aspects of our lives. They simply accept us, period.
Consider these 3 tips for cultivating positive connections with others:
- Believe in your own value. Once you accept that you have something to offer a relationship, you’ll believe that others would want to befriend you. You begin to realize that you not only have the capacity to love, but deserve to be loved back. That vulnerability and trust is what real friendship is build upon.
- Be authentic. True friendship is only going to thrive on a foundation made of authenticity. Genuine friendship is humble and real, unafraid of exposing our shortcomings. With a real friend, there is no need to put on a false front to impress the other person because in an honest friendship those trappings are meaningless.
- Realize friendship is reciprocal. Friendship is a two-way street. If only one of the parties is making an effort to grow the friendship it will surely soon shrivel and die. For a positive friendship to flourish it requires nurturing behaviors in equal measure by both
Make the effort to grow a special friendship just like you would tend to a budding flower, and enjoy the reward of camaraderie, love, and positivity.
