Do Your Friends Inspire You?

Do your friends make you laugh? Can they sit with you when you need a good cry? Can they also call you out when you’re playing the victim game? Are they present while they are listening to you? And maybe more importantly, do they inspire you?

…And vice versa?

I wanted to write to you about the importance of surrounding yourself with friends that genuinely uplift you because over the past few days I have been lucky enough to spend time with my very dear friend, Samar, who is one of these insanely inspirational people. Seeing her made me feel completely reenergized and stimulated. Samar is a new media artist in Toronto. She runs her own studio (InLight Studio) and creates pieces that are both stunning and thought provoking. (Check out her work here:www.samarhejazi.com)

Besides over Skype, I have only seen Samar on one other occasion over the last eight months because we currently live on different sides of the planet. I was SO excited to see her yet I hadn’t fully realized how much I needed to be in the presence of her energy at this time until I was actually with her. I always feel great when I see this girl, but this time it sunk in more. We laughed as much as we always do and talked about some of the new things happening in our lives and we shared nuggets of wisdom. I have really missed her beautiful soul and being around her again made me feel like I was coming back into myself after feeling somewhat off.

Our friends are so influential in our lives – often more than we can comprehend. They have an impact on our perspectives, on our choices, and therefore, on who we are. So connecting with people who carry positive vibes is something to remember if you also want to reflect those positive vibes. In friendships each person feeds off of and fuels the other. When you genuinely want to see one another grow and succeed, you are also creating a space for each other where there is no judgment and that can be filled with self-expression and possibility.

You most likely have people in your life with whom you connect with in this way. And you might also have friendships where you do not relate to one another quite on such a level. And that’s ok, so long as it isn’t a relationship that is doing the opposite thing, where you’re left with icky feelings that more often than not promote negative emotions towards yourself or others. In those instances it might be time to re-evaluate the friendship and what it brings into your life. It’s better to have fewer friends who are stellar than a ton of perfunctory and depthless connections.

And when you have those fabulous, supportive friends who motivate and inspire you, you can collaborate and create together instead of always comparing and being in competition with each other. And let’s face it; in sport communities like figure skating it isn’t that unusual to come across and even at times fall into gossip-induced, petty interactions. However, we can always find positive and inspirational people if we look for them and we can choose to surround ourselves with those people more of the time.

As two-time Olympic champ Katarina Witt puts it: “Too many times we try to be competitive with each other, we should help support each other, rather than try to be better than each other”

New opportunities are presented when we are open and receptive to the unique talents and gifts of others.