How to make friends as an adult (a quick rundown)

How To Make Friends As An Adult (20+ Year Olds)

• Accept being alone for long periods of time as an inexorable part of growing up and expanding your brain

• Explore the benefits of solitude and befriend yourself

• Begrudgingly accept small talk as a form of connection (we tend to go for feeling accepted over being honest)

• Take the leap to attempt to make deeper connections by initiating insightful conversations (a complete stranger got me to open up and have a heart to heart about our dads having diabetes during a 15 minute conversation. An interaction i’ll never forget)

• Accept that acquiring real connection takes time. Friends aren’t found, they’re crafted.

• Typically 5-7 conversations/interactions, we become friends with the people we see most often. Proximity and repetition are key

• Find a regular place for connection that you enjoy

• Consider a pet

• Family?

• Embrace Introversion

Loneliness

• It’s a part of growing up

• Friends disappear with time because we begin to develop our own lives.

• It comes with brain expansion

• Being intelligent + sensitive makes us lonely because our society rules a majority of our thought processes and society does not encourage deeper thinking or meaningful interaction.

• Inner work - Reflect and ask the deep questions. Why are you lonely? Is this a new feeling or has it existed most of your life?

• “society that is big on connectivity yet often pulls up short on human connection"

That's all I got.