Nourishment for the Soul and Body: Friends

People can neither be reduced to their physical bodies nor their souls. One has to understand humans as a harmony of the soul and body. Just as people must provide their bodies with food, they should not neglect the food of the soul: love. Loving means that you care for someone without having any expectations from them. Furthermore, it means that you show interest, tenderness, and loyalty to someone and that you are ready to accept compromises. The process of loving begins with knowing oneself and learning to love oneself first. A person who is not even able to be in harmony with himself will live a squandered life. However, someone who is in harmony with himself will radiate this to the outside world. The first people that show us love are the families into which we are born. Second are our friends, who play an important role in our lives. But what exactly is it about our friends?

Friends are usually people who are not related to us by blood yet we are very close, we know each other well, and we treat each other with love, respect, friendship and tolerance. Man is a social being. In the mechanism of society, the gears of the wheel take shape with love, feed on love, and find harmony in love. Accordingly, friendship serves as a protective and indispensable chain in this mechanism. Since human beings tend to make mistakes, it can also occur that we surround ourselves with good as well as bad friends.

Bad friends inflict harm on people. They lead us to make mistakes and take the wrong path. To get rid of them and not commit even more mistakes, you have to stay away from them. Otherwise, we will resemble them and their bad behavior will affect us and form our character as well. A Turkish proverb says that he who will approach soot will smell like soot and he who will approach good fragrance will smell like that fragrance. Bad friends are very good at presenting bad things as good and lying to us about unreal pleasures that will never really fulfill us. Just as they harm themselves and live a meaningless life, they will also harm those who are close to them.

Good friends, on the other hand, are like ‘resting stations’. Studies have been able to show that good friends (in addition to exercise and a healthy diet) have an influence on our life expectancy and lead us to not age prematurely. ‘Vitamin F’ (the F standing for friendship) helps us to live a healthy and quality life. Vitamin F helps to reduce stress and laugh while maintaining the elasticity of the skin. Furthermore, it leads to the release of serotonin and oxytocin and can even keep our body young and positively influence our psyche. When we are stressed, we can relax and collect our thoughts with good friends. Accordingly, good friends are like a productive tree. Their shadow offers us protection and rest and provides us with the best fruits.

We have to be very careful regarding our choice of friends. If you become friends with the wrong people, this relationship will only harm and disappoint you in the end. Apart from choosing good friends, it is important to be a good friend yourself. Before searching for good friends who are worth our attention and love, we ourselves must be good people to be friends with in the first place. One should be able to see one’s own reflection in friends. Cicero said the following: “Apart from the fact that friendship brings a lot of benefits, it is something that is like a ray of hope for the future. It helps the soul not to become weak. Someone who sees a true friend will see himself in him.”

Considering all the benefits of friendhsip, we should open our arms with love to our friends. In life’s journey, we should fill ourselves with love and share that love with our friends. The taste love leaves in our hearts will help this journey pass calmly and we will overcome all obstacle that we face.

Surround yourself with friends who will ease your way, who will love you, and who are nice, gentle, honest and sincere to you.

This Month