“Don’t fall in love, rise in love.”
– Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Friendship is love with transparency. You can be your honest self with a true friend. With friends, you can share and spend time together without fearing their judgments. But that’s not all about it. We, as social beings, need people to interact with us, team up for adventures and create memories. Friends don’t just help us get rid of loneliness but also keep us sane and happy.
Friendship implies uplifting and supporting each other even in most challenging times. With true friends around, you can fight some of your mental, emotional and physical ailments like stress, anxiety, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases. But the bigger question is, how to make friends easily? Not all of us have the skills to approach people easily. To make it easy for you, we will discuss a few effective tips on how to make friends easily. But before that, let us understand the importance of making friends.
Why Make Friends?
Life is full of paradoxes and having friends makes our path easier to travel. Friendship, like a relationship, molds us into better human beings. Here are some specific reasons to have friends.
Friends Enrich Us
Did you know a fragment of your personality is a reflection of the company you keep? Let’s say, if you have competitive friends, you are likely to embrace competitions or become competitive. If you have adventurous friends, you will tend to travel more.
Friends Act As Our Support System
Whenever you are troubled by the unpredictability of life, friends calm you up and make you see the positive side of things. They stand by you, all the while encouraging you to become happier. Sharing your concerns with a true friend makes you feel lighter. Friends also help you build self-confidence by praising you for your little achievements.
Friends Strengthen Us
When you have the right people around you who make you a part of their experience, you learn a lot from them. Such friends prepare you to face the challenges of life head-on. They help you beat stress and anxiety by just being there for you. They accept your vulnerability, do not judge you, and develop you emotionally.
So, this takes us to the part on how to make friends easily?
10 Efficient Tips To Make Friends Easily
Be the First One to Approach
When you are the ice-breaker, it greatly helps in starting friendships. Sometimes people are shy to talk to others, while at other times they may feel an absence of any motivation to socialize. Hence, it’s best to approach people, talk to them about themselves and let the conversation flow on its own. Soon, you will stick to the people with a similar mentality and vice versa.
Make Efforts to Meet People
Whether you are an ambivert or an introvert, you need to meet people. You might get many opportunities to be a part of some group or the other; for example:
Students can be a part of a dance group, music group, events group, or activities group in school.
Office goers can make friends with office colleagues and team up during office parties and team outings/meetings.
Homemakers can make friends at social parties, building functions, church meetings, or with the parents of kids’ friends.
Meeting people is possible when you break out of the shell of your constricting thoughts and embrace the idea of opening up.
Give Without Expecting
A great part of making friends involves giving in terms of time, knowledge and material stuff, without expecting much in return. You set a standard and attract people by being a giver rather than a taker. It also implies being the one who shares thoughts and emotions. When you open up to true friends, you not only get an emotional outlet but also encourage them to open up to you. It makes them rely on you and come to you when they need help.
Be Genuinely Interested
Listening intently is a top quality to making friends and keeping them for long. We, humans, are lucky to be able to communicate and share our emotions with others. As a good listener, you encourage people to talk and share their innermost beliefs. It helps them relieve stress and anxiety, and improves their social interaction. Because the more they open up about bottled-up feelings, the better they feel and behave.
Maintain Friendship
When you understand how to make friends easily, you must also understand how to maintain them. Friendship is as fragile as any other relationship and calls for attention to managing it. A small misunderstanding can break the hearts of the people involved and leave a scar forever. Hence, make an effort in staying in touch, and understanding each other’s situation, without having to speak aloud.
Do Not Keep a Grudge
At times, life may seem permanent and we may take people for granted. But the truth is we are given this life for a brief time and just the duration is the variance. Keeping a grudge for anyone may seem harmless in the beginning but it will push people away from you with time. We all are here for a purpose and must uplift each other in our journeys together. So, if you want to make friends and keep them by yourself, you have to learn the art of forgiving and forgetting. If you find a friendship to be toxic, then choose to move away.
Display Kindness and Empathy
Small deeds of kindness often connect you to people. It also encourages others to follow you and display affection, kindness and sympathy to people in need. These thoughtful gestures help make friends easily and give you ultimate satisfaction. Seeing others' troubles and offering any service calms your mind and enhances your emotional well-being.
Be Honest
You may encounter people who do not match your thinking but you stick to them trying to fit in. Sometimes you change your attitude and priorities to make them like you. But that won’t help in the long run. You must be polite to others but be honest about your thoughts. You should not be making a lot of compromises to make friends easily.
Smile Often
“The visible sign of utter love is an undying smile.”
-Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
When you smile from within and that reflects on your face, it only implies that you are genuinely happy with everything around you. That brings people closer to you and helps you make friends easily. In this world where everyone is busy chasing their goals, people who often smile, talk politely, and offer warmth and friendship are worth the journey.
Appreciate Often
The whole idea of friendship is supporting and appreciating one another. So, to make friends easily, you must tell your friends what you like about them. Extend your gratitude for the help they provide, and appreciate them for their little achievements. It not only is a great habit but also extremely necessary for the emotional health of the other individual. When you appreciate people, not just do it in words but also in your actions.
Value Your Friendship
By this time, you must have got a fair idea on how to make friends easily, but that’s not the difficult part. The real challenge is to make them stay. We are so attached to social media that we hardly have any real friends anymore. And the ones we do have, sadly we ignore them. The truth is we have to become good friends to make and keep good friends. It’s not a one-time thing. It is an action that prevails and from time to time innovates. To keep true friends along, the act of pleasing is not mandatory, you only have to be loyal and understanding to them. Because a friend can prove to be your greatest strength in times of distress.
If you are struggling to improve relationships and make new friends, join us here to know about Sudarshan Kriya and its influence on our lives.
