Best Friends Day Everyday | LAYC23

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Hello, and welcome back, my online friends!

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Today is National Best Friend Day here in the USA, on June the 8th, 2021.

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As I'm recording this, and thinking about all of you, and all of the wonderful

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friends that I've had in my lifetime...

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and I have still today.

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I think that Best Friend Day should be every day!

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This is a special year to put our attention on what we do to deserve our

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friendships, and how we nurture them, and keep them for a long, long time.

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I'm thinking about this in the context right now of having been through...

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and still...

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for many of us, experiencing the impact of COVID-19...

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The global pandemic, the lockdowns and social isolation that we experienced.

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Imagine the huge Impact that has had on our friendships, and our relationships.

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Now looking back in the rear view mirror, over 16 months or so...

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During that period...

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Tell me...

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Who showed up for you?

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Who were the friends who showed up?...

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We knew, and felt they were out there, and we could count on them...

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Even when we couldn't be together in person.

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And tell me...

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Did you, like I did, experience some surprises about who did not show up?...

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As a friend during this challenging time.

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Hm.

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And...

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Who did you reconnect with?

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What friends from the past that you'd kind of lost touch with...

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That while you were confined to home...

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Spending more time on social media...

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You were able to reach out and reconnect with, and reconstitute that friendship.

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And here's the bonus...

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This might've also been a time for you to cultivate some brand new friendships.

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That may grow into Best Friends Forever.

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Personally, I have made several new friends during COVID, that I probably

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wouldn't have, if I had not been forced to stay at home, and reinvent myself...

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Again...

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in fact, the Lift As You Climb Movement was born with the encouragement

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of new sisters of the heart...

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Around the globe, that I met in an online community, during COVID.

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Since we've been faced with so much uncertainty and disruption in

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the last year and a half, it isn't that surprising, that friends and

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relationships that are dear to us...

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Are very much on our mind.

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And that's been a real catalyst for me...

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To write a couple of articles and blogs, and I published two other

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episodes on this podcast about friends.

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One is called REAL Friends, and I capitalized R E A L just to

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convey the impact of true versus superficial relationships, on

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how we live our legacies.

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In the podcast episode, BFF Not Forever, I spilled my guts, about

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the heartache of being dumped by a girlfriend, that I thought was a BFF.

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For your ease, I think those are podcast episodes, 7 and 8...

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If you want to go back and listen to them later, I'll include

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the links in the show notes.

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I've had a lot of discussions in my circle of friends about the changing dynamics

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of relationships with women, as we get older and our interests change.

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I published a new blog this week about that topic.

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And I'll include that also in the show notes.

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Basically I'm saying that perhaps not all friendships.

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Are intended to last forever.

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Some friendships really serve us well and teach us important lessons in our life.

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As the poem says...

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For a season or for a reason.

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Understanding this, and graciously accepting it, are not always in sync.

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Perhaps it's easier to know that some BFFs are actually intended to be...

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Best friends for now.

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If you're traveling in my orbit.

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You know, I've also been talking a lot lately about living an epic

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life, and celebrating how many more years, months, and days I have...

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To live that epic life...

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Alive to live my legacy...

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and really not focused on dying.

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But focus on living.

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Friendships are a very, very important part of that.

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I want to spend the next decades of my life with the people that help me.

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To be the best possible version...

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of Me.

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That means, I must take stock, and evaluate my existing relationships...

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Regularly...

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Like a health checkup...

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If we're not changing and growing...

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We're dying.

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It's the same for all relationships.

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We simply can't take the health of our friendships for granted.

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They need tending and cultivating and sometimes...

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They need weeding.

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It may feel uncomfortable, to think in terms of cultivating,

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or culling your friends list...

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But really, I do believe it's necessary for our own successful

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evolution, and becoming more of us.

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As women we're constantly reinventing, and growing, and

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changing, and transforming...

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I know I am...

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After all...

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I am the author of Who Am I Now?

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So I invite you to think about this...

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If you don't assess your friendships and make room...

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How can new friends rise up in your life?

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As I transform into who I want to become next.

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I need space to invite my friends.

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To go along on that journey with me.

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My Encore...

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My evolutionary experience, will be so wonderful, when supported and

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shared with all the right friends, choosing to curate and cultivate the

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friendships, to support you to live your legacy, by being the best you.

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And therefore, you are able to lift others, and help them climb...

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Is in my mind...

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The ultimate in self-love, self-care, nd self-sustainability.

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But how do you do this effectively?

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How do you remain aware?

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If a friendship is still healthy?

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In our busy zoom zoom world...

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Is it obvious?

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Or...

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More often...

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Does it creep slowly into our consciousness?...

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That a friendship has changed, and may belong in a different category,

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than it might have been before?

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It may also be true, that some friendships should be promoted...

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To a higher priority in your friendship categories, and that there is more

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work to be done, to develop and nurture and celebrate that friendship.

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I have firsthand experience of some of those examples...

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Sometimes you meet somebody and there's a connection instantly.

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But in the present moment, you're not sure...

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Why you feel that way...

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Or...

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Where that really fits into your life.

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But allowed the time, and the opportunity to figure it out, you discover...

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This is why we were meant to meet each other.

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This is why we were meant to grow, and do something meaningful...

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Together.

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We have to make space for these new relationships...

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New friendships, to thrive.

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Part of your friendship review may be...

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Painful and bittersweet...

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To reflect on the friends that are no longer with us.

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Perhaps, as in the case of a few, very, very dear friends of mine...

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They have left this planet.

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Or...

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They may have left us for other friends, or other priorities in their

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life and we don't quite fit anymore, in the future they are pursuing.

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And then...

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There's the very last bucket...

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and that's the one where the bucket got kicked right out from under you...

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I talk about my own experience with this in episode 7 of the podcast.

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Sometimes a friend just divorces you, and leaves ya just sitting on the curb...

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Wondering what the hell happened?

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If thinking about all of this makes your head hurt and your gut tighten up...

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You're not alone.

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In the past decade or so I was going through personal transformations

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faster than Alice in Wonderland...

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and I was so confused, and conflicted, about who I was, and who I needed, and

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wanted, on this part of my life's journey.

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No one had prepared me for this.

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In the midst of my own 50 something identity crisis, I now also had to

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figure out if my friends we're going to make the transition with me.

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As uncomfortable as it felt, I knew I had to take a hard look at who surrounded

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me, and if we were growing together.

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As part of my Encore methodology, I created a Friendship Health Checkup.

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I needed a step by step...

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Let's be honest with myself...

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Process.

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To get clear on my relationships...

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My needs from relationships, and my own worthiness, as a best friend.

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I'm still using that process today...

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10 plus years later, and it is served me very well.

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In honor of best friends day...

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Today...

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Tomorrow and every day...

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I encourage you to be your own BFF.

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Download my Friendship Health Checkup, and use it freely.

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It's easy to obtain at the following URL: www.MyEncoreFriends.com

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and I will put that in the show notes, In case you forget.

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So for now...

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I prescribe...

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Take 2 Vitamin Gs...

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and call me in the morning.

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But remember...

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Your Encore and your evolution, do not require you to leave behind any

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of the best parts of who you are now.

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It only requires you to make room for the best YOU yet to come.