Flourishing in Our Friendships
Today I’m so glad to be back with the Flourish Linkup, hosted by the beautiful Brittany at The Kardia. I had such an amazing time reflecting on what flourishing means and talking about how we can flourish creatively last month. I definitely want to continue this mindset of flourishing creatively in the truest, most natural way that is individual and unique to ourselves. I also want to continue working creatively in collaboration with others, which will come into play with this month’s topic: flourishing in our relationships with others. Sometimes I forget how important, valuable and sacred our friendships and relationships are. It’s important to recognize how we can grow in our relationships, and I hope to set goals this month to do so.
Let’s get into the linkup by first off sharing 10 things we are grateful for. I always love making lists like these!
10 Things I’m Grateful For:
- Phone calls with my mom
- Sunny days with warm weather
- Country songs, listening to them with the windows down
- For chances to relax
- Opportunities to grow
- Lots of blankets
- Popcorn
- New friendships
- Delicious homemade smoothies
- Being surrounded by creative, driven people
This week’s topic about flourishing in our relationships with others. I think it is so important to invest time in our friendships with our close friends, acquaintances, co-workers, family and even blog friends. There’s not much that social media can do when we truly want to learn more about the other people around us and be a part of the story of their lives, and have them be in our stories as well. I think friendship lies at the heart of everything we do, and close, quality friendships is something I truly value.
This month, I will flourish in my friendship with others by…
Choosing to listen without distractions. Phones can get in the way of so many good conversations, and when we are constantly going to our phone whenever it buzzes, beeps or rings, we miss out on what the people around us are saying. I want to strive to make sure my phone is out of sight when chatting with friends in a coffee shop or when out to lunch or hanging out in my apartment. Another aspect of this is listening. I think we all can improve our listening skills, and I want to make sure I am truly listening to the stories from my friends and family. It makes for deeper conversations and getting to know them even more!
Sending encouragement to my friends. Last week, I realized the power of a simple letter of appreciation. I love it when I get a note from a friend or some snail mail. So why not focus on spreading the love to others? I bought some new notecards at Target yesterday, and I’m so excited to get back into letter writing, something I love to do!
Spreading joy. Sometimes, I can be prone to complaining or negativity. Especially when facing struggles with school or work. But I’ve realized that this gets you nowhere. And while being negative can hurt your own perspective of the world and your own self-care, it also doesn’t help our friendships. By having a joyful mindset, we can have positive relationships with others and build each other up. That being said, I also believe it’s important to share struggles and be vulnerable with our friends. I think hard times are so crucial for personal growth; however, it’s all about balance. It’s about being open to talking about struggles, but also seeing the good in different situations. Friendships flourish when we speak truth, build each other up and connect more deeply.
Last month, I chose to flourish creatively in two ways.
With February’s topic of flourishing creatively, I decided to focus on 1) putting my best effort in my blog and being loyal to my ideas I have for this space, and 2) focusing on the power of creative collaboration with others. I think I was able to achieve these goals for February, recognizing the importance of creativity in my daily life. For the blog, I was able to post some of my favorite posts I’ve done so far, including some posts that have been in the works for awhile. I also made a few design updates and spent several hours doing a blog photo shoot for some graphics in my posts. Right now, I still have many posts ideas–too many to count, but that is always a good thing! And I can’t wait to see how my blog evolves in March!
My second way of flourishing creatively was to collaborate more with others. I think there is so much potential for creative collaboration in the many organizations I’m involved in, as well as through blogging online. I still want to continue pursuing creative collaboration, as I work on an interactive magazine, website designs, yearbook spreads and more. It’s going to be a very interesting process as all these projects move forward! But I love how creative collaboration also helps me to develop friendships and relationships with new people that I may have never have met!
Thank you to Brittany again for encouraging us each week for the Flourish Linkup! How will you flourish in your relationships with others this month?