Are friends worth the effort?

A friendship can strike up quickly between you and another person or it may grow over time.  Both are valid approaches to establishing a friendship.  At some point you will realise they are important to you.  Your relationship may display many of these characteristics;

• challenge you making the relationship exciting and fun.
• stay with you through the good times and the sad times.
• supportive of each other - your hopes, desires and fears.

Often conversation bounces backwards and forwards between you with each of you listening and giving a considered reply.  Good friends love you and can feel as comfortable as an old pair of slippers!

You feel able to ask them for their help and they are there for you if your world comes tumbling down.

Humans are tribal by nature and therefore feel happier and more fulfilled when they have good friends. Plus there is the 150-friend theory. This states that the human brain is hard wired to have up to 150 friends and this dates from early social development. At that time, we typically lived in tribes and traditionally the tribe size was 150 people. The survival reason for being in a tribe is that you are stronger together than apart. It is difficult to know whether the tribes or the brain developed first. However there does seem to be some synergy between the two.

For me, it is not about the quantity of friendships but rather the quality of your relationships. You can learn so much through a relationship regardless of it being a good or a bad one.

Friendship is not exclusive to none-blood relationships. Do not forget to remember your friendship group can include parents, partners, and adult children. 

True friends will enrich your life.