Yes, friends the best stress busters you have. But first, who is your friend? As per the definition “a person you know well and like, and who is not usually a member of your family.”
But everyone has their definition of a friend. Now comes a million-dollar question – who is right? Definition of friendship changes with the depth of your relationship with your friend.
Our friends could be:
- School or college friends we share our childhood memories, innocence and dreams with. These friendships when continued over your adult life tend to become very deep.
- University Friends are your friends with whom you share your aspirations and goals. These friendships also tend to become very deep when continued through your adult.
- Office Friends are called colleagues and they share your office environment and its pressures with you. They know exactly how you feel when at the office and can become a good support system at work.
- Relatives as friends are also possible. Sometimes we become very friendly with our cousins or someone else in the family and start sharing our experiences with them. These friendships most of the time start at childhood and can go deep.
- Others whom you meet randomly, and you suddenly find a good friend in them who understand you better than the rest of the people around you.
If your friend compliments you in many areas of your life, then you have a deeper friendship with him/her. Deeper the friendship, greater the power of the friend to bust your stress. Friends can help you bust your stress at different levels
Bad Time Stress Busting: Everybody goes through a bad time and in your bad times what you need is a little support. Friends support you in the form of someone who
- Listen to your emotional outbursts: By giving you a shoulder to cry on, your friends help you bust your stress in bad times.
- Do not judge you for your outcomes: In your bad times, you are not at your best and so your outcomes are also not the best. Friends know that you are not performing at your peak, so they do not judge you. By doing this, they allow you to get rid of your negative emotions towards your outcomes, which reduces your stress.
- Give you courage: During bad times, what you need the most is courage and that’s exactly what friends give you. You stop doubting yourself and this reduces your stress.
- Takes Reality check: Friends are the only people who can show you where you are going wrong or not thinking straight. By doing so, they help you avoid future failure and the stress caused by it.
- Brings a smile to your face: In bad times, friends are the best stress-busters as they help you laugh. They are the only ones who know you well and can take a chance on disturbing your status quo at their own cost.
Activate your Non-Stress Zone: When you are in stress at work, your mind is stuck in stress. You need to activate your non-stress zone. The non-stress zone is triggered by thinking about something other than your work. Friends:
- Change the subject: Friends are good at talking you out of your stress by discussing topics unrelated to your work. This takes away your stress.
- Are funny: Friends’ funny remark will make you laugh, creating instantaneously a non-stress zone.
- Keep us Active: Friends keep suggesting different activities like sports, partying, or some outdoor activities. This changes your mindset and brings you out of stress.
Creates a comfort zone: Friends provides you with the comfort zone where you can be who you are. Friends create a comfort zone with:
- Their Non-Judgmental attitude:Friends create a comfort zone with their non-judgmental attitude. You can talk about what you feel like or chose to remain silent without getting judged for your action or non-action. This way, you get rid of your negative emotions.
- Their Unconditional Love: Friends give you unconditional love which creates this comfort zone. You can express your emotions without the fear of getting less love from your friends. This way you get rid of your stress.
- Quality Time spent: Friends provide you with quality time which is what you need sometimes to come back to a stress-free state. Sometimes you need a sounding board to get to a solution. This is the best way to get rid of stress.
- Sharing your secrets: You can share your secrets with your close friends and get rid of your stress. You know your secrets are safe with your friend.
Constant Growth: Friends always help in your growth. Growth is a great stress buster. Friends help you grow at different levels
- Mental Growth: Friends create healthy mental growth. Friends help you overcome your negative thoughts. When you are in a negative thought-zone you cannot think clearly. Friends help you focus on important things in life. Negative thoughts can kill your happiness and push you into depression. Friends can pull you out of this mental condition. They help you see the brighter and positive side of the challenge you are facing. This automatically takes away your stress.
- Physical Growth: Friends not only help you in your mental growth but also in your physical growth. They convince you to join them in different outdoor physical intensive activities. Friends do not laugh or joke about your physical appearance. They improve their physical appearance and in turn, help you improve yours. A healthy body hosts a healthy mind and a healthy mind creates a healthy body. Your friends help you in achieving both with a constant loving push and healthy competition. This removes your stress.
- Social Growth: Human is a social being. Simply put, you cannot live alone. Friends are your social extensions. These extensions bring more social connections, which you cannot create alone. And at times, when you are not willing to be social, friends help you become more socially active. Social growth and activities help you bust your stress.
- Gentle ‘Push’: Friends provide you valuable assistance in growth by giving you that gentle push when you get pessimistic or you procrastinate. Friends help push you out of your comfort zone. Friends help you get over your fears and achieve the task at hand. By overcoming your fears and procrastination, you defeat stress.
Till you read my next blog, till then Keep Your Friends Near,Stay Healthy and Stress-free!
