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Good Friendships can improve your mental health and well-being. However, it takes extra effort to develop or maintain good friendships. Everyone needs to understand the significance of real social connections and ways that they can cultivate and nurture long-lasting friendships with peers.
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Indeed, good friends are good for your health. They celebrate you when good things happen and they offer support when you feel dismayed by bad occurrences. Friends do not encourage isolation and they can help you fight off loneliness with their companionship. Friends can also play these roles: 
  • Boost your sense of belonging and purpose.
  • Help you carve out ways to reduce stress.
  • Enhance your self-worth and make you confident in your abilities.
  • Help you to overcome trauma. Friends are there to help you cope with a divorce, an illness, job loss or the death of someone very close to you.
  • Provide advice and encourage you to change/avoid any unhealthy lifestyle habits that might cause problems for you.
  • Connect you to opportunities for your growth. 
People with improved social connections can battle some health issues like depression and high blood pressure. Meaningful relationships and social support from good friends can help you live a normal and longer life when compared to other people with fewer connections. Good social connections will also expose you to new ideas and connect you to opportunities that will transform your life.
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Cultivating and sustaining healthy friendships involves give-and-take. Friendship is not a one-sided type of relationship. You have to give support, and other times you will be the one receiving support from your close friends. Nurture your friendships in these ways:
  • Be kind and considerate towards your friends.
  • Do not hold back on gratitude and appreciation.
  • Practice good listening. Pay attention to their emotions, too.
  • Work on your communication skills. Open up about yourself and discuss personal experiences with them.
  • Remind them that you care about them and that you appreciate them.
  • Be reliable, responsible and dependable. Always come through when the time is right.
  • Check on your friends from time to time. 
Social media has proved to be instrumental in connecting people and helping them to make or maintain relationships. However, we cannot depend solely on social networking sites to help us relieve loneliness. We still need to build offline relationships. The Internet could pose a dangerous site to us, hence, it is advisable to avoid divulging personal information to online strangers and setting up a physical meeting with people we do not trust. Social media should be used with caution, and not as a replacement for in-person relationships. Young people who are prone to using social media heavily should moderate their screen time. Whilst using technology to connect with people and to build meaningful relationships, we should try to carve out time for real, face-to-face time with our family and friends. We should plan a fun and enjoyable event that will bring us together and revive our dormant social life. Featured Image Source: 1000 logos
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This article was first published on 6th February 2022

ernest-chigaemezu

Ohia, Ernest Chigaemezu is a writer, editor, and grade teacher based in Jos, Nigeria.

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