Five Friends You Need to Have to Enjoy Life

Writer Edna Buchanan once said "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves." In our busy lives it is becoming common to relegate our friends to an occasional email and a Birthday card. But Mental Health Experts agree that having a close-knit group of friends with who you feel safe and energized, you are much more likely to give yourself a much higher grade in the "Life Happiness" Scale.

Here are the five types of friends that you need to include in your ring of close friends in order to get most of your social needs met.

1. The Uplifter
This is the friend who really listens to you and eagerly supports you in your decisions. She can give you 3 reasons why your glass is half full instead of half empty. Talking with her is a good way to verbalize your ideas and she will help you feel creative and intelligent for having thought of them.

2. The Travel Buddy
It is a fact that women have much more fun traveling together without men than they ever had with a man. This friend must be OK with silences, able to make the best out of a wrong turn and someone who has a bit of adventure in her that can make her a little quirky once in a while - every holiday needs someone to liven it up a bit.

3. The consistently truthful
This is someone who has tact, who can speak the truth with love instead of jealousy or males. When you find her, you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective. She is the one who will not be afraid to tell you that Great Aunt Jane will hate that T-shirt as her souvenir.

4. The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun
This friend is easy going and can pour over nick-nacks in a country store for hours and never get board. She is the shopping antithesis to men. She is the one eager to put on her size 42 bathing suit and jump into the spa or to have a picnic under the stars She makes you smile and step out of your comfort zone once in a while

5. The Unlikely Friend
This is a friend that at first didn't seem like they would fit the group, but after getting to know her you realize that she represented a completely different view of the world that you do and you love to interact with her and learn more of her world.


To fully enjoy your life you must allow yourself to have a varied arrangement of friends with whom to share your life.

Woman Bitten by Dead Gopher - Life is One Big Joke

I heard about a new type of Yoga the other day called "Laugh Yoga." Essentially a group of people get together and start laughing without cause. By the end of the session most are laughing at the silliness of their own laughter and they are feeling better, more relaxed and optimistic about life.

Today, if I had known where to join such a group, I would have. I started out this morning late for an appointment. I grabbed my shoes and started towards the door thinking that I could put them on once I arrived at the Dr.s office. As I loped across my living room rug I stepped on something both slimy and sharp - a dead gopher head and its kidney. My cats had left me a surprise gift.

After washing the guts off of my foot I again headed off to my appointment. When I arrived I was told that I was not late at all, but I was actually 3 days early. I laughed, then I told them my gopher story and all of us had a good long laugh - including an older couple in the waiting area who had over heard the story.

I guess I didn't really need to join a "Yoga Laughter" group after all, my life is silly enough to create my own laugh therapy. And believe it or not, so is yours. All of us have a choice every day to go about our business with a smile on our face or to choose to continually look at the world through a serious lens.

Why waste your life feeling pessimistic and sullen when you can live every moment with joy and laughter? There is a reason people look better when they smile. Even Mother Nature wants us to be happy.

Being Grateful Can Improve your Life

"Gratitude is the first step on the Simple Abundance path, or it just won't work. Simplicity, order, harmony, beauty and joy—all the other principles that can transform your life will not blossom and flourish without gratitude."
— Sarah Ban Breathnach

Several years ago Oprah did a show about being grateful for everything in your life - even those things that seemed troublesome. She claimed that having a "Attitude of Gratitude" was part of what has brought her happiness and success. She said:

"Accept with an open heart whatever is going on in your life right now. And whenever you can't think of something to be grateful for, remember your breath. With each breath you take, you can say, "I am still here."

People all over the world began making lists of things they were grateful for and it didn't take long before they were writing to Oprah, telling her how that simple daily habit had changed their life.

It is true that changing your attitude to a positive frame of mind can change your whole life. Becoming positive instead of negative will attract positive people and positive events to you. And you will be more likely to recognize a positive opportunity when you are in a positive frame of mind.

While you are making your list of things to be grateful for, make a mental note of those areas of your life that can be changed from a negative to a positive. Make a commitment to stop gossiping, judging others, or expecting that others should live to your standards. Replace those old habits with positive ones. Look for the positive in others, be compassionate, and be grateful that everyone around you is a unique individual.