Friendships Don't Just Happen! - by Shasta Nelson (Paperback)

About the Book

This essential go-to guide reveals how women can enhance their lives by creating valuable friendships in today's busy, mobile world, from nationally recognized friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com.

Every woman is searching for a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life. Many realize the significant role that an intimate, tightly knit circle of friends plays in creating a more fulfilling life, but with hectic schedules, frequent moves, and life changes, it's more important than ever for women to establish natural, meaningful friendships that will contribute to their overall wellbeing.
In Friendships Don't Just Happen!, Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, reveals the most important proven steps, processes, and secrets vital to establishing the five different levels of friendships, or Circles of Connectedness, that women--no matter their age or relationship status--are longing for in today's stressful and mobile culture. This revolutionary, engaging guide will also benefit women who already feel rooted to fabulous friends, with insightful principles that will help them maintain and enhance their current friendships.
Full of practical how-to tips, fun activities, guiding questions, and step-by-step instructions, Friendships Don't Just Happen! highlights several areas of developing lasting friendships, teaching women how to:

• Evaluate their current circle of friends
• Recognize what types of friends they are seeking based on career, interests, location, and relationship status
• Create a prioritized friendship action plan
• Find extraordinary friends--where to look and how to approach them
• Take initiative to jumpstart friendships and face fears of rejection
• Establish "frientimacy," trust, and happiness through conversation and activities
• Maintain meaningful friendships and determine which ones are worthwhile

Book Synopsis

This essential go-to guide reveals how women can enhance their lives by creating valuable friendships in today's busy, mobile world, from nationally recognized friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com.

Every woman is searching for a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life. Many realize the significant role that an intimate, tightly knit circle of friends plays in creating a more fulfilling life, but with hectic schedules, frequent moves, and life changes, it's more important than ever for women to establish natural, meaningful friendships that will contribute to their overall wellbeing.
In Friendships Don't Just Happen!, Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, reveals the most important proven steps, processes, and secrets vital to establishing the five different levels of friendships, or Circles of Connectedness, that women--no matter their age or relationship status--are longing for in today's stressful and mobile culture. This revolutionary, engaging guide will also benefit women who already feel rooted to fabulous friends, with insightful principles that will help them maintain and enhance their current friendships.
Full of practical how-to tips, fun activities, guiding questions, and step-by-step instructions, Friendships Don't Just Happen! highlights several areas of developing lasting friendships, teaching women how to:

• Evaluate their current circle of friends
• Recognize what types of friends they are seeking based on career, interests, location, and relationship status
• Create a prioritized friendship action plan
• Find extraordinary friends--where to look and how to approach them
• Take initiative to jumpstart friendships and face fears of rejection
• Establish "frientimacy," trust, and happiness through conversation and activities
• Maintain meaningful friendships and determine which ones are worthwhile

Review Quotes

"I knew I'd adore Friendships Don't Just Happen! as soon as I saw the title. It's tough to make friends as an adult, and women are often made to think we've done something wrong if new pals don't come easily. Shasta Nelson does a great job of breaking down how to identify the friendships you need, how to go about forging new relationships, and how to turn those relationships into true friendships. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is looking to make new friends or strengthen their existing friendships. In fact, there is no one who won't benefit from reading Friendships Don't Just Happen!"
-Rachel Bertsche, author of MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend

"As CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, Shasta Nelson has made bringing women together her life's work. Now, Shasta has written an inspiring book that empowers women to reach out and connect as individuals. Friendships Don't Just Happen! is a call to action, offering women practical tips and tools to find and nurture meaningful friendships. The perfect workbook for someone who wants to work on their friendships!"
--Irene S. Levine, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, author of Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend

"How could it be that I made it through graduate school and yet I was never taught about healthy friendships? As I was reading Friendships Don't Just Happen!, I had this profound wish that someone had shared all of this amazing information with me when I was much younger. This book should be required reading for women of all ages and especially for mothers of daughters."
--Christine Bronstein, CEO of A Band of Wives, editor of Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God: 51 Women Reveal the Power of Positive Female Connection

"Loving friendships are essential to feeling fulfilled and well nourished. And this is one AWESOME book that walks us through really well laid-out steps of creating and nurturing supportive and lifelong friendships that too few of us have been taught or shown."
--Christine Hassler, author of 20 Something, 20 Everything and 20 Something Manifesto, speaker and coach

"At a time when so many people are "friending" one another online yet reporting feelings of loneliness, Friendships Don't Just Happen! reminds us that friendships worth creating are done with intention and significance."
--Dale V. Atkins, PhD, psychologist, author, media commentator

"Shasta articulates and deconstructs friendship so powerfully, inspiring women to reclaim the soul of friendship and giving us the tools and language to be able to do so with depth and connection." --Ayesha Mathews Wadhwa, Savor the Success Leader

"Shasta has created extremely powerful tools to help women evaluate . . . their friendships so they can clearly see what they need to do to have fulfilling friendships in their lives." --Nancy Larocca Hedley, SF Coaches Programs Co-Director, 2009

"Women read books on parenting, romance, and diet all the time, but when was the last time we read about our friendships? As I read this book I was amazed by how much I didn't know that I didn't know. We need this book in huge ways! We've never been taught about the types of friends, healthy expectations, incremental vulnerability, and the steps of developing friendships. This book was so eye-opening and hope-filling. Read this book, get one for your mom, sister, friend, clients . . . the art of friendship is seeing a revival thanks to Shasta Nelson!"
--Angela Jia Kim, Founder of Savor the Success and Savor Spa

"When it comes to getting the girlfriend love you need (and we all need it!), Sha

About the Author

"Shasta Nelson" is a nationally recognized friendship expert. She is the Founder and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, the only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting local women in cities across the U.S. She has been featured as a friendship expert on "The Today Show, ""The Early Show" and in "The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, Martha Stewart Radio, Essence, Parents, More, Redbook, " and "Glamour, " among others. Her current book, "Friendships Don't Just Happen!, " is the culmination of years of proven success from her work at GirlFriendCircles.com.
Shasta is also a nationally acclaimed public speaker, most recently for Tory Johnson's Spark & Hustle Tour in Chicago and at Savor the Success in San Francisco. She regularly hosts Speed-Friending events in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where she facilitates local women getting to know each other and inspires them with her book.