Summary: The whole sense of comfort and having a friend who is your witness in life is that there is a treasure in when you and a friend are not on equal footing when they are not in the thick of things that you're in the midst of. There's a balance. This is a balancing gift. This is one of the many ways the action of comfort can really be felt. Sometimes when friends are not equal, one tends to assume, especially in the beginning when one friend may assume that you're weak or you don't know how to do something because you may not be in that exact state of mind to be showing your expertise. So then they take the role of “I know better” and they assume the role of mentor. And so these roles get established. As time goes on, you develop ways in which you can unfold in front of one another, and you can see your gifts and you can see as time goes on, that one person is strong one moment, the other person is weak and then it flips. It's the turning of the world. It's the rising and setting of the sun. It's the same way with our lives and our experiences and our friendships. Our relationships are like that. Oftentimes you get put in a situation where you're emotionally connected and you're not thinking through things clearly and logically and the other person, your friend can see more clearly, and while they're emotionally connected to you personally, they're not emotionally connected to your problem at the moment. So they can see things more objectively and you're more apt to listen to them because you do have the emotional connection to them so they can help dig you out of your hole. It's one of the few cases where logic can't get you out of a place that emotion has gotten you into. Sometimes it's enough to hit the pause button on your life for 15 minutes. And then jump back into it with a renewed sense and an understanding that the earth is still spinning around the sun. It's still spinning around the universe and everything. It's good to actually get back to that sense of perspective because sometimes it is just that the dishwasher broke where that seems like such an enormous ginormous unsolvable problem, but really, it's good to have somebody remind you that everything has a solution. This is where comfort comes in; how our friendships are a source of comfort.So let's get into the definition of comfort: from the 13th century, the meaning is to cheer up, console, soothe, to soothe when in grief or trouble; to help, to strengthen. The noun, which originated if you look at the etymology of it, circa 1200 is the feeling of relief in affliction or sorrow, solace, pleasure, and enjoyment. To solace is to help; to strengthen. And isn't that what we do for each other? From old English word in the same sense was frofor, meaning the state of enjoyment resulting from the satisfaction of bodily wants and freedom from anxiety. And then there's the middle English meaning, which means strength, support encouragement. Dictionary.com defines comfort as a verb to soothe, console, reassure, and bring cheer to. And then the noun is the relief in affliction consolation solace. So what is comfort? Psychologist, Kolcaba, talked about three elements of comfort that revolves around relief, ease, and transcendence. Tune in to this episode on how we can find comfort on our own and within our relationships. https://www.ourfriendlyworldpodcast.com/ https://w
