EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF FRIENDSHIP

Friendship has manyphysical health benefits, but it’s also good for your mental and emotional state. Having friends can stave off loneliness, keep you mentally sharp, and help you weather the ups and downs of life. Many experts believe that friendship is just as important to your long-term health as eating right and exercising is.

In fact, it’s hard to distinguish between the mental and physical benefits, because they go hand-in-hand to keep you at your best. A healthy attitude will help you weather physical challenges, and physical fitness will allow you to have a better outlook on life. Here are five mental and emotional benefits of friends.

Surround Yourself With Happy Friends and You’ll Feel Happier Yourself

Happiness is contagious, especially when you surround yourself with positive, forward-looking friends. OneFramingham Heart Study followed people over a 20-year period and that their happiness was largely influence by the happiness of those people they were most closely connected with. So when you’re with happy friends, you’ll pick up on their attitudes and outlook, improving your overall mental health.

Build Your Self-Esteem

If you’re someone who naturally suffers from low self-esteem, a set of positive friends can help you overcome that negative way of looking at yourself. Good friends can encourage you, help you break the pattern of destructive self-talk, and allow you a safe place to be yourself.

The right group of friends can also help you if you’re someone who can’t be alone, showing you that independence is good for the spirit. If you can be comfortable in your own skin, you’ll gain emotional stability for the ups and downs of life.

Banish Loneliness

While having friends doesn’t guarantee that you won’t feel lonely at times, it does give you one way to combat loneliness. Moving through loneliness is very difficult without a support network, and those with strong emotional bonds can conquer loneliness quicker than those without them.

Look at your friends as one tool in your “banish loneliness toolkit.” In order to make them work for you, you have to use them correctly. Choose your inner circle carefully, and learn to dole out trust little by little until your closest friends are those who have your best interests at heart.

Friends Give Us a Place to Talk Through Our Issues

Just talking things through with someone can help us feel better about the challenges in our life. Good friends can help you get things off your mind by listening in a non-judgmental way. You may be more inclined to share some of your struggles with your friends over others in your life. Any time you have an outlet where you know you can let off stream or even mentally work through a difficult situation, you’ll feel better.

Friends Give You Confidence to Face the Biggest, Most Frightening Life Challenges

Getting through a major health scare or dealing with a turbulent home life is a challenge for anyone, but those with friends have the confidence to deal with things one day at a time. They know that having friends in their corner means they don’t have to do everything alone. That can ease their mind enough to take on the most difficult and scary situations, getting them through the hurdles life can send our way.

Friends are much more than just people we hang out with; they provide emotional stability to our lives and help us grow mentally, becoming stronger and more capable adults.