Why Investing in Friendships Is the Ultimate Self-Care.

My day playing hooky and skinny dipping with a Bestie.

This week I did something that I rarely do,I took the day off from my scheduled life. I gave myself permission to let go of worrying about getting my son moved into his college apartment, the deadlines I am late for on my book, recording podcast intros and a laundry list of other things that I won’t bore you with.

For too many months one of my dearest besties Amber Valletta and I have been talking about spending a day together in nature. Just like romantic relationships, the significant platonic relationships in our lives also deserve to have focused time and care.It makes sense doesn’t it ? Yet, due to the busy lives we are all leading, with time and focus being the biggest commodity we have, dedicated friendship time seems to be lower down on the list of priorities for me and many others too.I am not unaware of the impacts of friendship, I wrote a whole chapter in my book It’s Messy about how devastating friendship breakups can be and did a Conversation podcast episode with Elizabeth Day about this exact topic. So why is it not a no brainer to schedule friendship time as consistently as date night? 

I am sure there must be studies somewhere that some influencer doctor could wax poetic about, but here’s what I can share with you about my unplugged day with my friend and the photos I ended up taking of her.