How to Make Friends by Jody Moore

Lately I've been enjoying listening to a podcast called Bold New Mom. Yesterday I discovered a podcast she gave about making friends. Here is the link: https://boldnewmom.com/50-how-to-make-friends/. She starts talking about making friends at about Minute 8.

Here are a few great things that I learned from this podcast:

Being interested in other people feels good. Being curious about others makes you more interesting. But you need to be genuinely curious, not just pretend to be curious so people will think you're interesting. You'll enjoy yourself much more if you direct your thoughts in this direction instead of wondering what people think of you.

You have control over your thoughts. Be aware of your thoughts. If you have a thought that isn't healthy (i.e. They don't like me, that thing I said was stupid) you can learn to push those thoughts away and replace them. Or you can explore those thoughts and figure out why you think them and why they are unhealthy or illogical.

"What other people think of you is none of your business. You actually can't read their minds." So don't use your energy worrying about what others think of you. Instead refocus your thoughts to being curious about them.

It's not healthy to need everyone to like you. It's normal to want people to like you, and it feels good when people like you. But you want to be in a place where you don't depend on people liking you. (Most of the time people probably do like you, though.)

You can like whoever you want. That's the goal--for you to like others, not to make them like you (which is not in your control), and not to compare. It's fun to observe people and try to like them.

"Friendship is a thought." If we believe that someone is a friend, then we'll act like a friend around them.