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Choose real friendships
One evening, I received an email from a teenager who’d diagnosed herself
with depression and low self-esteem. She didn’t feel good about life. She
didn’t feel confident and found it very hard to remain positive. Telling her to
stay positive didn’t work; it just made her feel worse.
After speaking to the teenager, it became obvious that her friends had put
many disturbing ideas into her head, telling her she was ugly, stupid,
embarrassing to be around. These friends didn’t recognize her worth, and this
affected how she saw herself, too.
If someone doesn’t respect you or says you have flaws, there’s a good chance
you’ll start to integrate their opinions into your sense of self. In fact, many of
the thoughts in our heads aren’t originally our own. When we’re young, we
might be told that we’re not meant for certain paths in life. We grow up
believing what we’re told and the others’ perceptions become our reality.
Our whole lives are shaped by throwaway comments and social
programming.
Sometimes, the simplest solution is to be around different people, especially
when you can’t get the ones you’re already surrounded by to change. Once
the teenager let go of the friends she had and made new ones, she began to
feel more confident about her life.
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Simplify your circle of friends. Keep those who
add value to your life; remove those who don’t.
Less is always more when your less
means 
more.
Since the evolution of social networking platforms, the definition of 
friend
has changed. They’re no longer people you know well. Virtual friendships
have affected the way society labels friendships. We now call anyone a friend
– even a person we met once on a night out.
How many of these people are really your friends? Could you turn to them in
a time of need? Unfortunately, many modern friendships aren’t based on
emotional support or a family-like connection. Instead, they’re based on
drinking, smoking, partying, shopping or gossiping together – some of which
happen to be habits that will lower your vibration.
A lot of these types of friendships may be based on short-term mutual gain.
For example, some friends may only play an active role in your life when
both of you need someone to accompany you to public events, such as