And hello to you. Today I'm talking about friendships. If you've ever wondered why some friendships

feel life-giving and others quietly leave you drained, then today's bonus Friday episode is for you.

We often talk about relationships in terms of love or work or family, but friendships, that quiet glue in the middle often gets overlooked and yet

they shape us just as much maybe even more sometimes because friendships aren't static they evolve

sometimes they deepen sometimes they drift sometimes they just end that's okay. But if you've ever found

yourself lying awake wondering why a friendship might feel one-sided, or why you feel like you don't

quite fit in with a group that you used to laugh with a lot, I want to say this. You're not

doing anything wrong. There's a phrase I use a lot in therapy.

I'd encourage everybody to ask this sometimes. Where do I end and someone else begins?

And that applies so much to friendships. Because when we blur that line, when we give and give without boundaries, it's easy to lose ourselves. We shrink to fit.

We smile when we don't mean it and we stay quiet when we should speak up. So maybe you've had

that moment where you start to ask yourself, why do I always feel tired after seeing them?

Or why do I keep chasing someone who never seems to have time for me?

Friendship should feel like a two-way street.

But not a performance, not a test, not a competition.

And yet so many of us carry all these stories from our childhood about being liked, about being accepted, being enough.

And we play them out in our adult friendships, even when they no longer serve us.

But here's something to try today.

A simple question to ask yourself, who am I when I'm not trying to please

anyone? Sit with that for a moment. Let it linger because that version of you, the one who isn't

performing or adjusting or editing yourself, that's the version that deserves to be seen.

That's the version that deserves real connection.

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