Usually I tend to listen to the same few podcasts. While sharing this series, however, I’ve found it interesting to instead trace a single theme through episodes from various different podcasts that I had never even heard of before. There’s a wider range of voices speaking on a single topic that way, and I’ve been finding it an interesting way to bring different voices into conversation. There are some more quotations continuing that below.
Friendship: The Half-Blood Prince (Book 6, Chapter 9) – Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
‘It reminded me – I’ve only heard of it, I’ve not read the study in full – a really striking statistic that if you grow up in a community with inter-generational friendships, people are 80% less likely to suffer from depression later in life. Which I was just like, woah, that’s a huge statistic.’
Casper ter Kuilie
‘I think one of the beautiful things about being loved by a friend is that they sometimes worry more about you than you necessarily worry about yourself.’
Vanessa Zoltan
‘It made me realise that my life is not just my business, which is kind of a confronting moment.’
Casper ter Kuilie
‘When I was thinking about this theme of friendship, that element of protection and being willing to assert yourself into someone else’s life, even sometimes uncomfortably, actually I think is a mark of friendship.’
Casper ter Kuilie
‘And, you know, my joke about Ginny being a sister or not, I think speaks to another really important element of friendship. And I think it is the thing that makes friendship special and distinct from partnership, is that friendship can be fluid. You can go from being best friends and talking every single day to sometimes not talking for three months and then just picking right back up. Whereas a partner, you know, life dictates a certain level of commitment. Whereas the fluidity of friendship I think… you can play so many different roles in friendship, and I think that is a real gift of friendship, and we see that with Ginny and Harry.’
Vanessa Zoltan
CC: Creating Conscious Friendships with my soul sis Alexi Panos – Over It And On With It
‘I think that comes back again to just honouring what’s alive for us, honouring what’s true for us, allowing what’s true for us, and not trying to be something that we’re not because we think something else is better. And now we’re into authenticity and just being ourselves. If you’re looking for a tip to make friends, that’s really it. Just be you… And there was a point in my life, in my journey, when it was authentic for me to say “I’m learning who I actually am.”‘
Alexi Panos and Christine Hassler
‘That would be my first tip: think about the places where like-minded people are. And a lot of it was I had to try different things… And then secondly, at those things not expecting people to be like “oh, Christine! You look lonely. Come and join us!”… So it was finding those events, and not all of them were, you know, successful. Like, I didn’t leave all of them, some of them were just fails. But going to enough and then actually initiating conversation, and actually connecting with people,and putting myself out of my comfort zone, and, you know, putting effort in.’
Christine Hassler
‘Women have been taught – I mean in my experience – women have been taught and shown that we are meant for and it is our job to make sure everybody feels good. Make sure you’re taken care of, make sure you’re taken care of. And we have this idea of “super-woman” and “wonder-woman” and “she does it all.” Right? Like, “She works really hard, and then she comes home and cooks dinner. And then she’s also still sexy. And She’s also super-mum. She’s saving the world.” And while I do think we can all have parts of that – I forget who said this quote – “you can be anything, but not everything.”… And I do think we’ve really got to ask ourselves, what’s most important for me?’
Alexi Panos
Esther Perel: The Quality of Your Relationships Determines the Quality of Your Life – The School of Greatness
‘You learn to love yourself in the context of your relationships with others. This idea that you go first to work on yourself here and then you prepare this nice little package, then you bring it to relationships – that is completely off actually. It’s interactive. You need a good amount of self-awareness, but you also need to be in relationships because it’s people who help you become more aware… It’s by being with others that you get to know who you are.’
Esther Perel
‘Make sure that when people remember you, they smile.’
Esther Perel
Feminine Finishing School 