And yet: is it necessary to give advice to friends about their relationships?

Communicate more often

Distance is not a barrier to communication, especially considering that in the modern world there are many ways to keep in touch (more on that later). Ideally, it is better to contact every day, even a little. You can simply talk about the past day, remember something together, discuss events happening in the world.

You can establish a connection at the same time, this will be more convenient for both interlocutors. If you are separated not only by kilometers, but also by time zones, choose an option that suits everyone. Set a specific order for making calls so that no one is offended.

Advice: there are different situations in life, and its rhythm makes its own adjustments, so if for some reason you didn’t have time to get in touch today, don’t be offended. Just make contact the next day and find out if everything is okay with your friend, and also find out what exactly prevented the contact.

Friendship

Does long distance friendship exist? The good news is yes. However, it will require systematic work and the desire to maintain it on both sides.

What can harm

The variety of modern communication methods helps you communicate 24/7. Email, endless messengers, chats, forums, and, of course, telephone and SMS are always at hand.

But there is a downside - flashing familiar faces in Instagram photos creates a false sense of intimacy and communication. Therefore, it is important not to slide into the idea that close relationships will be devalued only by surveillance on social networks .

excessive politeness and tactfulness can become the “enemies” of long-distance friendship . Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about whether to write or call a good friend. We are afraid to be unceremonious, to impose our society. Realizing that everyone has their own worries, people unconsciously move away from each other.

At the same time, strong friendships have the right to silence . Even if the pause in communication lasts for several days or weeks, one call will return everything to its place. Most likely, such a conversation will last more than one hour, but you will catch up on everything you missed in each other’s lives.

How to maintain a relationship with a friend at a distance

In order not to let friendship get lost in kilometers of roads and time zones, invest living emotions into it, give a part of yourself. Here are some tips to help you preserve your valuable emotional connection:

be open , do not become isolated in your new life with possible problems
share your experiences , ask for advice and support
continue casual communication , talk about trifles, share funny pictures, jokes
From time to time, connect live communication - telephone, Skype, instant messengers with video or audio conversations
create new common traditions : send postcards with or without a reason, arrange a discussion of the latest films or music

Friend left, you stayed

Breaking up is equally difficult for both. One of you remains in your familiar environment, and the other leaves all established areas of life behind. Sometimes he starts life from scratch, experiencing serious stress.

Let's say you're the one who recently put a close friend on a plane. After a breakup, an unusual emptiness appears in life. Shopping, walking, and ordinary rituals have to be done alone or in the company of other friends. Melancholy overcomes thoughts, and the phone and email are silent.

At this moment you should not show selfishness . Right now, my best friend, who is so far from home, needs support. Don’t hold grudges, write a message, call first. Be interested in how your loved one’s new life in a foreign country is going. This will help you not move away from each other and maintain a strong connection.

Sharing time, experience and interests are the basis of friendship. If this foundation is reliable, then distance is not a tragedy for relationships. Sometimes it’s even useful to move away from people in order to understand what place they occupy in our lives.

Use different ways to communicate

To prevent your friendship from becoming boring, you can use different methods of communication:

SMS and phone calls. This is the simplest and most common method available to everyone. Your mobile phone is always at hand, so you can always keep in touch. But communication services can be expensive, so be prepared for the costs. Although if you choose a favorable tariff and enable useful functions, you can save money.
Special messenger applications. This method is more convenient and less expensive, so it has become very popular. Messages arrive almost instantly, so you can have lively online conversations.
Video calls. Using the Skype program, you can not only hear each other, but also see each other.
Letters. Although this method is very outdated, many people underestimate it. Writing letters is interesting and exciting: you can put your soul into them, expressing all your most intimate things. And the processes of writing and reading are a real pleasure.
Social media. Communication in them has a lot of advantages, because you can not only exchange messages, but also share your favorite songs, videos, and recordings.

Tip: if three or more people are friends, then they can also keep in touch, for example, by creating a group chat.

Arrange meetings

How to maintain friendship at a distance? Even if hundreds of kilometers separate you, you can and should meet, at least occasionally. There are several options. For example, you can agree to take turns visiting each other. You can also meet on neutral territory or travel together.

It is better to arrange personal meetings with a certain frequency, making them a mandatory tradition. So, you can time them to coincide with some memorable date, such as a holiday or the day you met. The frequency of meetings will depend on the capabilities of friends, because traveling long distances is expensive, problematic and not always possible. But it is advisable to see each other at least once a year.

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Participation and genuine interest

The main rule of friendship is participation in each other's lives. Therefore, be sure to talk about everything that is happening in your life, share news and secrets, reveal secrets to each other and keep them. Moreover, for the interest to be genuine, friends must listen carefully to each other, give advice, discuss certain situations, and share opinions.

Friends are required to remember all important dates: birthdays, wedding anniversaries, children's birthdays, and so on. And be sure to congratulate each other on all holidays.

Surprise each other

Friendship between girls can be maintained with surprises and new pleasant emotions: the fair sex loves this very much. There are plenty of ways to surprise each other:

Send a cute card for no reason, with something nice written in it.
Try dedicating a poem or song to a friend.
Call the radio and order a song. But before that, ask a friend to tune the desired wave.
Order flowers delivery to your friend's address.
Record a video and send it to your friend.
If possible, you can suddenly come to visit without warning about the visit.
Send a gift by mail. It could be something simple, but very pleasant, for example, a soft toy, a figurine, a painting, a soft pillow. And it’s even better to make a gift with your own hands, for example, embroider a picture, knit a scarf.

Find something in common

Friendship between both men and women can be based on common interests. So, representatives of the stronger sex can discuss fishing, hunting, weapons or something else. And girls or women will be interested in communicating on topics such as design, psychology, cooking, raising children, handicrafts, interior design, and so on.

If there are no common interests yet, then find them. So, you can agree to read one book or watch one TV series, and then discuss what you read or saw. Try to find a common hobby that will be interesting for both of you.

Long-distance friendships are hard work. But if you know and follow a few rules, you can maintain and maintain relationships for many years.

How to maintain friendship with a friend?

It often happens that the triple “D” spoils friendship - these are Business, Children, Money. It is difficult to regularly maintain a relationship if you have a family, a home, and a friend who is clearly not a supporter of family life and does not even think about getting married. With different financial situations, sometimes conflicts and discord also occur. Therefore, if you feel that there is a crisis in your relationship with your friend, but you don’t want to lose her, our article will help you maintain communication with your loved one.

1. Remember the past. How many positive moments have you experienced together? What about the negative ones? Remember how in the old days you were inseparable, always helping and supporting each other. It's not for nothing that you became friends. It’s better for you to get together and remember everything you went through. You will talk from the heart and laugh. This has a very positive effect on strengthening relationships.

2. Stay in touch. Things are, of course, important, but not more important than loved ones. Set aside at least a couple of days a month for girls' get-togethers. Make it a tradition. For example, meet on the first and third Saturday of the month. And don't ignore phone calls. After all, you don’t know in advance - maybe if a friend calls you, she wants not just to chat, but to share something important. Everyone should have someone to whom they can pour out their soul or share their joy. If it happens that you cannot accept the call, write in SMS that you are busy and call back later. Keep your promise - dial it when you are free.

3. Discuss problems. Talk about what's bothering you both in your relationship. Perhaps one of you is too deprived of the other's attention and is harboring a grudge. Or someone prefers to talk only about themselves, not allowing others to speak out... Discuss what has accumulated. Without quarrels, raised voices and reproaches. Calmly explain your point of view, listen to your friend and find a compromise way out of the current situation.

4. Be supportive. After all, a friend is a support. Don't refuse help if you can provide it. Know how to simply listen - sometimes this is quite enough to make a person feel better.

5. Do your part to maintain the relationship. Call first, at least just to find out if everything is okay with your friend, organize meetings on your own initiative. Sometimes give small gifts for no reason - for example, beautiful jewelry or a book by your favorite author. Every person will be pleased to receive attention towards him.

6. Keep your distance. There should be enough communication. It’s bad when there’s not enough of it (we described above how to deal with this). But when it’s excessive, it’s also not very good. If a friend likes to call every day and uselessly chat with you for an hour or two, or even longer, and you don’t have the opportunity to spend that much time, don’t be shy, say that such conversations distract you.

7. Adapt. Change is an integral part of our lives. And the long friendship has gone through many changes. For example, the appearance of a man, a family. Such adjustments have a significant impact on friendships. A man becomes the person with whom you share everything. The friend fades into the background. You need to be prepared for this. Time will pass and everything will settle down and fall into place. Of course, something will no longer be right. For example, bachelorette parties will become more rare. This is something you will need to adapt to. By the way, forgetting about your girlfriend when a man appears is a bad decision. Or do you think that your lover is so interested in hearing how much you worry about the fate of the main character of the new series? Or go shopping with you in search of tableware and gifts for relatives? There are purely feminine things. Those that only we, the fair sex, understand, appreciate, and perceive. Therefore, you should not neglect friendship!

Author: Victoria Kalinichenko