I’m reminding you nice and early in case you need to make a plan to make a plan to get together and have a lunch date or something, or even just to remind yourself to call somebody.
Friends are good for a person’s heart and soul. Literally! But friendship is very much a two-way thing.
One has to give as much as one gets – and I don’t mean “stuff” here either. I’m talking about time spent together, laughing, sharing experiences, chatting and, more importantly, listening to the other person. Really listening to hear – and not listening to talk when they’ve finished speaking. Often friends just need to talk to somebody who they know really cares about them – they don’t want to hear how the same thing happened to you.
If a friend tells you a juicy secret, don’t go blab it out to the world in general afterwards. That’s not what real friends do.
Research has shown that people who have lots of friends are much more likely to survive a major illness than somebody who has no friends. This is because the loving support (both physically and mentally) of friends helps a person get better.
Companionship is also known to reduce stress. People who are married to a person they both love and are friends with, are more likely to stay married. (Yes – it’s very possible to love somebody and not like them very much!)
In your lifetime, you’ll probably make around 396 friends, but according to research, only one in 12 friendships last and of those, only about four will be really close friends.
These days, with social media, it’s easy to think you have loads of friends, but this is not always the case. Next time you meet up with your friends, put your cellphones away and talk properly to each other, instead of chatting via text messages.
Amazingly enough, scientists have also discovered that there are animals – like dolphins, bats, chimps, baboons, elephants, horses and… wait for it… hyenas that have been known to form friendships for life with individuals that are not the same species. (I was quite surprised to see that they did not mention dogs and cats – especially seeing as how they have bonds with their humans.)
Remember people… in order to have a friend, you have to be a friend!
Sibo
