Cultivating Authentic and Fulfilling Friendships.
In our fast-paced world, cultivating authentic and fulfilling friendships or making time for meaningful relationships can be difficult.
Whether you are a busy mom, working professional or a full-time student, carving out the time and space to develop and also nurture relationships can be a challenge.
However, cultivating these meaningful relationships is essential for your overall well-being and happiness.
What is a meaningful relationship?
We all know or have heard that humans are social creatures by nature. We are frequently seeking out meaningful connections with one another. Whether that is making deeper connections with a friend or a small conversation with someone in the line at the grocery store, making some form of connection with others is a natural part of our everyday life. No one enjoys superficial relationships, so what exactly is a meaningful relationship?
A meaningful relationship is one where both individuals feel a sense of mutual respect, support, and connectedness. This relationship is built on trust, understanding, and communication. A meaningful relationship is one where both people can learn and grow together while providing a comfortable companionship.
Why meaningful relationships important?
Regardless of what season of life you are in, you are constantly making some form of connection. They could be short chapters in your life, they could be new friends from work or a friend you have developed deep connections with over many years of friendship. Finding people you can have positive relationships with makes life feel more meaningful.
With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we know it can be difficult to make time for the people who matter most to us. Unfortunately, adulthood doesn’t come with a step-by-step guide on making friends or maintaining meaningful relationships. Naturally, our lives are often more complicated and busy as we move into adulthood.
People gradually adopt more and more responsibilities and in turn, have less time to invest in social relationships. Oftentimes, the social structures of adulthood often make it harder to meet potential friends.
Difference between meaningful relationships and superficial relationships:
When you are trying to figure out the difference between meaningful and superficial relationships, I try to remember that all of my meaningful relationships have one major thing in common. I can be myself with that person and I feel very attuned to that person’s wants and needs and vice versa.
A relationship in any form, platonic, working, romantic, or familial, is a two-way street. There is a distinct difference when you leave interactions with people feeling energized or nourished versus feeling drained and exhausted.
Maybe that is why, as adults, we tend to isolate ourselves a tad bit more than we may have previously because we aren’t around people who are nourishing our relationships. This is why we tend to start evaluating the quality of our connections with our close friends because we want to make sure we are surrounding ourselves with the right people.
There are a few tips and tricks that can be utilized in order to maintain and even strengthen the relationships you value.
10 Effective Strategies for Cultivating Deep and Meaningful Relationships:
Active listening
One of the first things you are trained on as a counselor is active listening skills. Only a few people realize that when you are in a conversation, most of the time, you are listening in order to respond, not listening so you can hear what the other person is communicating to you. Most of the time, we respond without actually listening to what was said.
Being Authentic
If you aren’t your authentic self, how can you expect an open, honest, and meaningful relationship?
Not being able to be genuine in your interactions breeds superficial relationships. Please think about the type of connection you’d like to have. Making authentic connections is not always easy and sometimes requires a decent amount of vulnerability, which takes courage to step out of your comfort zone.
Showing up.
I struggle with this with some individuals I consider my best friend. I may be putting out guidelines for cultivating meaningful relationships because my meaningful relationships are seemingly turning into casual friendships. Showing up takes effort and time. Being called to show up in a friendship repeatedly while also feeling like the friendship has turned into a one-way street is hard. The user-friendly guide to figuring out who your real friends are is to look around at who shows up with life gets hard. Because real friends show up for the good and the bad.
Be a Giver.
I feel like I function under the rule ‘give more than you take.’ This is probably why I may get frustrated when I only see my friends who live out of state if I go to them. But when I reflect on our friendship, I have always been the one to give more than I take. The relationships matter to me, so I will do what I need to do to be able to show up for them whenever they need me.
Joy and Laughter.
Laughter is the greatest form of therapy, and it goes a long way. Being able to laugh with friends and, better yet, being able to laugh at yourself is crucial for your mental health. You should have a good ratio of serious and fun moments you share with your friends.
Unsolicited Advice is Not Good Advice.
Read that again. Unsolicited advice is not good advice. It took a while for me to figure this out, and my natural inclination is to counsel or offer advice, but that is only sometimes what a friend needs or is looking for. The best way to know whether your friend wants advice is to ask.
Trust.
Trust goes hand in hand with confidentiality for me. Trusting your friends with information, to me, means that that is now confidential between us, and it isn’t something that will be shared with anyone else.
Final Thoughts
Navigating the complexities of adulthood is no easy task. It is important to remember that genuine friendships are built on authenticity, active listening, and willingness to show up… through the good and the bad. Nurturing these connections and relationships with our friends is crucial for your mental and physical well-being. So, as we move forward, let’s make a conscious effort to connect and cultivate these precious moments. Remember that the meaningful connections and relationships you create and cultivate are a source of strength, happiness, and resilience.
Check out my Canva template for 50 Meaningful Quotes here. 
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