Mantra with Jemma Sbeg - I Nurture Relationships That Enrich My Life

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

This week's mantra is I Nurture Relationships That Enrich My Life. The connections we prioritize shape our lives, offering joy, support, and belonging. In this episode of Mantra, we’ll explore how to recognize relationships that uplift you, set boundaries with those that don’t, and nurture the ones that matter most. Building enriching relationships starts with showing up authentically and creating space for mutual growth. This mantra invites you to reflect on your connections and invest in those that bring true fulfillment. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to OpenMind+ on Apple Podcasts. For more from OpenMind, follow us on Instagram @openmindstudios. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Open Mind. Welcome to a brand new week. Here is your mantra. I nurture relationships that enrich my life. I'm your host, Gemma Speck, and I'm here to guide you towards a more centered and my life. I'm your host, Gemma Speck, and I'm here to guide you towards a more centered and fulfilling life. Each week, I'll share personal stories and insights

that are focused on a specific mantra, plus journal prompts and a weekly challenge for all of us to help put it into action. Think of mantra as your mental reset button, a way to stay centered as you juggle work, school, family, friends, whatever else life throws at you. Each mantra is a simple, powerful phrase you can repeat to refocus your thoughts and bring a bit of calm into your day. It's a small tool with a big impact, clearing your mind, lifting your mood and rooting you in the present.

If you've listened to my other show, The Psychology of Your 20s, you'll know I'm all about those little nuggets of insight that make a big impact. So whether you are looking for some extra inspiration or you're just trying to ground yourself amidst the chaos, you have come to the right place. At Open Mind, we value your support. Share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review and follow Mantra to help others discover the show.

For more exclusive content, monthly bonus episodes, early access and ad free listening, join our Open Mind Plus community on Apple podcasts. This week, I'll catch you up on what's been going on in my life and then we'll dive into today's mantra, I nurture relationships that enrich my life. This mantra is all about recognizing the connections that really matter and also setting boundaries and investing your limited energy in the people who bring out the best in you. Stick around, we'll be right back after this short pause. Welcome back. We are going to get into this week's mantra in just a few, but before we do,

it is of course time for my high as lows and who knows. Today I'm coming at you with a who knows. My who knows is a new found hobby or interest of mine, which is adult coloring in. Now, when I tell people that I've gotten into coloring in, they look at me a little bit weird, but then I have to really explain it to them. This is not your typical coloring in.

This is children's simple coloring in books with these big alcohol textures. It is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I do it when I'm watching TV, I do it when I'm just sitting at home, sometimes when I need a break at work. It's much different to those intricate mandalas or intricate pieces that you sometimes see. I have become obsessed with this to the point where I am in multiple Facebook groups for

adult colouring in. I have been inviting my friends over to have a colouring in night. I'm really invested in this idea of adult play dates at the moment and of course this is like the perfect way to do it. And everyone who I introduced to this thing loves it because it's just like the perfect relaxing, soothing flow state, not too challenging activity, but you also get to make something really, really beautiful and it feels productive. So it's a weird who knows this week, guys. It's putting the definition of who knows to the test

because adult coloring in is in, you've heard it from me first. With that in mind, let's move on and get into this week's mantra, I nurture relationships that enrich my life. I am so excited for this mantra today because this is something that has been personally on my mind a lot and it is a lesson that I have to continue to learn time and time again. So I'm going to share some of the wisdom that I've picked up along the way of what it really means to have real connections. Connection is one of our most basic psychological core needs as humans. In fact, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs,

it is only the third essential for a human being after our biological needs and safety. That is how important he and so many others see it as being. I think having nurturing relationships is essential to who we are as a species, it offers protective health benefits, and it just fulfills that truly deep human need that all of us really just want to feel like we belong, that we are loved, and that there are people who can bear witness to our lives and be in it with us. I read this really fascinating book recently called I Who Have Never Known Men, and in it the narrator spends the last 10 years of her life walking around an uninhabited planet

alone. And the way that the author describes this was so terrifying. And what was terrifying was that it got to such a core human fear, which is loneliness and disconnection and not having community around us. However, there is a caveat here. The social and emotional benefit that we receive from relationships I think can only occur if the relationships we are maintaining are enriching, and if they make us feel good about ourselves, if they are quality.

You could have thousands of friends, but if no one really knows you deeply or cares to know you or loves you and makes your life feel better, what is the point in having them in your life? They could just be a series of names on a list. What we're really discussing today with this mantra is the distinction between quality and quantity when it comes to friendship and how to notice who makes you feel truly great and continue to pour your time, energy, love, patience, awareness into those relationships, and also how to let go of sale connections and elevate your life further through real platonic love.

A big question that needs to be asked at the very top of this episode is what makes a relationship enriching? How can we notice the potential for maybe a new friendship to become fulfilling if we just wanted it some more? I'm going to give you my loosest idea of a checklist. I think an enriching relationship has to have mutual respect. You actually like each other, that's a big one. There has to be some shared joy there.

There is something over which you two can connect, a hobby, a belief, a lifestyle, an experience, a context, insert your own here. There has to be a quality and effort and a genuine interest in seeing each other and being in each other's lives. This is essential. A relationship cannot feel like a game of chase, whether it's romantic or platonic. It cannot feel like the other person is

constantly elusive and their behavior makes you question whether they feel the same way about you. You have to, of course, also have good communication, good boundaries, emotional safety, all those things. Then something else. It's this rather intangible lightness that defines all very beautiful soulful friendships. Some would say that you only know it when you feel it, but we can call it chemistry, compatibility, whatever you would like. There

are just some people who we meet who just slot right into place within the walls of our heart. We could call them platonic soulmates or we could just really call them soulmates. When you find one of these rare people, you best believe we do not want to let them go. I want to tell you the story of how I actually met my longest friend, because it's one of those serendipitous kismet stories that really goes to show that sometimes the most beautiful relationships just appear in your life. So my oldest friend, her name is Zoe, and we met when we were 11 years old.

And the story is kind of iconic. It was our first day of high school and she was standing at the front of the gates of my high school crying, crying and she was upset and she didn't want to go in. She was wearing an Angry Bird t-shirt and her brother was there and her brother was wearing this uniform that I recognized. So me being a little cocky 11-year-old decides to go up to them and say, hi, I think I know where that uniform is from. It's from this school, that school.

Turn to her and said, what's your name? She said, Zoe. We walked in together and literally the rest is history. I remember on our first day of high school, we sat next to each other in our English class and she had this really beautiful pink pencil case and I looked at her after she'd given me a pen or a highlighter or something, and I remember saying,

''Oh, by the way, we're going to be friends.'' Sometimes friendships just have that beautiful origin story. But I'm not going to sugarcoat the story and make it into this unrealistic fairy tale even though it is very beautiful and something that I treasure. Good relationships still require commitment and work. When I was younger, this idea that relationships weren't always going to be this effortless thing really scared me.

I thought, these people must have it wrong. This should be easy. But as I entered my early mid-20s, I kind of these people must have it wrong. This should be easy. But as I entered my early mid-20s, I kind of saw what they saw, which is that life throws you a lot of curve balls, distance, work, changing priorities, mental health challenges, schedules, other relationships, miscommunications. And it's in that context and that environment that friendship takes on a new and more serious tone.

It becomes intentional. And I think that that is the next level to a beautiful friendship. I obviously wanted to keep Zoe in my life. I had to make sure that maintaining our friendship was a priority. And it was probably one of the biggest lessons I learned in my early 20s. Love is sometimes work. But also what is wrong or what is scary about hard work? I think it shows the greatest kind of love that we could ever possess,

the kind of love that makes you committed beyond what is convenient. That is really an important message when it comes to this mantra. If you want to nurture relationships that enrich your life, sometimes you have to realise that it's not always going to be easy, but the rewards that you are going to receive from these kinds of bonds is worth a thousand casual friendship flings or a thousand acquaintances. Knowing what an enriching relationship looks like, so one of mutual support, effort, kindness, love, generosity, let's also cast our minds

to the other unfortunate end of the spectrum. How can we recognize when a relationship is draining? I find that most of us, including myself, are very liberal when it comes to second, third, fourth chances, and we tend to not see when a relationship is not serving either party until we are at the point of a fallout. Either it's because we truly don't see it or we think that time could save things. We think it will get better. But here are some important signs that what you have is not enriching. Firstly, you feel anxious before you see this person.

So that anxiety could be not in your stomach, jitters. You also regularly come up with reasons to cancel plans constantly. Obviously some part of you doesn't really want to be around them. You feel on edge when you are eventually around them. You feel like you can't be yourself. You feel like you need to watch what you're going to say. You feel like you need to put excess and extra effort into coming up with things that will entertain them or having

good stories. You feel relief when they leave or when you leave. You don't enjoy or feel the need to talk to them throughout the week or even the month. They are not someone who you would call with either good or bad news. You don't know how they feel about you. And simply, this is the biggest sign that what you have with someone is draining, not enriching. They just simply don't make you feel good. You don't like yourself when you're around them. When we break down things

into this kind of checklist or symptom list, I think we find it easier to delineate between a truly nourishing friendship and one that we are maintaining perhaps just because of convenience or an old misplaced sense of loyalty. Maybe it's because you guys have history and you don't want to let them go or some underlying people pleasing tendencies. Let's talk about the next steps. What do you do when you have realized that maybe some of the relationships you are maintaining

are not what is best for you? After this short break, we're gonna talk about that and I'll open up about the ways I've definitely learned to recognize which relationships add value to my life and why it's really, really important to give all your time, space and energy to those people. It's definitely not an easy process, but it's a rewarding one. So stay tuned after this brief pause. Now that we've looked at the meaning behind today's mantra, it's time to get personal with

you all and share some of my own insights and reflections about this phrase. I had a realization a few years back that fewer friends actually brought me greater peace. I always thought it was the opposite. I always thought that true happiness came from being surrounded by as many people as possible, as many people as I could ring into my life. And I've spoken about this on the psychology of your 20s before, but I definitely used to be someone who could not be alone, who had to have plans morning, midday, noon, evening, night, any time of the day I had people around me. I was using other people almost as an emotional coping mechanism

or to distract myself from my thoughts. The consequence of that was that I ended up having a lot of relationships and friendships with people that did not make me feel good and it actually made life feel heavier. This all stemmed from not just a fear of being alone but a fear of being lonely. And I think that emerges within us for a few reasons. Firstly, it is deeply embedded in our evolutionary psychology and our makeup to be social creatures. Humans have always relied on connection and community for survival, safety, belonging. Being alone historically signalled vulnerability, it signalled a lack

of protection and a reduced chance of not just thriving but surviving, which is why isolation and loneliness can trigger a really primal fear of being unsafe or feeling a little bit unmoored. Beyond survival, loneliness also threatens our emotional needs. Connection is essential for fostering a baseline of self-worth, love, a sense of purpose. Without that crucial companionship, in whatever form it comes, we often confront the uncomfortable thought of being alone and a lot of fear comes with that. Loneliness

is not just the physical absence of others, it also feels like a very profound emotional void where everything we're going through becomes so much more of a challenge because we don't have an army or a group of people behind us. So for a long time, I obviously wanted to avoid peering into that void by always being around others, but at some stage, it got really exhausting. It got unfulfilling and quite honestly unhealthy, specifically because I would prefer to cling onto an empty and at times harmful friendship out of fear, not out of love. And I think that that does both people a disservice and, spoiler alert, that is not a healthy

foundation for any kind of relationship. There was a specific time I actually realized this, and I realized that I didn't like who I was around these people. I didn't feel enriched, I felt anxious and stressed, and it was actually at a close friend's wedding. I was sitting at a table with these now former friends of mine, and there was just this aura of negativity about the event.

The bride wasn't spending enough time with them, even though it was her wedding and they were on their phones the whole night. And there was all these criticisms coming out about the venue and whatever other details. And I honestly felt very highly strong and I wanted to get as far away as possible. But I also felt embarrassed. I thought if someone looked at my table and looked at these people, would I want to be associated with the attitude that they are bringing to this event?

This realization had definitely been a long time coming, but I think it just really landed at that moment. Now, I will say I did very much love these people, and I cared about them them and I wasn't about to cut them out of my life because of one night where they could have been in a bad mood or the vibes could have been off. But almost instinctually a comparison did take place in my mind in the hours and the days afterwards between these people and another set of friends of mine, a group of people

who I felt knew me deeper, who I was always excited to see, who never brought up feelings of insecurity or inferiority or anxiety for that matter. And in the end, those friendships that I had begun to become so worried about and felt anxious about, they naturally fizzled because I stopped putting in effort. It was one of those things where you wait to see how long it will take them to reach out to you first and then they never do and you end up never talking again. And you can kind of sense that there is this silent, neutral agreement between both of you that we need to move on. And this is what's right. I use this example because I think

it shows how moving away from relationships that no longer enrich your life doesn't always have to be this aggressive, dramatic, violent thing. It doesn't have to have been caused by a significant rift or a falling out and I'm sure if I saw them today in the street, it wouldn't be unnatural or weird to say hi and to have a catch up. But that time and that moment really represented a shift in me from being almost greedy with friendship and calling everyone who I'd spent a significant amount of time with a friend to being selective and realizing that time was not the only factor here.

I wasn't trying to be exclusive. I was just holding friendships to the same standard that I would a romantic relationship almost. We are a combination of our closest people and that osmosis of values and priorities is something that I began to recognize and is now really important to me. I need to admire my friends. I need to feel safe around them. I need to trust them and I need it to feel reciprocal. There can be some residual guilt, I feel, from letting

go of friendships that no longer serve you, perhaps because you think that you've let someone down, you've betrayed them, there's some form of bad blood, there may even be regret in those lonely moments. But think of it this way instead, you are giving each other the gift of space and time to welcome in new people and to find your people. And in particular, find a group or find friends you may have never encountered if you felt weighed down by the obligations of relationships that actually just weren't meant to last forever. I heard an interesting statistic the other day that 91% of people report no longer being friends with someone they once considered their best friend.

91% of people, that is almost all of us. And I don't think that means we have failed as friends or as people. I think it shows how, as a species and as a social creatures, and I think it goes to show how people are truly sometimes only there for you for a season or reason, or maybe you get lucky and it's for a lifetime. But as we grow and change as people, so do those around us. And not every relationship is going to grow in parallel with your own personal evolution.

So let's now talk about my guide to finding and nurturing those good breath of fresh air kind of connections. So let's start by again, just reflecting on your current relationships. I think if there is someone that you are making excuses for, you need to stop doing that. You need to start recognizing when you don't feel good about yourself. Start noticing how you feel before, during and after interactions or catch-ups. And I do believe that if things feel off, address them. If this is a long-term friend, if this is someone that you love and you care about,

even if things feel weird, communication is the most mature pathway and it could honestly save a relationship. If the relationship already feels doomed and you feel like it's on this path of no return, talking about how you are both feeling and why things have changed can do no harm. If the relationship is already going in a bad direction, either it continues to go in that direction or you do get to reverse that situation. You do get the opportunity to repair and I really do think that if you can save a friendship, especially if it's one that you do still feel joy in, that's so worth it.

I do believe that for some of us, our conflict aversion sometimes kills off really good relationships, because we would rather see that person fade away from our life than just bring up difficult things to the surface. So if you're feeling off at the moment, but you know that this person is

good, that you care about them, please talk about it first. However, if the worst case scenario happens, you still feel lost, satisfied, not seen. Start to question whether this is how you want to feel always or whether there are perhaps other relationships that fill your cup more. Further, there are perhaps other relationships that fill your cup more. So create some of that healthy natural distance, almost to see how you feel with them versus away from them. That could look like making yourself less available to this other person for plans,

choosing to put yourself out there and saying to your other friends, hey, it's been a while, I want to catch up. Or even, you know, I'm looking for more friends, can we do more things together? This feels awkward, but I have done it in the past and you will be so surprised to see how many people positively react to your vulnerability and to a desire for connection, most likely because they have been there as well. Especially if you were in your 20s or your 30s, making adult friendships so difficult, we can all appreciate that. So someone else is going to be able to see in your experience a similar experience and want to help. If you are in the stage of

looking to nurture and grow new relationships, you've got to remember the four golden rules of friendship. Those are similarity, proximity, familiarity, and reciprocity. Let's focus on those individually just for a second. Similarity, try and find people who would already fit into your life in an organic way. So this means people that you share interests with, who you share mutual friends with, who you share work experiences with.

Looking for friends in your daily routine, so at your gym or at your art classes or at your workplace is a really great way to ensure that already you have things to talk about and already there is a sense of integration between your life and their life, and people are more likely to want to be friends with people that they deem to be similar to them. Next up is proximity. Now proximity isn't just about physical distance but emotional distance

and making sure that you are making opportunities to be in the same space at the same time and giving fuel for the start of a new friendship. Proximity means not just being around them and being in the same place, but inviting them into your space, inviting them to come to things, inviting yourself to go to things, finding opportunities to be around each other. Then we have familiarity. This is a time-based thing.

The more time you spend with people, the closer you get. There is a number known as Dunbar's number, which talks about how it takes around 200 hours for someone to be considered a really close friend. 200 hours seems like a lot, but that's hanging out only one to two times a week. And you get there within six months, half a year. Finally, we have reciprocity.

The energy they give you, I want you to reciprocate. No one wants to be friends with someone who doesn't seem genuinely interested in them. But we also don't want to be waiting for someone else to make the first move. Make the first move yourself. Show genuine interest and curiosity in their life. Be generous. Partake in gift giving. Give them compliments. give them affirmations, give them your time, and see how that really builds a foundation for a really flourishing friendship. Some other ways to really continue

to nurture your relationships is to create traditions with your friends, have a getaway that you do every year, have a shared journal, very Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-esque. Also try and see each other enough or be in communication enough that you're not just having catch-ups, you're having hangouts. So you're getting to those deeper topics because you're not always focused on just how you,

how's life, those little updates. Even if you feel pressed for time or the friendship is long distance, try and find a way to communicate that's best for you both. And we often think that means long phone calls or texting constantly, but it can also be just sending five photos from your week to each other every Sunday or having a long distance book club. Find the shared interest to connect over and be part of their life rather than just an accessory.

I also think celebrating your friends is so important. Make sure you have their birthdays in the calendar. Make sure you know when promotion season is coming up at work for them. Make sure that you find ways to celebrate their growth and celebrate their role in your life, sometimes just for no reason at all, and communicate openly. I think especially in our 20s and our 30s,

our friendships and our relationships in general take on a more complicated tone, mainly because of distance and mainly because of natural communication barriers like work, like the miscommunications that come with busy schedules. So if you have a thought, if you have a feeling, if you have a resentment, tell them before it grows into a huge storm. Tell them when it's just a little baby rain cloud and we can whisk it away.

That is the biggest thing I have learned about friendship is to not avoid conflict just because it's uncomfortable because sometimes conflict is really what saves a relationship that really enriches you. I think reflecting on the relationships that shape our lives can reveal so much about who we are and what we truly value. So with that in mind, I would like to share our deep thought of the day. This comes from Brene Brown, the vulnerability queen.

She said, daring to set boundaries is actually about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others. This gets to a very core truth about any kind of relationship, whether it's with a friend, a family member, a loved one, a colleague. Boundaries are an act of respect and self-love. But boundaries are also a way of showing that you care enough about the relationship that you want to be treated in

a way that means the relationship can continue. You're saying, I want you to know how to treat me so that I can keep loving you. I want this relationship to work for both of us. So that really comes back to these hard conversations. Maybe you have a friend who oversteps boundaries, who wants too much of your time, who makes little criticisms, who projects their own insecurities.

I don't think that that is a death sentence. I think, again, boundaries are a deep act of love for both of you. Now, I'd like to take a few moments to just pause and really sit with this mantra. In just a moment, you'll hear our custom music track created to give you a space to absorb today's insights and consider how you might bring this mantra into your week and maybe even beyond. Again, if this practice isn't your style, if it doesn't resonate with you, you can just skip ahead 30 seconds.

But as you settle in, keep our mantra in mind. Put all your thoughts and focus onto this mantra, I nurture relationships that enrich my life. What does that mean to you? Let it guide your thoughts as the music plays and give yourself the moment to reflect. Beautiful. Up next, we're going to talk about how to put these insights into real action and bring this mantra to life.

I'll share some journal prompts in our weekly challenge, so stick around for more after talk about how to put these insights into real action and bring this mantra to life. I'll share some journal prompts and our weekly challenge. So stick around for more after this short break. Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and I'm a hypnotherapist as well as a total relaxation nerd. If you're struggling to sleep at night, I'm here to help. Sleep Magic is my new podcast of relaxing hypnosis created to help you doze off tonight. With my episodes every Wednesday, I'm going to make suggestions that help you relax really, really deeply.

And hypnosis is not what you've seen on TV. There's no swinging pocket watch or clucking like a chicken. I promise. I'm just here to help you make friends with sleep again so you can get the rest you deserve. So search sleep magic on your favorite podcast app and I'll see you there. Welcome back. Let's explore how to apply this week's mantra in meaningful ways in your everyday life, starting with my simple but powerful journal practice.

If you don't have your journal with you, as we say every week, that's totally fine. You can also just reflect on these questions in your mind or save these prompts for later. But here are the three prompts to help you dive deeper into this mantra and what it means for you. First, how do you ensure that your relationships align with your values and support your personal growth? What is your enriching relationship checklist?

Next, what have you learned from past relationships about what it means to nurture and be nurtured? When were the times that you felt most seen? Finally, what boundaries have you set or need to be set in relationships to protect your emotional and mental well-being? And finally, what boundaries have you set or need to be set in relationships to protect your emotional and mental well-being? Okay, I feel like I have given you a lot to think about. There is more in store. Every week, you guys know I do a challenge that features our mantra. It's really about taking

this whole thing to another level so that we can put what we talk about into tangible, actionable steps for yourself. I also love to do some check-ins so that we can hold ourselves accountable. Reach out to me at mantraopenmind to let me know how the challenge is going. And next week we'll do a recap on how things went. I might even share a few personal stories to help encourage others to participate in the challenge in the future. Of course, this is a two-way street, so I'll make sure to let you know how things are going with me too.

So let's talk about last week's challenge. If you remember, our mantra last week was, I respect my body by prioritizing its wellbeing. My challenge for that week was to just notice one practice that you could eliminate or add to your life that would improve your physical wellbeing or wellbeing in general for that week. Mine was removing my phone from my bedroom so it wasn't something that I immediately scrolled on. I can report I did that for the whole week and now we are continuing on with that practice because surprise, surprise, I felt more energized, I felt more alert in the mornings, and I definitely spent a lot less time doomscrolling in bed.

All positives. I want to share some of the DMs we got from listeners about last week's episode. This one's from Daphne. How do I identify harmful habits that might be impacting my physical or my mental health? I think the easiest way is to notice when you feel terrible or bad or distressed or uncomfortable and trace it back to what happened right before. So let's think about even to do with nutrition. Was it something that you ate that made you feel uncomfortable?

Maybe that's something that needs to be removed from your life. On this theme of enriching relationships, was it a friendship or a person that you saw who has made you feel not as confident or not as good about yourself? I think it's really getting in touch with the cause and effect relationship between our environment and our bodies. This next one's from Journey. The part of this episode about letting go of harmful habits really hit me. I've been way too guilty of ignoring how tired I am and just powering through. I feel like that was the biggest theme that came away from last week's episode. Rest is empowering.

Rest is not something that should make you feel guilty. It has a purpose. It has a psychological and physical need. And if your body is calling out for it, there is no guilt or shame in giving in. And now it is time for this week's challenge. This week, I want you to intentionally strengthen a connection. Choose one relationship that you value but you haven't invested in recently, and I want you to schedule some quality time this week. Whether it is messaging a long distance best friend saying,

hey, I haven't heard from you in a while, let's have a call. Whether it's a coffee date or a FaceTime or a dinner, try and reconnect and nurture that bond that you may have accidentally been neglecting. And as a reminder, you can reach out to Mantra Open Mind to share how this challenge is working for you.

All right, let us wrap up this week's episode. I have given you so much to think about. I want to share a few final thoughts about this mantra, I nurture relationships that enrich my life. I just think that we cannot take those kinds of relationships for granted because they are so rare and I know that life is so busy. I've definitely encountered so many excuses as to why I can't see this person, I can't make time for these people,

I can't enrich my life with connection. Eventually, you just have to realize life without these kinds of relationships isn't as good. So even when it feels like a challenge to reach out, to say I was wrong or to have to be the first person to make the first move, it all ends up being incredibly rewarding and it is all worth it.

Because there are just people in my life who I cannot imagine my life being better without them. They are so important to me and they really are at the core of how I feel about myself and they really sit at the core of how I enjoy my life. So don't take those relationships for granted and make sure that you're not confusing time and convenience with a real connection. Take this mantra with you into the week and let it guide you towards building a life filled with love, trust and mutual growth. Thank you for joining mantra an exclusive Open Mind original powered by Pave Studios.

At Open Mind, we value your support, so share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review and follow Mantra to help others discover the show. For ad-free listening and early access to Mantra with me, Gemma Spegg, we invite you to subscribe to Open Mind Plus on Apple Podcasts. I will share another insightful and introspective mantra with you next Monday. Until then, keep showing up for yourself and your journey. I'm Gemma Speg. See you next week.

Mantra is hosted by me, Gemma Speg, and is an Open Mind original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the mantra team Max Cutler, Kristen Acevedo, Ron Shapiro, Stacy Warenker, Sarah Carroll and Paul Lieberskind. Thank you for listening.