Best friends are the best! You get to experience life with a special person who knows you in and out. Both good and bad times are spent together and you love each other through thick and thin. Life with a best friend is truly a blessing. There is nothing more freeing than being able to be yourself and not having to put on a face or pretend to be okay.

There are times, I don’t know, like when a pandemic comes along and you can’t get together with your best friend. It’s at this point in time where you end up either staring at the TV, the wall, a book or the mirror. You wonder what you might do next, but then the “next” turns into months. How are you supposed to live with yourself?

I wonder if being a stay at home mom for many years gave me a head start on this pandemic living. You have to learn to live with yourself and you’re the only adult in the house for most of the day! Over these 9 months, I’ve been taken back to those sometimes hard and lonely days. Living away from people and their interactions can simply make you cranky.

This crankiness brings me back to the importance of being your own best friend.

1. Know your likes and dislikes. Living isolated can force you to realize what you like and what you don’t like. Live into the moments of “likes” and delve into the whys of your dislikes.
2. Learn to laugh at yourself and appreciate your quirkiness! You are quirky and I am quirky. Don’t be ashamed of who you are. Laugh at yourself. Can’t do that? Look in the mirror and make funny faces until you start laughing. Somedays we just need to laugh – even if at ourselves.
3. Watch your self-talk. There is a lot of negative talk in our world and I’m usually my own worst critic. When you hear that critic talking every hour of every day you can start to believe the lies. Watch what you are telling yourself and think about how you can encourage yourself.
4. Take time for selfcare. In isolation, this might not be time of complete aloneness, but can you take a few minutes to read a book, cook a new recipe, meditate, walk around the block, watch a movie? Do something that will fill your soul.

Learning to be your own best friend is a hard lesson to learn. It’s learning to love both the good and bad parts about yourself. It’s knowing when to give yourself grace and when to push yourself forward. How do you need to be a better friend to yourself today?

© 2021 Susan M. Sims

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Need a book to read or a Bible study book? Check out Being Transparent: With Yourself, God, and Others, as well as the Leader’s Discussion Guide!