Welcome back to season 2 of On The Rocks. I'm Olivia Noceda, and in this episode, we're going to be talking about friendships. I asked a question on my Instagram about making new friends and received a lot of amazing responses. Today, I want to share my thoughts and opinions on this topic, based on my personal experience. I hope you enjoy the show!

In this episode, we cover 10 key points about friendships:

1. To make new friends, start by doing something you already enjoy so that you have something in common with the other person.
2. Spend time getting to know each other and building comfortability.
3. It's important to have multiple friends and friend groups, and not put everything into one friend or one relationship.
4. If you have friends with kids, ask yourself how you can relate to them and what you can do to connect with them.
5. If you're in a toxic friendship or group, consider reducing the frequency of hanging out with those people.
6. Navigating co-dependent friendships requires open communication. The best friendships allow for an open dialogue, and for you to bring up concerns you have about the friendship.
7. A painful truth: friendships aren't supposed to last forever. Friendship breakups are sometimes necessary, but boundaries can be set to avoid a complete breakup.
8. Having individual friendships in a group without others being left out, or vice versa. Ask yourself, what are you insecure about in your friendships? What are you insecure about in yourself, and how do you come off to your friends? What is making you feel this way?
9. Before sharing your trauma with a friend, make sure they're emotionally in a place to be able to listen to you.
10. Finally, green vs. red flags for friends in your 30s. To me, some green flags are someone who is conscious of their health and well-being, has their own life and interests, has lower expectations for a friendship, is open to trying new things, and balances out negativity with positivity. Red flags are the opposite of green flags, such as toxic behavior, being obsessed with their partner, or not being present.

Feel free to DM me and let me know your thoughts about these ideas in general. Thanks for listening!

Thanks to our partner Seed for sponsoring this episode. Use my code ONTHEROCKS for 25% off your first month's supply of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic: seed.com/ontherocks

You know where to find me —

IG: @olivianoceda

TT: @olivianoceda

olivianoceda.com