This week, value and expand your circle of friends. Research claims that people with a rich network of supportive individuals to whom they can turn to when in trouble, live longer and healthier lives.

Your friends are the jewels in your crown of contentment. Friends are constant reminders of your emotional, physical, and psychological wellbeing.

Loneliness and isolation in today’s busy electronic world affects everybody.

The need to connect and the desire to have ‘high-quality’ relationships has acquired more significance in this age of technology and chaotic schedules.

The advent of e-mail or the phone cannot replace the greater intimacy and love that goes with meeting, loving and caring for people who can and should play a greater role in your life.

So, if you would like to experience the soul filling pleasures of friendship in your life, you must strengthen your ability to connect.

You must make time as the possibility of rich relationships exists all around you.

All you have to do is to keep your eyes, mouth, and most importantly, your heart open.

You need to treat your friends as preciously as you truly hold them in your hearts.

The place to start is by remembering that every encounter with a human being is a precious encounter, whether the person is a stranger or a friend.

This will make it easier to reach out and open up.

So, let this week be a week of deeper connections, between friends you already know or would like to know even better.

As you reach out, chances are that they will reach right out too and before you know it, life will become a rich tapestry of friends and more friends. Loneliness will not be a problem any more.

Friendship rituals are truly meaningful.

Let your friends know how much you mean to them by:

• Sharing your favourite books
• Getting together at least once or twice a month for dinner or lunch.
• Sending brief encouraging notes when tough times hit.
• Stopping whatever you are doing and paying attention to your friend if it is something important.
• Cooking for your friends.
• Giving your cherished pal a gift that she would never give herself.
• Remembering friends with ‘Thank you’ cards and notes.
• Going on walks together or planning annual outings.
• Going shopping for gifts during festival seasons.
• Taking each other out during birthdays.
• Mailing some jokes, newspaper clippings, or cartoons that are interesting.
• Visiting when the friend is sick or under tremendous stress and quietly listening to her problems.
• Sending impulsive and inexpensive tokens of appreciation, like a bunch of flowers.
• Above all, letting your friends know how much you love them by telling them frequently how much you treasure the gift of their friendship.

Friends are the continuous threads that help hold our lives together.

It is true that friends are people who help you to be more yourself, more the person you are intended to be.

So, in your life’s journey, remember to cherish your friends not only in thought but also in action. The rewards of friendship are truly sweet.