I don’t know a single friend of mine who isn’t as stressed as I am. All of my friends are fellow graduating seniors except one, and she works a full-time internship and goes to school. This means that stress is all of our middle names. Being friends means supporting your people in good times and bad, but how do you do this when your life also feels like you’re losing control?
The most important thing is making sure the friends in your life are ones that understand everyone is stressed. All of my ladies know that we are all busy and that no one person is more important than the other. This is because over the past four years, I’ve collected a great group of friends. When you’re complaining about your day, make sure to them ask about their days!
You also need to be there when they cry, even if you had a bad day too. Sometimes you need to put your day aside and just let them cry; you know that in an hour they’ll let you cry just as much.
If you have time to take something off their plate, do it! If you can run to the grocery store for them or call to make a reservation for birthday brunch, take that on for them. Business ebbs and flows and chances are there will be days that are a little lighter for you when they’re deep in it.
Bring them down to earth! Sometimes you have to be the realistic, positive, reassuring friend even if you want to cave and agree with them that life is falling apart. Staying positive isn’t always easy for me, but it’s much easier to be positive about your friend’s life.
Ignore them when they’re in their worst mood. Sometimes you just have to let things they say go because you know deep down they don’t mean it and it’s just the stress talking.