“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” ― Oscar Wilde
Intimacy in friendship is a profoundly close and vulnerable relationship between two friends. An intimate friend is someone you trust and feel safe around. You will most likely have shared experiences, mutual values, common worldviews, and a desire to communicate with each other in a completely honest, transparent, and exhaustive manner.
Resolving conflicts with your friend can be challenging. You may begin to wonder how you can confront your friend without ruining the friendship. And how you can also improve your way of dealing with your friend (in order to avoid future conflicts).
In any case, there are several steps you can take to resolve conflicts with your friend. Thankfully, they can be useful to prevent future conflicts as well
Setting boundaries in friendships is important to maintain healthy relationships and ensure both parties are comfortable and respected. Without boundaries, friendships quickly become one-sided, toxic, and in some cases abusive.
I’m not always my authentic self. Many of what I say or write are stolen ideas from people who are smarter and better than me. Most folks are like me, though I think they go too far and don’t admit it. They use face apps to make themselves look like ageless dolls, or write fake profiles to attract attention. They even lie about their family status just to fit in with the cool kids. It’s sad but almost a norm now.
It’s sad when you don’t have friends to share nice experiences with. However, being alone is better than having toxic friends, because they would ruin your experiences and make you miserable. And the worst part is that you may not even know it’s them. In fact, very toxic friends might end up convincing you that you are the problem.
Is self-control and discipline about resisting your desires, or about doing what you desire? Depending on how you see and approach it, self-control and discipline can either be a nightmare or an enjoyable act of self-love.
Freedom Anxiety is a feeling of unease, nervousness, or apprehension that comes when people have either too much freedom or not enough. This often happens because we have ambivalent desires – we love to be free and have adventures, but at the same time, we want to feel secure and have a predictable routine.
Faith is a word that is revered by many people but abhorred by many others. For example, most religious and spiritual people think it is the secret to miraculously bringing their desires to reality, while many non-religious people think faith in that regard is simply self-delusion and has no relevance in the cold-indifferent world we find ourselves in.
However, faith on its own is a neutral concept, and given the right context, can be something very powerful to understand, cultivate, and deploy in overcoming life’s confusion, and difficulties to achieve success and happiness.
I’m introverted and a bit asocial. I’m often tempted to stop talking to the few friends I have. But, friends are important. Not just because everyone says so, but because they really are. Apart from the social benefits, friends help you stay sane. Friends reflect your emotions, values, and personality to you. They are the few people who truly see who you are. They are the ones who can save you when you turn against yourself. And, if you’re lucky, they are the ones who will stand by you when the world comes crashing down.
Good friends don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to like everything about them. If you are honest, you will agree you don’t even like everything about yourself.
Trauma is an unpleasant psycho-physical response following an event (or series of events) that was perceived as a threat to a person’s physical or psychological well-being and surpasses their ability to cope (handle or adjust to it).
Think of it like being bitten by a snake. The initial bite may sting for a split second, but that is not the killer. The venom, which takes minutes or even hours to slowly deteriorates the cells and organs is what kills. So also, a traumatic event may last a few seconds or minutes and be unpleasant on its own, but it is the effects of it over the months or years that slowly wreck the traumatized person (i.e. the person who experienced the traumatic event).
