The Importance of Friendship in our Lives

The Importance of Friendship in our Lives

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30th, is International Day of Friendship. All of us at Annie’s Place love this day as we see the power of friendship, companionship and love daily in our work. We have witnessed clients overcome great obstacles and love from friends and family has helped this to happen. We also consider everyone we work with – whether client or health care partner, a friend.

We were interested to find out how powerful and important friendship is to our daily lives. What we found was quite remarkable. Here are some ways that friendships are so important in our lives.

Friends Help Us Interact 

The people we bring into our lives as friends will show us how to forgive, laugh, and make conversation. The basic components of any relationship, from lovers to coworkers, are all founded in friendship. We learn how to interact with people because of our friends, even the ones that are opposite from us or share different views.

Friends Keep Us Mentally and Physically Strong

One of the most overlooked benefits of friendship is that it helps keep our minds and bodies strong. In fact, it’s as important to our physical health as eating well and keeping fit. A recent Harvard study concluded that having solid friendships in our life even helps promote brain health. Friends also help us handle stress, make better lifestyle choices that keep us strong, and allow us to rebound from health issues and disease more quickly. Friendship is also important to our mental health. One study even suggested spending time with positive friends actually changes our outlook for the better.

Friends Help Us Weather Lonely Times

Friends don’t completely cure loneliness (that’s a common myth) but they do help us during lonely times. We learn how to accept kindness and also to reach out when we need help. Those painful times when we might be without friends also help us to appreciate the friendships that come in and out of our lives. At Annie’s Place, often dealing with an illness or recovering from a surgery can be very lonely and isolating. Good friendships help to overcome this. Some of the greatest friendships we’ve made at Annie’s Place has been when we are supporting individuals who are in need of our services.

Friendship Improves the Quality of Our Lives

By spending time with friends, we fill up our lives with great conversation, heartfelt caring and support, and laugh out loud fun. When we fall on hard times, friends are there to put things in perspective and help us.

On this special day, we ask all of you to give your closest friends a big hug and thank them for bringing greater meaning to your life. We know that we will be doing this at Annie’s Place today and always.