What gratitude rituals do you have during the Thanksgiving season? If you have capacity for another, we invite you to add a simple one: Take a moment to appreciate your friends. Friends take many forms, some have been close for ages, others might be newly blossoming, while still others might be a warm memory. Likewise, different friends meet different parts of who you are: the mom friends, the work friends, the friends you bump into along your daily routines. Each relationship adds something meaningful to your life, and each is worth pausing to appreciate.
Not surprisingly, friendship has a meaningful impact on our health. Research shows that strong social connections can help you cope with stress, support recovery from illness, promote brain health, reduce high blood pressure, and boost your happiness, self-confidence, and sense of belonging. As Jane Fonda put it, “Women’s friendships are a renewable source of power.” The support and connection you share with friends can lift your spirits and bring relief, especially when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.
If you’d like to nurture these bonds, here are a few gentle ways to start:
Friendship doesn’t require grand gestures or perfect timing. However you choose to show up, your care matters. You’re allowed to lean on your friends, and to let them lean on you, too.
Author Kate Rope wryly captures how friends bring clarity to your parenting journey:
I once called up one of my best mom friends to tell her about my latest “major parenting screwup.” My daughter had been acting out, and I told my friend that “it’s one of those times where it’s taken me two weeks to realize how I need to handle the situation, and I’ve been doing it wrong until now.” She paused and then answered matter-of-factly: “Isn’t that just parenting?”
Playwright Tennessee Williams reflects on love as our salvation:
The world is violent and mercurial—it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love—love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.
How might you appreciate your friendships this weekend?
Learn additional ways to deepen your connections through the Building Your Community of Support Journey in the Moment for Parents app.