Having close friendships is a vital ingredient for living a happy and empowered life. It is is not about the number of friends you have. What’s more important is having quality friends that creates a positive impact. They are good friends because of the goodness they create in your life.
What are the characteristics of a good friend?
Each person will have their individual criteria for what classifies someone as a good friend. Yet, a quality friendship consists of some key fundamental elements to help create mutually beneficial relationships.
Simply put, love is a required element of what helps someone be a good friend. The person has to care and love you enough to cultivate an ongoing desire to do the things that makes a positive difference in your life. The love they have for you will help them embrace opportunities to do what is most beneficial for you, and they will do so with an open and willing heart. In doing so, they create good experiences and quickly become an asset to helping you have a positive and happy life.
What The Benefits Of Having A Good Friend?
Keep in mind, friends have the potential to have a total life impact on your overall wellness. Friends can influence your mind, body and spirit in a way that can enhance or hinder your life. Aim is to have quality friends that will enhance your life.
A good friend will offer various positive resources to your life. They will wear many hats, and step into the right role to help you manage whatever circumstances you’re experiencing in life.
Here is a list of 6 great ways having a good friend will enhance your life: mind, body and spirit
- Mind: Help you see when your thinking and attitude requires adjustment, which will help you focus on the right things to attract what you desire.
- Mind: Help give you healthy perspective and objectivity of how to interpret personal experiences, which will expand your understanding and approach to life events.
- Body: Help encourage you to care for yourself through behavioral actions that supports healthy living, which will improve you becoming your best self.
- Body: Help motivate you to accomplish goals, which will increase your self-esteem and overall life satisfaction.
- Spirit: Help ease frustrations and emotional pain, which will help you become more resilient to bounce back from challenges.
- Spirit: Help you laugh, even when you don’t “feel like it,” which will help you be in a positive mood faster.
What Are 5 Signs That Someone Is A Truly Good Friend?
Being a good friend takes effort, hard work and a lot of commitment. No matter how much you love someone, there will moments where it’s quite challenging to show them unconditional love and positive regard. A good friend will be able to consistently show care and love, even during those moments where it seems like the last thing they want to offer.
As previously mentioned, love is a core element of a positive and healthy friendship. A lot of wonderful things are created from a place of love. With love, a friend will direct their actions to create experiences that helps them be a good friend.
A Good Friend…
RESPECTS YOUR BOUNDARIES and abides to your personal needs. A good friend will respectfully adhere to the limits you set. They will treat you well. They will listen and make sure their actions matches what you desire of them.
ELICITS YOUR VULNERABILITY and emotions in a healthy way. A good friend will draw out open and honest communication. Their consistent trustworthy actions will help you feel comfortable. You can be yourself and openly express all aspects of who you are and your life. Vulnerability and open communication is a process that develops over time. In allowing it to unfold, the friendship becomes deeper and expands to greater and higher beneficial potential.
HIGHLIGHTS YOUR STRENGTHS and helps you become aware of areas for growth. A good friend will not only celebrate your awesomeness, but cares enough to help you see areas that needs improvement. They will point out qualities that are unbecoming, and stretch you to change for the better. They have expectations that you are capable of being an even greater version of yourself, and hold you accountable to making it your reality.
ENCOURAGES YOUR DREAMS and passionate pursuits. A good friend will be your cheerleader to help you reach your goals. They will be your coach pushing you beyond your limits. They will be your biggest fan, raving about your greatness. They will give you a good talking to when they believe you’re slacking. They will serve many roles that will help you become a better and greater person.
RESPONDS TO YOUR NEEDS during the good and bad moments of life. A good friend is someone who is there during the fun and happy moments. Most importantly they are there during the sad and painful periods. They truly support you by not only providing a listening ear, but they are also part of the process in creating solutions.
In conclusion….
Notice how the 5 signs that someone is truly a good friend includes action verbs. They are purposely used to highlight how a good friend requires the person’s active engagement in sowing into you and the relationship. A good friend embodies greatness by remaining hard at work cultivating plans and implementing ideas of ‘how’ they intentionally create good experiences in the relationship.
It’s quite clear, a good friend must put forth effort and energy into working the relationship. They are able to cultivate a rich and deep friendship by actions that shows they care and appreciate you.
Of course, a quality friendship dictates it cannot be a one-sided experience. It becomes a beautiful relationship when it is mutually beneficial to everyone involved. As you receive, you must also engage in a way that has you working hard to sow into your friend’s life. A good and quality friendship unfolds when both people are working to create a mutually beneficial experience together!
Please, share your thoughts on what qualities or experiences helps you consider someone a good friend?
So, ask yourself:
What people in my life are good friends?
How am I being a good friend for other people?
