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.