For the sake of fun

Get your weekly dose of Debbie Puente's Friendship column! She always seems to write just what I've been thinking about. I'll post an update soon; things are a little overwhelming over here.


For the sake of fun

Be strong my warrior queens <3

Strength in a Storm

For the entirety of my life, my parents could not have stressed the importance of family and friends any more than they always have. Somehow, throughout the last couple of years, I had forgotten the strength and meaning of the word: family.

Well yes, I recognize that I have been close to nonexistent with my posts here, but I will tell you that I have not forgotten about all of you. To put in lighter terms, I have been treading through what seems like every storm possible lately.

Through these storms, I have had the privilege to truly feel the presence of a grand, irreplaceable support system of family and friends. My sister and I are 5 years apart and despite that difference in years, I am fortunate to say that my sister is one of the best friends I could ever have. Interestingly, before knowing of my recent struggles, she gave me a gift that came along with these words:

"love... The greatest virtue of all. Love warms the existence of mankind and elevates the spirit."

It was as if she knew without knowing. At such a tumultuous moment in my life, I know that I could count on her, my family, and friends to help bring me to brighter days in times to come.

So now I would like to ask you: What does family represent for you? Where do you go or who do you go to when you've found you've lost your strength? What does the power of love mean to you?

sorry!!

Hey guys! I just wanted to apologize for my disappearance! I've been pretty crazy busy with school this week - as soon as my homework is done there will be like 50 posts!!
Have a great week!
Raewyn

RX: Eat chocolate, drink red wine, and spend time with friends

I just absolutely adore this column...learn a little bit about the healthy things for us that everyone says is unhealthy! (like chocolate!)

RX: Eat chocolate, drink red wine, and spend time with friends

I Get By With a Little From My Friends

Today, I am sick. My throat hurts and I've basically been miserable all day. It's really not fun at all. But did reaffirm how absolutely amazing my best friends / roommates are.

As I was sitting on the couch basically dying (or so it feels), my roommate came home and made me lunch. I was absolutely thrilled. As if that wasn't enough, two of them then left to go look at mattresses and brought me home a bouquet of my favorite flowers to cheer me up.

I LOVE THESE GIRLS.

It brings me back to the Sex and the City quote: "Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates and guys are just people to have fun with." 


It's true. Have you heard of Vitamin F? I know I alluded to it the other day with the Spa relaxation and girl time post. But here's one of those forwarded emails about girls...I just don't think I could ever stress the importance of girlfriends enough, so I'll keep saying it...Enjoy!

"I just finished  taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body   connection-the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of  psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things  that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a  woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her  relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was  serious.

 

Women connect with each other differently and provide  support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life  experiences.  Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create  more serotonin-a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a  general feeling of well being.  Women share feelings whereas men often form  relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk  about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going.  Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes.  But their  feelings?-rarely. 

 

Women do it all of the time. We  share  from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and  evidently that is  very good for our health.  He said that spending time with a friend is just  as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.   There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something  good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting  our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said  that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other  humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

 

So every  time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and  congratulate yourself for doing something good for your  health! We are  indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo. let's toast to our friendship with our  girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health."