The value of friendship is for many the most significant affectionate relationship that we can have in life. It is a close bond that we form with another person, whom we choose out of our own conviction and give them a special value in our lives.
This podcast by Enric Corbera talks about the different types of interpersonal relationships and the relationship that the situations that are presented to us through them have with us.
In today’s society, many people find it difficult to form healthy relationships and, even though they have a lot of social life, they feel lonely. In this video, Sara Pallarés explains the benefits of friendship and how it influences our physical and psychological health.
Of all the interpersonal relationships, friendship is probably the one we consider to be the freest, since it allows us to establish our own rules, allowing it to emerge and manifest itself in many ways.
In addition, it constitutes a fundamental part of our life since there are many benefits that we obtain through the bonds of friendship that we form with other people.
In this article we will address the meaning of friendship, its importance and the benefits it has for our emotional health. We will explain how we complement each other and how we can get to know ourselves and integrate the unconscious information that we carry within through our friendships.
What is the value of friendship?
Friendship has accompanied us throughout history since humans are social beings that, by nature, we tend to group together and establish close ties with people we consider to be related and with whom we share affections and feelings.
The word friendship comes from the Latin amīcus which translates as ‘friend’and this term in turn comes from the verb amāre, which means ‘to love’.
Thus, human beings have the natural need to love and be loved and friendship is a kind of love that is born when two or more people choose each other and express a reciprocal and disinterested affection, which is nourished by treatment and shared experiences.
It is that relationship of affection that develops in a free and particular way, that makes us feel good in each other’s company and in which we find essential values such as: trust, respect, empathy, loyalty, sincerity and commitment.
The family we chose to continue growing
Friends are our life companions, those with whom we enjoy memorable, happy or fun moments and who in difficult moments offer us understanding, support and affection. becoming those people of value to us whom we sometimes consider our “family by choice”.
From Bioneuroemotion, friendship is a relationship through which we unconsciously seek to grow and complete ourselves. We look for people who complement us and, without realizing it, we feed the belief that there is something outside of us that can make us happy or unhappy; when in reality the person we choose as a friend is only .
From this understanding, a friend is that figure that functions as a complement or mirror through which we can ourselves and that gives us the opportunity to develop and integrate those characteristics that we project outside of ourselves.
friendship as value
Friendship is that moral and universal value that represents a genuine interest and an unconditional fraternity by other person.
To be part of society we need to develop skills that help us relate to other people, so Generating good friendship relationships, taking care of them and maintaining them is considered a personal value.
True friendship consists in enjoying share with another person beyond the differences that exist between both, seeking reconcile instead of confront.
The value of true friendship
Friendship enriches us in many ways and is part of the It can help us in the process of discovering our identity, serve as a learning model for different behaviors, and help us acquire values and knowledge.
Precisely the fundamental value of true friendship is that it offers us the opportunity to get to know each other, to grow and to develop attitudes such as acceptance, tolerance, and respect for diversity, among others.
Although it is necessary to understand that the secret of a healthy friendship lies in the balance we establish by exchanging those valueswithout acting against ourselves or others.
How is friendship born?
Friendships can emerge across many situations and contexts.: from the place where we live, from school or work, from a meeting or event, or perhaps through some recreational activity, a sport or a place we frequent.
It is well known that friendship is diverse and it does not understand age, gender, culture, religion or ideology and we can find it even in affectionate relationships, such as those that are born between a person and an animal. As the famous saying goes: “The dog is man’s best friend”.
Through friendship we not only share what matters to us, but we also learn new things, we open our minds to other ways of thinkingwe discover interests and tastes, we have fun and enjoy the company of people who enrich us in different ways.
However, we also establish relationships that do not benefit us. Have you asked yourself, What makes a friendship relationship beneficial or not?
“Special Relationships”
The relationships that we usually call special arise from unconscious beliefs such as: believing that another person is going to make us happy or is going to give us what we need or believing that the other is going to change to be what we want them to be.
It is precisely the special value that we give to these friendships that works against us, since without realizing it we look for people who complement us, because we feel that we are missing somethingand we believe that we will find that something in other people.
We believe that there is someone special who will make us happy and we project on that someone, a need that exists within us.
The value we place on the friendships we choose is not accidental
“Everyone shows what they are in the friends they have”
If we observe from the consciousness of unity, there is an intelligence that orders and balances everything and tells us that what is expressed in our lives has a direct relationship with us.
The choice we make of our friends is not a product of chance but rather of resonance.
The unconscious information that we carry within makes us bond with people who resonate with our history. producing that we have certain experiences that show us our information so that we can understand what we are repeating or repairing through our friends.
“He was just a fox like a hundred thousand others. But I made him my friend and now he is unique in the world ”
“The Little Prince” by
This phrase from the Little Prince invites us to reflect and shows us that the way we choose our friends is not accidental.
Many times, what we love in our friends is part of ourselves. They are there because and with our history, they are giving us back our own information.
Benefits of recognizing the value of friendship in emotional and physical health
It is known that interpersonal ties have a great influence on our state of health. Next, we will mention some of the favorable effects that friendship has been proven to have on emotional and physical health.
Improves self-confidence and self-esteem:
Socialize with friends in relaxed security environments promotes greater self-confidence. In addition, having close friendship ties raises our self-esteem giving us better interpersonal skills.
Promotes personal growth:
In friendly relations we can express our emotions and become aware of them. In addition, our friends are a way through which we can get to know ourselves and integrate those aspects that we do not recognize as our ownthat we reject or judge and that prevent us from living in internal balance.
Increases the feeling of belonging:
Allows us feeling part of a community or group reduced number of people who share common tastes or interests. Our individual identity is fundamental, but as social beings it is also very important to belong to a group and feel loved, valued and respected.
Increase happiness:
Social support plays a very important mediating role that helps us and allows us to go through situations with more joy than if we did it alone. Thanks to our friendship relationships we experience fewer feelings of anxiety and hostility in life.
Helps cope with trauma:
The presence of significant bonds in our life allows us to develop a more constructive coping style and recover faster before events such as a divorce, a serious illness, job loss or the death of a loved one, among others.
Being in touch with friends who support us, help with coping with situations and development of more adaptive skills.
At the same time, the closeness of friends in bad times . That is, if friends are present, the cortisol generated by the stress of the difficult experience does not increase as much, which allows us to have a more positive attitude in the face of problems or unpleasant situations.
Strengthens the immune system:
Perceiving support from our friends makes our body that allows us to release stress improving our mood. In this way, the organism comes out of the state of alert and our defense system stabilizes. It also improves our ability to recover from diseases.
On the other hand, the social support provided by friendship increases resilience in people who have strong friendship ties, .
It reduces stress:
Good times and laughter in the company of our friends, and release emotional burdens. This is because, a hormone that has to do with social relationships, and that allows us to experience well-being in the company of others.
In addition, feeling support through friendship, increases the level of progesteronea hormone that lowers stress levels.
In the work environment, having colleagues increases motivation and prevents burnout. According to a people who have friends at work have higher performance than the solitary
Decreases depression:
The strength of friendship acts as an engine that activates us and prevents us from submerging ourselves in deep depression processes. In the case of adults who describe their friendships as more positive and satisfying, they experience in their life.
All these benefits show us that maintaining quality friendships is a protective factor for our physical and mental health, as well as for our perception of well-being and happiness.
How important is the value of friendship in the human being?
Friendship becomes important because…