Unfriend - Refriend

I heard something pretty interesting while watching the news this week. I always enjoy the recap of major news stories of the year and the different "____ of the year" distinctions that organizations bestow. Being the "divafied nerd" that I am, one that really captured my attention was the awardee for word of the year. The Oxford American Dictionary declared that "unfriend" was 2009's Word of the Year. That publication defines the word this way : "unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook." Unfriending someone is something I have had a difficult time with. As one who tries very hard to take the feelings of others into consideration, I always worried that unfriending someone would hurt their feelings. After hearing that unfriend was the word of the year, I started to look at the word a bit differently. Deleting someone from your friends list is something you do more for yourself than for the person being deleted. Rather than it being a personal attack or insult of sorts, it is more like a cleansing: it is the act of getting rid of toxic people in your virtual life.

The more I thought about it, the more I started to look at unfriending on a deeper, more spiritual level. To further our personal growth, we all must make it a point to unfriend people from time to time. Staying connected to people who drain us of our physical energy damages our spiritual structure as well. It is nearly impossible to reach our personal mountaintops while dragging along people whose main mission is to keep us on the ground - or in some cases, below sea level. In order to reach our full potential, it is vital the we renew ourselves, and cutting ties with people that unhealthy for us - or unfriending them - is a sure fire method of renewal.

Perhaps, to take the analogy further, unfriending may need to be applied to anything negative in our lives. Self-defeating thoughts, growth-sabatoging patterns and unhealthy habits - imagine how our lives would improve if we unfriended ourselves of these things!

Consider for a moment that each time we unfriend something or someone we refriend something or someone else. Never heard of refriending? Well - according to Diviniti's Dictionary (LOL), the word is defined this way: "refriend - verb - to reconnect with someone or something that makes a positive impact on ones life or that furthers ones personal growth." Refriending is about getting back in touch with someone who enriched our lives. Maybe busy schedules or a misunderstanding got in the way of the friendship and you haven't spoken to that person in a while. Let this be the year that you reestablish that bond and allow it to grow and flourish. Refirending is about getting back into the habit of doing things that are good for our souls. Perhaps our perception of "lack of time" got us out of the routine of doing things that serve us and are good for us - exercising, praying, meditating, journaling. Let this be the year that you get rid of the idea of any lack in your life. When it comes to doing things to honor ourselves we must know that there is always time, no matter how busy our lives might be.

Refiriending people and things that are healthy for us help us to get to the ultimate act of refriending: becoming friends with ourselves again. Once we get back in touch with our authentic selves and place the appropriate value on those things and people that help us reach our highest heights, there is no limit to what we can achieve. So, right here and now I am declaring refriend the Word of the Year for 2010! Identify those things and people you need to reconnect with and watch the blessings flow!