friendship 101

As we transition between life stages such as adolescence, young adulthood, emerging adulthood, middle age, and later life, our friendships change in many ways.

There are four main causes of why friendships end.

Friendships, like most relationships, have a life span ranging from the start to finish, with maintenance in between.

Friendships are voluntary interpersonal relationships between two people who are usually equals and who mutually influence one another

Making friends is about spending time and sharing interests. It doesn’t happen right away for most people. And, by understanding your shyness, and being open to change, it is possible to make new friends.

There’s an old adage that says you should never talk about religion or politics in polite company. But it is possible to talk about politics with friends–if you know how.

Knowing what you do today, it’s interesting to consider what kind of friendship advice you would give to your young self or the young women currently in your life.

Acquiring friends of different races means we need to be thoughtful and make a choice to be diverse in who we become friends with.

Though we often know and appreciate our friend’s friends, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes we don’t like a particular person or the effect she has on our friend. Or maybe she doesn’t like us….

Many of us have good friends who have good friends we know of. We hear stories about them and their lives—when they succeed, when they struggle—because those things affect our friend. On social media, we…

Friendships are rarely our primary relationships; and this can be difficult to navigate for some friends.

The death of a friend can be particularly hard because we don’t get the same level of support for grieving friends.

Humans are social animals. And we need to maintain our friendships, especially at this difficult time.

We look forward to evenings out with our best female friends for many reasons. These gatherings are a reward after a long week at work, or a welcome change of scenery from managing our household…

In scrolling through our Facebook timeline we came upon a post, written by a co-worker, describing an afternoon with her daughter in the elementary school playground. It touched our hearts and reminded us that, even in…

We’ve all been there. If you have friends, at some point you will disagree with each other. Or get on each other’s nerves. Or one of you will do something thoughtless. An argument with your…

When it comes to the workplace, seeing the difference between friends and coworkers can be confusing. But through different bonding experiences, we can create real friendships, eight hours at a time. If you’re working closely…

Let’s play a short game of Jeopardy! for a moment. The category you’ve selected is Science, and the answer is: According to a recent study, its common themes are: pleasure, reciprocity, commitment, voluntary, and mutual…

Supporting your friends this season is probably – no, definitely – the most important gift you can give them for the holidays. So we’ve come up with four ways to make this season special for…

How do we communicate our appreciation for the friends in our lives? As life gets busy and schedules no longer match up, we don’t always have the opportunity in person to show we care, but…

You know the feeling. You’ve become part of a group of friends who get together regularly, and there are plans in the works for dinner, drinks, a day trip, etc. It sounds good at the…

We all know it can be hard to turn words into actions. But, when it comes to making new friendships, it’s necessary to go from conversations, to hanging out, to then becoming better friends with…

When there hasn’t been a big blowout, a fight through tears followed by a “never hit me up ever again,” how do we know that a friendship is over? Sure, we grow apart as we…

Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life. It’s a primitive emotion, similar to fear, and its job is to help us take care of ourselves. We may feel anxious before a big job interview or…

One of the joys of friends is getting to experience life with them — we’re with them to cheer on their successes and share in their happiness. That also means one of the less fun…