Value of Friendship: 4 Ways Friendships Benefit You

Friendship is a social bond between two or more people who often share certain interests, similarities, or qualities that make for strong ties. Close friends can meet anywhere: High school, work, clubs, and houses of worship are common places where strong friendships form. True friendships can positively impact the quality of your life, with your friends becoming loved ones you can confide in, spend time with, and call on in hard times.

Building and maintaining strong relationships with friends can promote your overall well-being. Consider the following benefits of friendship:

1. 1. Acceptance: Being your true self around others is not always easy. However, in real friendships, you don’t need to hide parts of your personality because a good friend accepts you as you are. They don’t judge you for your gaps in knowledge or mistakes, allowing you to be your fullest self with them.
2. 2. Growth: Real friends will grow side by side and reflect each others’ maturation. Friends might experience conflicts, distinct life phases, and endure challenging times individually and collectively, and moving through those difficult moments enables growth.
3. 3. Happiness: Great friends spend a lot of time together, passively chatting through texts or actively going on excursions. No matter how you spend time, these shared activities can boost happiness and lead to a more fulfilling life.
4. 4. Self-love: Feeling loved by a friend increases your ability to love yourself, boosting your self-esteem. True friends will tell each other what they value about each other, helping friends see their positive qualities.

In analyzing the strength of your friendship, consider the following qualities:

1. 1. Appreciation: Friends who value one another will share gifts, exchange compliments, and foster a sense of mutual respect.
2. 2. Ease: Being able to spend time together and understand one another is a strong marker of friendship. Friendships that take effort—because they revolve around inauthenticity or judgment—may not be true friendships.
3. 3. Reliability: Having someone to call on and knowing they will lend a hand is crucial from a practical point of view but also from an emotional one. Unreliable or fair-weather friends may waste your time and impact your mental health.
4. 4. Trustworthiness: Friends often confide in one another, so being able to trust your friends is an essential part of your relationship. Those who consistently break trust might not be close friends to keep around.

There are a few ways to identify whether your friendship is toxic. Here are a few signs to look out for:

1. 1. Lack of compromise: An inability to find a solution, especially for the simplest conflicts, is a red flag. Friends should not expect to have everything their way or constantly have the last word in a disagreement.
2. 2. Passive-aggressive behavior: Friends who do not speak their mind, make small digs at each other and talk about the person behind their back exemplify passive-aggressive behavior. Over time, this can embitter both parties and lead to ugly fallouts between friends.
3. 3. Taking friendship for granted: If a friend assumes you will always be available to help them, you may feel like they are taking advantage of you. This can manifest in a few ways: They may assume you will always pay a bill, be the designated driver after any night out, or take care of issues that arise.
   
4. 4. Unhealthy competition: While a little competition can be playful and friendly, people in severely competitive relationships may have built-up resentment against their counterparts. They may view success as a limited resource and secretly hope for their companion to fail in their endeavors. These unresolved feelings make it difficult for both parties to support or trust each other, preventing a genuinely healthy relationship from flourishing.

If you plan to move to a new area or find social scenes intimidating, you may struggle to make new friends. Consider these ways to put yourself out there and meet people:

1. 1. Host a party for neighbors. Your neighbors on your block or in your apartment complex may be around your age or share similar interests; host an informal gathering to bring the community together and learn more about each other.
2. 2. Lean into your hobbies. Book clubs, sports teams, and other activities are great ways to explore your interests while also meeting people who share them.
3. 3. Start or attend work happy hours. You can find meaningful friendships at work; peers often connect after hours and build independent platonic relationships with one another.
4. 4. Try out apps. Many relationship-oriented apps cater to those looking for romance, but some also have setting options for meeting friends instead of lovers. Build a profile that shares who you are, and see if you can meet new people online.
5. 5. Volunteer. Volunteering in your area—at a local garden, house of worship, or community center—is a wholesome way to meet more people and potentially unlock new friendships.

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