How to Mend a Broken Friendship
Friendships are important to all of us. It doesn’t matter if we’ve known the person since we were a baby or if we just met the person when we got to college, it’s an important relationship. Friendships can be broken for a variety of reasons and often times we don’t know what to do, or what not to do, in order to repair it. Well, here’s a few do’s and don’ts of repairing your friendship. It’s important to remember that your friendship is similar to any relationship you’ve had, or will have, in your life.
DO: Give space to the person
If the argument was recent, then giving space is important. There’s a possibility that you’re over the situation but the other person may not be ready to deal with it yet. It’s perfectly fine if you don’t talk for a while until everyone gets their thoughts together.
DON’T: Force the issue
This goes back to giving space. You don’t want to force someone to discuss something that they’re not ready to deal with yet. By forcing the other person to discuss what happened you could be potentially doing more harm than good.
DO: Reach out first
You know the saying, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”? That saying also applies to a broken friendship. Don’t be afraid to reach out first. Even if you felt like you weren’t in the wrong don’t be afraid to reach out. If they don’t respond, at least you tried and it’s okay they didn’t respond. If they do, then you just might be on your way to fixing things.
DON’T: Point the finger
Similar to relationships, it’s important to take ownership in the situation. Something occurred between the two of you that made the friendship begin to sour. If you didn’t realize what you were doing was wrong it’s good to say that. However, you don’t want to focus on everything that they did wrong.
DO: Apologize for what you did wrong
This goes back to taking ownership for the issue. Taking ownership for what you did wrong shows that you recognize that you weren’t perfect in the situation. It also shows that you’re ready to gain that friendship back.
Hopefully these tips helped you to gain your friendship back! Friendships are super important and sometimes we don’t realize what we potentially did wrong in the situation.