Short messages on Relationships issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
Try awareness and understanding of others without an emotional response – this feels very different from getting your buttons pushed. Judgments that cause emotional reactions are clues to help you find personal insight.
Most judgments of others are ego strategies to avoid uncomfortable feelings. If you lack the awareness of where they come from, they can lead to even more discomfort later.
Different life stages bring different challenges. The problems you face whilst at school are not the ones you will face once you have left.
Think about the people you are trying hardest to impress. Will they still be in your life in 5 years time? We each have our own life to lead and paths will diverge.
Relationships need ongoing care. It doesn’t really matter how you stay in touch with your friends, only that you do.
You can tell what is important to a person by the way they spend their time. If relationships are important, you will make time for them.
You may have a small circle of friends you’d like to stay in touch with no matter how much you all change. Learn the skill of preserving old friendships.
Be yourself – whoever you are, however you feel, whatever life has thrown at you. If things are tough, talk about it. Samaritans can be reached on 08457 90 90 90 or jo@samaritans.org .
As we grow up, we realise it is less important to have lots of friends, and more important to have real ones.
More than half of all 75 year olds in the UK live alone and one in ten suffers “intense” loneliness but is reluctant to ask for help. The Silver Line: 0800 4 70 80 90.