I know it can be scary to confront and follow through on difficult conversations but there is freedom on the other side of them. Here are steps to having a tough conversation with someone.

What is it we really need when we are in pain? I believe that it is much simpler than we imagine. We need to be heard, understood and cared about. We need a friend to hold our pain with us, for a moment, without judgment, to hear and care about how we are, in truth.

Your mood, productivity, opinions and ambition are affected by the people you let into your life, and your head.

We need friendships in our lives to supplement our existing romantic, marital or family relationships. Yet most adult friendships are based on proximity rather than on a purposeful pursuit.

When we can be honest about a friendship, and about the season of life that the friendship belongs in, then, we can be truly grateful for the miracle that a friendship is. Trying to force a friendship to keep bearing fruit past its season is a disservice to its profound nature.

Holding yourself to these five standards will help you develop within yourself and will expand your potential to grow meaningful friendships throughout your life.

My client found it unbelievable. "Here I am 37 years old, a wife, a mom, a nurse valued by patients and staff, and I am hurt -- no, correct that, devastated -- by a supposed friend and her group of friends."

I gravitate toward certain people. I meet tons of people and usually end up loving most of them, but some pull me in deeper immediately. I get an instant connection that I can't deny or ignore; it doesn't make perfect sense but just happens.

No! It's a pretty scary word, right? It certainly is for me. It's like a well-placed "boo!" bursting through the darkness from an unseen corner. In fact, I find "no" so scary that that I often have difficulty saying it, and that's just where my problem begins.

Don't get me wrong, helping others can bring us great joy, but we have to watch that we don't overdo and risk being of no help to anyone. By scheduling time for ourselves, we are able to be both helpful and healthy.

Negative people often do slow us down and drain our energy, as well as create stress and anxiety, none of which is useful or helpful. What to do?

Trying to solve your crappy self-worth through outside approval is a race you're always going to be running at half-speed. When the outside approval dies down, that's the discomfort you have to sit with. That's the "you" you have to learn to love.

Authentic self-development and confidence empowers a belief in one's self. And any kind of puffery will wither you to the core over time, leaving you alone and frightened.

At times, life catches up with us and  it becomes easy to forget to find time for moments of self-reflection. But it is important to remember that no human is an island. We can learn a lot about ourselves from the people we surround ourselves with and the relationships we foster.

An old aphorism says that it takes money to make money. Perhaps the same could be said of energy. If we want energy -- the feeling of vitality -- then we might have to be willing to give more of it to get it.

Balance in a relationship means not only that you need to give wisely, but also that you may need to look around to see how you're also receiving more than you might notice.