My name is Gwen Harris, one of the founders of Menowave. I’d like to talk about why it’s so important to have girlfriends and be part of a sisterhood.
I know you’ve heard the phrase, “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus”, meaning we as females are inherently different from men. We think differently, act differently, solve problems differently and are more emotionally driven than logically driven.
Most of my emotional and mental strength comes from deep bonds with the strong females in my life. Over time, we become our friends as we mirror their thoughts, beliefs, and actions. In fact, many say that we are the average of the five people we spend most of our time with. We should choose each other wisely and with intention.
Although men and women do complement each other, as women, we thrive on strong relationships with our girlfriends. Such friendships give women an outlet to share their problems, thoughts, feelings, and triumphs with those they feel a close bond with. I treasure my hour-long phone conversations with my best girlfriends, special weekend trips with my favorite girlfriends, hilarious text messages that should always be kept secret, celebratory nights out and happy hours on a random evening.
The psychology behind strong female friendships is strong. Did you know women with early-stage breast cancer were four times more likely to die from cancer if they didn’t have very many friends. Those with a larger group of friends with early-stage breast cancer had a much better survival rate.
This beneficial effect of friendship was felt whether the friends lived near or far. Women feel they can count on their friends to pull through for them no matter what they are struggling within their lives. Women are each other’s emotional support system. From giving advice, being a shoulder to cry on, keeping secrets, lending a listening ear and boosting self-esteem, to developing strong and healthy female friendships is something all women can benefit from.
Women by nature are intuitive; in fact, last week I received two calls from two very close friends. I could tell immediately by each of their voices that they both wanted to share something with me; however, I had a gut feeling one had bad news and the other had good news.
I was right; my instinct knew exactly what was going on. Girlfriends have a distinctive way of reading emotions and intuitively recognizing what needs to be done then acting on it. We understand each other, we validate each other, we give marriage and breakup advice to each other, we share some of the deepest darkest secrets with each other, we share the honest truth with each other, we share intimate family details with each other, we share beauty products with each other, we tell each other when we have food in our teeth or when our shirt is on backward, and we share lasting memories with each other.
When women get together, we gush about our sex lives, our marriages, and details about our significant others and family drama; when guys get together, rarely is any of this discussed. Women rely on each other not only for a shoe-shopping partner but also to share those deep dark secrets; those secrets that not all men may want to hear. Although men are our counterparts, there is something beyond special about the female bond that women have with each other.
Treasure your girlfriends for as long as possible, as they are the backbone of your support system.
“Some women pray for their daughters to marry good husbands. I pray that my girls will find girlfriends half as loyal and true as the Ya-Yas.” — Rebecca Wells
Our hope is that within the sisterhood of our Menopause Support Group and VIP Menopause Group, you have found friendship and the support you deserve to help you cruise the Menowave with grace, gratitude, confidence and ease.
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