What kind of friend are you?

Are you the one who loves to mind everyone’s business trying to dictate what everyone should be doing, or do you give unwanted advice? Feeling you are entitled to spew your negative comments to everyone? Telling people, you are honest even if your mouth is full of poison ready to bite the first person that comes close to you? Thinking you are doing a great service for your audience when in fact it’s the reverse! The only thing that comes out of your mouth is as follows, “you have gained weight, why are you eating that”. “You should be focusing on your husband and children more”, or “the color you are wearing makes you look like you are sick”, etc.

By the time they are done, you feel like jumping from the first floor of your building running for the hills. You would rather have a root canal without anesthesia than listening to one more minute of that. You feel depleted of your energy, you cannot stop replaying those comments, shaking your head thinking it cannot get any worse than it is now!

Or are you the friend that always thoughtfully brings treats with you to share. Always having a word of wisdom to share with a little touch of sassiness? Listening to your friends, giving them some advice while mindful to not step into their life so they can freely make their own decisions? Ensuring that everyone is well before you walk away. Each time anyone sees you, are they looking forward to having a wonderful time with you?  Like a sweet breeze, you are there to lift everyone’s energy.

You could also be in the middle of both, feeling at times you are stepping into the vortex of someone’s life to try to help them with their own situation. While you are in, finally realizing it was not such a great idea to get involved. But it is too late to step back, you have to learn to avoid any backlash from that intrusion. Learning your lessons one day at the time, it is best to only give advice when it is asked for.

We have to make choices in our lives what kind of friend are we to be? Intruding in someone’s business while neglecting our own life is not what we are meant to do. We cannot be in two places at one time, our lives are what we should all be minding. Leave everyone to take care of themselves. There are two sides to every situation and most of the time we see only one side of the story.

Choose today to be a good friend and stop dictating how others should live their lives even if we do not agree with the choices they are making.