Many of us have adopted a frenetic lifestyle which leaves us with little time to appreciate, value and nurture our friendships, thereby opening ourselves to emotional distress because we have no one to turn to when the going gets tough.
When was the last time you gathered with your friends for fun with loads of laughter, music, food and drinks, letting go of the cares of the world and wallowing in the joy of been alive, sharing your sorrows and joys, your failures and achievements?
Most of us have taken recourse to social media-based relationships. We are online sharing highly edited versions of our lives which makes everything look good. We share only the parts of our lives we are comfortable with, giving the impression that all is well with us even though it may not be.
We should make out time for our friends in real life. Social media relationships can be sterile. We find it difficult to communicate when we are going through a bad patch or having a hard time on social media. Real-life relationships are best carried on face to face. This way we can open up and genuinely confide in a friend without the internet as a wall.
Things can go wrong at any given time, challenges are thrown up without notice and we have to deal with them. Sometimes these challenges are such that they seem to overwhelm us. This is why we need genuine friends who we can share and discuss our worries and concerns. We should really not die in silence; we should seek for support when we need it.
There is a certain stigma associated with any type of emotional struggle, making us afraid to share our worries and concerns with friends so that we do not appear weak or timid. This leaves us isolated trying to cope on our own. What are friends for if you cannot share your concerns and worries with them and seek solutions?
When we are lonely and alone, our imagination tends to run away with itself, we feel sad and low-spirited. We should nurture our friendships to avoid these types of situations. Real friends are for confiding in, for caring, for giving wise advice and for reassuring us that it is always darkest before the dawn.
Nurture your friendships. Make time for your friends. All relationships require nurturing. Don’t take your friends for granted because looking after our friendships means that we are looking after ourselves.
