Hope +Wellness Blog
little snippets of advice for everyday challenges many people share
Making Friends as an Adult: A Guide for 2025
If you’re longing for closer friendships or struggling with making friends, you’re not alone. Here’s how to approach it.
Five Tools For Managing Loneliness and Building Connection
The problem with loneliness is that it tricks us into thinking we’re the only one who feels that way, that everyone else is happy and connected and supported by their friends, loved ones, and community, and out of shame we end up isolating, only making the loneliness worse. But the truth is most of us feel lonely every now and then.
I Hurt My Friend's Feelings, What Do I Do Now?
We can only avoid conflict by avoiding our true feelings in a relationship, so it’s not necessarily a sign that the relationship is a bad one. And hurting someone’s feelings doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. We’re all wounded and trying our best, and sometimes we misstep. Taking time to talk to you about their hurt feelings is a sign that your relationship means a lot to your friend or loved one, not the other way around.
Why is Making Friends as an Adult so Hard? + What to Do About It
Friendships become communities of support–communities which go against the American ideal of self sufficiency. Because they present this sort of counter-culture to the American way, we don’t put value onto platonic relationships the way we do with others and we don’t learn how to make, cultivate and sustain intimate them. So what can you do?
Managing Conflict in Friendships
In all long term relationships, conflict is normal and expected and nothing to feel shame or fear about. However, that doesn’t make it easy to manage! It can feel scary when conflict comes up–no matter what type of relationship you have. But if we’re willing to do a bit of uncomfortable work, we can find ways to repair the relationship, and likely make it stronger as well.
10 Blogs to Read for More Intimate Friendships
Like any other relationship, in order to have true intimacy, the relationship will sometimes require hard (or uncomfortable) work! We believe that all relationships are important–you need a garden of support in your life, and many different relationships to fulfill the many different parts of you. But having supportive, intimate friendships takes work. Here are 10 blogs to read on doing that work!
Breaking up With a Friend
We’re given a lot more social scripts and tools for ending romantic relationships, but not platonic ones. But the bones of it aren’t all that different–this is a person who has played a significant role in your life, who you have spent valuable time with, that you now have to say goodbye to.
4 Ways to Practice Accountability in Your Relationships
Accountability isn’t always the first quality we think of when it comes to good relationships, but it’s actually very important for establishing trust, safety, and intimacy. It’s less obvious than, say, a good sense of humor, but accountability is a crucial piece of the healthy relationship puzzle.
5 Ways to Deal With Being Ghosted
Many of us have negative beliefs about ourselves, whether we realize it or not. There’s even a name for that critical voice in your head that reinforces those mean thoughts: the inner critic. This inner critic might tell you that you’re not loveable or not good enough. Being ghosted can reinforce those beliefs, even though they’re false.
3 Ways to Celebrate Platonic Relationships This February
However you choose to structure and prioritize your relationships, it can be fun to celebrate them every once in a while. It’s pretty easy to find lists or ideas for how to celebrate romantic love, but it’s tougher to find ideas for non-romantic relationships. If you’re looking for ways to celebrate the platonic loves in your life, here are 3 ideas to consider.
Hope+Wellness is a mental health practice specializing in the treatment of depression, mood, stress, and anxiety in kids, teens, and adults. This is a blog about living well and finding meaning and purpose in the face of difficult challenges. This is a blog about finding hope.
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