If you had told me this 5 years ago, I would have laughed in your face. ..so most of us are focused on improving ourselves, which is great, and clearly very important. If we don't work on improving, and making use of our youthful years, then we risk falling behind and becoming miserable later on in life. the world we currently live in requires us to work our asses off probably harder than any generation before us. ▫️now, one thing that we sometimes forget is focusing on our ENVIRONMENT! 🫠 what do we mean by that? we got different environments around us (and im not talking about the trees ) 1- physical (trees, sun, and that stuff) 2- digital 3- cognitive 4- social (our focus today) your social environment is made up of different components but our focus today will be on the social relationships component. most of us fall into the trap of thinking that social relationships are not as important as working on ourselves and our futures😶‍🌫️, but in reality they could be just as important. some of us choose "bad" or "draining" friendships/relationships out of fear of being alone and sitting with the ugly hollowness of solitude (sounds dramatic, LOL) and I don't think I've got to explain why that's bad. also, some of us tend to choose relationships patterns where we have to act as "saviours" or even worse, we gotta be the "victims" ▫️now, the point I wanted to deliver was we have to focus on our social relationships by choosing carefully and doing BETTER for our friends and family... how? 1. showing up (even when you're not needed)🌻 let me elaborate: check in on friends and family frequently, even if nothing is wrong. remember their birthdays. remember important dates for them (use the calendar app and set a reminder). buy them gifts. when needed, stay there for them. 2. staying honest no matter what🍋 3. not gossiping at all or very minimal gossip (and NEVER about family, friends or even old friends or old acquaintances)❗️ 4. frequent shared experiences 🏖 5. active listening 😌 6. approach conflicts with a problem solving mindset, and never try to "win" fights. if they are the ones trying to "win", step back until they take a step back too and realise their mistake 🐥 7. be consistent and reliable🌴 8. never emotionally dump, and always read the room before sharing anything 😏 elaboration: if you wanted to share happy news abt urself but the person appears sad, read the room and keep it to urself until they are feeling OK to share it 9. support and encourage them 💛 wanting to improve ourselves is not necessarily selfish, but it is selfish when we forget to focus on the people who are supposed to be important to us. I used to think that "relationships aren't important ", but now I know they are, and they totally affect your mental health and even your RATE of improving! 😬 I invite you all to find a balance between selfishness and selflessness and 2 embrace the desire to care abt ppl ⭐️🌻🍵🐢 #people #humans #therapy #psychology #improvement #work #long #text #dude #LOL #whatev