What is a friendship? And why does it sometimes feel hard to define the word the older we get? This episode explores this topic and more as specifically asked for by my podcast listeners. I’m joined by Dr. Miriam Kirmayer, a nationally respected and esteemed relationship psychologist who gives it to us in a straight and clear way.

Social well-being is vital to our total health and while research continues to show just how important friendship is, we’re living in a time where social avoidance is becoming the norm. Someone recently tried to tell me it’s because we’ve become lazy and self-centred. I think it’s because the various amounts of hurt in our lives have stacked up so highly, we’re scared to trust, be open, and allow ourselves to feel and be seen.

Friends are the sacred sacrosanct spaces of our lives where we can be our whole selves, true, most simple selves. And when relationships are overly complicated, painfully negative, condescending, or distant, we need to stand firm on acting on what’s best for us.

As we learn in this episode, people change and with them, friendships change. And while sometimes we want to hang on to the people we have in our closest circles, for whatever reasons we believe to be the truth, we have to let go for the good of our health. And when relationships do change and end, pain follows. It’s only natural because the end of things bring their own level of grief and mourning that only we can understand and deal with in our own way.

We all need good friends and Dr. Kirmayer shares how we can keep them close.

I’m Elena Iacono and my aim with Sturdy Glass Sponges is that we're inspired to look at our own lives, and the challenges that may come our way, in a renewed way.

Connect with Dr. Kirmayer - visit her site at miriamkirmayer.com