For all of you who joined us half-way through the year, missed a post here-or-there, or just want to re-read some of the goodies to see if they speak to you where you are now, here are the most read, popular blog posts from the last year: 1. Is "Get Rid of Negative People in My Life" Good Advice?
This post beat out the second place by 3 times! Fortunately, it seems we are feeling a little conflicted with how much we keep hearing that we need to surround ourselves only with positive people.
2. How To Respond to a Friend in Crisis
The diagram in this post has served me over the year as such an incredibly helpful visual-aid for understanding how to help those in crisis without putting them in the place of having to comfort us, even though they're pain undoubtedly impacts us.
3. Five Questions to Ask Before Ending a Friendship
If we're starting to entertain the idea of our friend being toxic or our friendships with someone feeling unhealthy, it's often because we haven't yet articulated our expectations and needs. This post provides a thoughtful approach for making sure we've done our part to contribute to the possibility of a healthy relationship before ending it.
4. Making New Friends in a New City
Christy Mims wrote this guest post about moving to a new city and having to start all over as she made new friends. Most of us know that experience! She shares candidly her feelings and the actions she took to develop the friendships that matter to her.
5. What Do I Do With My Toxic Friend?
The concept I share in this post could save many a friendship from ending! It's super important to clarify the 3 different entities in every relationship: her, me, and us; and step back to see if we can shift the friendship by focusing on the 2 entities we actually have some control over.
6. Friendship Break-Ups 4: Letting Go or Holding On
Most of our friendships will end with us "drifting" apart from each other as life circumstances change. This post helps ensure that we're not a victim to that process, but rather being women who choose to courageously and intentionally make choices about which friendships to be at peace with letting go, and which ones to invest the energy needed to survive the transition.
7. This Friendship Is Going Negative: What Do I Do?
In this post I offer up two different frameworks for helping assess our friendships: the 5 Circles of Connectedness and the definition of friendship. Both tools can help us articulate what is wrong in the friendship, and based on what type of friends she is, can help us decide what approach might best serve our friendship.
8. Reflections on My Katie Couric Interview
A highlight in 2013 was definitely being invited to appear on Katie Couric's afternoon talk show. While filming it, I just kept thinking about all these comments I wanted to make as I listened to Katie and the other guests talk about their friendships. But since they didn't ask me to comment on everyone else... I share those thoughts on my blog instead. :)
9. Christmas Card Conundrums: Send They? Why? How Many? To Whom?
We're past the season now for sending out our annual holiday cards, but bookmark this one for next December! We're all trying to find that sweet spot between letting friends know we're thinking of them while not adding to our own exhaustion, guilt, or stress.
10. Many Introverts are "Coming Out"
Reflecting back over an interview I did with Sophia Dembling, author of "The Introvert's Way," I am encouraged with all the press, validation, and visibility that introverts are getting. We must keep seeking to understand how we (and our friends) are wired energetically.
** And I always pick out a bonus post to add to the list-- a post that may not have made the top ten, but that I personally think is important. This one actually may have been one of the most "liked" post on Facebook and I think contains helpful sample scripts for learning How to Ask for What You Need in Your Relationships.
Want more popular articles?