We've all heard the phrase - change is the on­ly con­stant thing. But right up there next to it is friend­ship, a best friend in par­tic­u­lar. No mat­ter what life throws at you or what jour­ney you take they're there for the ride. In a way, hav­ing a best friend is like a wed­ding. Every­one loves a good throw down or wed­ding re­cep­tion but few take the time to work at mar­riage. A best friend is a del­i­cate flower that will not flour­ish with­out the right por­tions of nour­ish­ment. So here are a few of my top five rules for BFF sta­tus:

1) Prop­er Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

So what if you spend every day of the week to­geth­er, dress the same or fin­ish each oth­er's sen­tences? A best friend can­not read your mind. Your su­per fun half does not have telepa­thy so they don't know what's on your mind. If you want to say or do some­thing it's re­al­ly sim­ple. Open your mouth and say it.

2) Hon­esty is the best Pol­i­cy

The ca­pac­i­ty to ac­cept pos­i­tive crit­i­cism de­pends on the in­di­vid­ual. How­ev­er, be­ing hon­est doesn't have to be bru­tal so much so that when the dust clears, pis­tols are drawn. In­stead use a dis­claimer or pos­i­tive re­in­force­ment to dif­fuse the truth. So your best friend tries on a kit that is flat out ug­ly, in­stead of say­ing the first hor­ri­ble thing that comes to mind use tact. Sug­gest some­thing that com­pli­ments their shape or state that the print is dis­tract­ing. Don't send your friend out in­to the street look­ing like a bomb! Best friends don't get down like that.

3) Loy­al­ty

Every­one knows that girls are be­fore bros (had to clear up that mis­con­cep­tion). A best friend is like a broth­er or sis­ter from an­oth­er moth­er, they're like fam­i­ly. No one can get to them with­out get­ting to you. As a best friend, it is your un­spo­ken du­ty to look out for each oth­er. In the event of a breakup it is your du­ty to drop what­ev­er you are do­ing and find your­self at head­quar­ters. Do not try to be ex­treme­ly nice and com­fort the of­fend­ing par­ty as this could lead to snug­gling which can lead to a se­ri­ous blow out! The ex is the for­bid­den fruit; do not eat it be­cause it is filled with poi­son.

4) Re­spect

This en­tails a cer­tain amount of ad­mi­ra­tion and recog­ni­tion of your best friend's qual­i­ties.When there is re­spect, con­sid­er­a­tion is tak­en for the feel­ings and rights of the oth­er per­son. Hav­ing re­spect for your best friend en­sures flex­i­bil­i­ty, em­pa­thy, co­op­er­a­tion and un­der­stand­ing.

5) Space

Ob­vi­ous­ly your best friend is not your on­ly friend or vice ver­sa. Al­though you al­ways want to keep con­nect­ed with your BFF, space is an in­te­gral path of your growth. Not all peo­ple can stand a per­son up in their face; that's why peo­ple get di­vorced. Here's where space comes in. Al­low each oth­er to spend time apart with oth­er peo­ple so that when spous­es or sig­nif­i­cant oth­ers come in­to the pic­ture you are al­ready equipped and won't get jeal­ous.

N.B Just be­cause a best friend should be for­ev­er doesn't mean they are. You have to work to keep them!up your favourite mu­sic and just let your thoughts run wild. It's an ex­cel­lent way to de-stress and in the midst of it all, you can find in­spi­ra­tion. It's a bit like when you're in a gym and you find your­self work­ing out more when you have mu­sic play­ing as op­posed to not lis­ten­ing to mu­sic at all. The mu­sic pound­ing in your head mo­ti­vates you to keep go­ing when you feel like just giv­ing up.

Tak­ing a walk and em­brac­ing na­ture is per­fect if you just want to be with your­self and take in the world around you. By just watch­ing the trees, skies, ocean or even the peo­ple around you, your mind can be­come filled with im­agery, thoughts and ideas to help you when you get stuck. This al­so has the added bonus of keep­ing you fit and healthy, so don't hes­i­tate to take a walk in your most stress­ful mo­ments.

And re­mem­ber, that the "key to mo­ti­va­tion is mo­tive. It's the WHY. It's the deep­er "Yes!" burn­ing in­side that makes it eas­i­er to say no to the less im­por­tant"- Stephen Cov­ey. Don't be afraid to em­brace the im­pos­si­ble. Prove your­self wrong and go for your dreams. Search for in­spi­ra­tion to quench your de­sire for suc­cess and ful­fill­ment.

Leah Lewis

Press Pass Cor­re­spon­dent

Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies