The Simple Act of Being a Friend

This weekend I watched Jamie Fox’s new movie, The Soloist. It is a heart-warming and inspiring story in numerous ways and I’m sure I’ll be incorporating many ideas from it into my future blog posts. But there was one line in particular from the movie that stood out to me. Robert Downey Jr’s character says at the end of the movie “According to some mental health experts, the simple act of being a friend can alter somebody’s brain chemistry.”

I really love the possibilities of this kind of thinking because they are limitless.  One thing I’ve consciously done over the last few years, is made an effort to be a friend to almost anybody I interact with. That includes bartenders, waitresses, service people and anybody I might encounter in day to day life. It’s amazing the power this has had in my life. I get free drinks from bartenders quite often and I’m a guy.  But I realized that this is the tip of the iceberg.  It has been stated over and over again that we live in a universe driven by energy. Like energy attracts like energy.  Just think of the energy that you send out into the universe if you approach every interaction in your life with the mind-set of  “the simple act of being a friend.”

How do we practice the simple act of being a friend? Think about how you are with your best friend. How do you treat your friendship from a mental standpoint. You remember their names and seemingly pointless or minor details about their lives. You don’t judge, you don’t criticize, you just accept, you listen, and when appropriate you offer a helping hand. By approaching all interactions like this, it’s likely that you’ll have a positive impact on a person’s brain chemistry and eventually master “the simple act of being a friend.”