Title: Be Friendly | Psychology Today
Headings: Be Friendly
Rick Hanson Ph.D.
Be Friendly
Friendliness is a down-to-earth approach that is welcoming and positive.

Content: more open and warm-hearted. When you are friendly to others, you offer them these same benefits. Plus you get rewarded yourself. Being friendly feels confident and happy, with a positive take on other people, moving toward the world instead of backing away from it. And it encourages others to be less guarded or reactive with you, since you're answering the ancient question from millions of years of evolution - friend or foe? - with an open hand and heart. In its own quiet way, ordinary friendliness takes a stand that is almost subversive these days: that the world has many more opportunities than threats, that most people want the best for others, that simple informal human connections tie this battered old planet together much more than jumbo corporations or mass media flickering on the walls of our upholstered caves. How? You can be friendly with intimates and strangers, co-workers and in-laws, babies and bosses - even those you know only in the abstract, like people on the other side of the world.