15 Benefits of Female Friendships
Texas Christian Counseling
Friends add an aspect to life that everyone needs. They provide support and encouragement in hard times and share the celebration of good times. When people have friendships, they are less likely to be overwhelmed with stress and seem to have healthier and longer lives. Female friendships are different from the male and female connection. Women have a way of being a support system for other women who face struggles. This could be because women are intuitive.
Female friends have a way of connecting by reading emotions and recognizing what is needed. However, this doesn’t mean these friendships come without complexities. Friendships require intentionality, compassion, and trust.
In certain seasons of their lives, it can be challenging for some women to give more of themselves to cultivating friendships, such as when raising a family.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV
The Importance of Female Friendships
Cultivating healthy friendships can improve many aspects of life, making friendships essential. Friendships can impact women’s health emotionally and physically.
Women find comfort and strength when sharing life with other women. Understanding how to nurture others is a part of being a woman making it easier for them to connect. These connections help create a mindset that helps them manage stress in everyday living.
Female friendships can support understanding related to mothering and family. This brings a different level of emotional support. Women are typically more open with each other about the feelings and emotions that come with motherhood.
During frustrating times, women offer a fresh perspective on the challenges of kids, marriage, and work. When a female friend looks at the situation from the outside, they are able to share a different point of view.
Typically, female friends will be honest even if it sounds brutal. When there is a need for a new perspective women tend to be both honest and empathetic. Female friends will listen to ideas and opinions and then discuss what they truly think or see.
These factors do not change as women grow older. In fact, most of the time as women age, they change the way they relate to challenges and choose what truly matters. By choosing the proper priority, women often deal with stress differently between friendships.
The Benefits of Female Friendships
The benefits of healthy friendships go far beyond having someone to chat with during lunch. Women can create camaraderie through their shared trials, lead each other to lean on Christ, and work together to find solutions to their daily trials.
Conflicts resolved with compassion: Females strive to resolve conflicts in ways that strengthen their bond rather than destroy it. They tend to seek understanding and compassion over being right or defensive.
Nurturing bonds: Female friendships create a bond that goes beyond just knowing each other. It is a bond that creates an environment of support and understanding.
Promotes stress reduction: Women respond to stress differently from men. Nurturing each other through stressful moments can increase serotonin and create a sense of well-being. Female friendships help encourage calm by helping carry the load.
Empathy and conversation: Women tend to listen while their friends vent and help them talk through their emotions. Female friendships allow the raw emotions and feelings to be discussed, challenged, and resolved.
Women don’t grieve alone: When faced with hard and painful losses, women will stand beside their friends and encourage them with hope and love. They don’t abandon each other in the heartache of grief.
Increase health awareness: When women nurture other women through life’s ups and downs, it can affect the quality of life for their friends. This directly affects their health by promoting healthy eating, sleeping, and active lifestyles.
Acceptance without judgment: Speaking without fear of ridicule or criticism makes life less stressful when navigating difficult times.
Creates a sense of belonging: Through bonding, women will create a sense of belonging that will promote health, love, and support.
Improve self-confidence: Women encourage other women to embrace who they are. They also have a knack for fashion and enjoy creating a look that enhances their friends.
Role models and mentors: Having friendships that provide mentorship can motivate you to make faithful, wise decisions.
Give you strength: Because they are more sensitive, women can be a source of mental strength to one another.
Help achieve success: Most women experience the same struggles which means they know how to encourage other women to reach their goals.
They understand the need for a safe space: Most women understand the need to have someone they trust. They need a safe place to discuss the concerns and problems they struggle with.
Females encourage feminine qualities: Society promotes the masculine traits of success, growth, productivity, and strength. Women will remind each other to embrace the feminine qualities of being motherly, honest, uplifting, resilient, and kind.
Women don’t let women do life alone: Female friends tend to invade privacy when a friend seems to be isolating. They step in to help their friend not feel alone when the moment is hard.
Types of Healthy Female Friendships
We know that friendships matter but what types of friends make the best friendship? Not all friendships are healthy. Sometimes the smaller the circle, the better the friends.
A childhood friend these friends are healthy for many reasons. They know you and your childhood so they understand more about you than most people. You share memories with these friends.
A new friend is special because they bring new interests to the table. They can connect you to something new as you look for a career or hobby.
A spiritual friend
Women who have a spiritual friend have an increase in their quality of life. This cultivates a healthier lifestyle resulting from a positive thought process and belief.
A workout friend
Women who work out together tend to stay committed to being physically active. This creates a healthy lifestyle that will lead to a longer life.
A younger friend
When women have younger friends, they tend to feel as though they can contribute to helping younger women navigate life.
Your mom
Regardless of the conflicts, women who are friends with their moms tend to find a support system that truly understands who they are as women.
Your partner’s friends
Engaging in friendships with the spouses of your husband’s friends creates a happier atmosphere in the marriage.
Yourself a woman who knows how to be her own friend knows who she is and what she has to offer friends. This will help identify what a woman needs in friendship.
Conclusion
Some friendships can be unhealthy. Women who seek friendships do not want to be weighed down by fake friends or those who cannot reciprocate the friendship. These friendships will become destructive and create stress rather than help with your daily struggles.
Female friendships can create a higher quality of life. From childhood to older adulthood, friendships create a sense of belonging and well-being that will promote a healthy lifestyle.
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