The importance of supportive friends

Twice recently I’ve had things I’ve written in this blog quoted back at me. The first time was on my weekly ‘good things’ call with a close friend. I was telling her about how I ‘should’ mend my gate, how it would make my life so much easier if it worked properly but I just didn’t feel motivated. She said ‘why don’t you treat it as something nice that you do for your future self?’
‘Hmm,’ I thought. ‘That sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before?’
‘Like you wrote about in your blog last week,’ she added and it all became clear.

So I set to with hammer and saw and fixed half the gate. I didn’t enjoy it (although I did work a lot of my bad mood out on the nails) but I had a huge feeling of satisfaction at the end, and again every time I opened the gate without a problem.

Then another friend responded to my post about being on the verge of a relapse by suggesting I watch a funny movie to lift my mood, as I’d written about in an earlier post. Talk about right back at ya! I took the movie he suggested out, plus a few others, and had a movie fest all rainy Saturday. It was great! I really felt better afterwards.

This highlighted for me not only how useful the blog is turning out to be for reminding me to use my happiness habits, but how important it is to have supportive people in your life who make these kind of suggestions. I grew up with a lot of put downs and not much encouragement. So having friends like these who not only encourage me but suggest specific ways I can feel better is wonderful and really helps support my ongoing happiness.