Become your own first friend: the one who shows up, keeps secrets and doesn’t roast you when you trip.

The qualities you want in a friend are mostly qualities you can practise toward yourself. Showing up consistently, not repeating the worst version of a story back, staying steady when something goes wrong. It sounds abstract until you notice how differently you treat a friend’s bad day and your own.

Pick one of those and apply it to yourself this week. The easiest is usually the one about mockery: when you get something wrong, say what you would say to them. It feels artificial at the start and stops feeling artificial fairly quickly.