Being understanding with others is a basic value in human relationships. It is thanks to understanding that conflicts are resolved and people are accepted, helping them in the most difficult moments of their lives. Being understanding with others must be a priority for all human beings, as such conduct will guarantee cordial and peaceful relations between citizens.
Favoring the development of understanding becomes a fundamental objective if we wish to offer constructive upbringing and education to our children. For this reason, in this Psychology-Online article we reveal how to be understanding with others with the descriptions of ten recommendations to work to develop this capacity with oneself or with those around you.
Index
- Forget yourself and look at your neighbor
- develop empathy
- Not judge
- Do not doubt the other person
- Eliminate prejudices and preconceived ideas
- Reproduce in oneself the experience of the other person
- develop patience
- Work on active listening
- Develop a kind eye
- accept unconditionally
Forget yourself and look at your neighbor.
As a fundamental aspect when it comes to promoting the development of understanding towards others is the fact of separating ourselves into the background and prioritizing looking at others. Without this necessary gaze, there is no possibility of understanding others.
Our current societies are fueled by self-centeredness, narcissism and looking at oneself. The look towards others is reduced to a lascivious look that tries to copy in order to, once again, prioritize the look over one's own personal improvement and the look of others over oneself.
For this reason, developing an eye on others constitutes a lost value in our current societies and a great need for recover more respectful and cordial coexistence.
Develop empathy.
Starting to look at the other and doing it in a deep and true way will allow us to develop empathy, as essential capacity to be understanding with others. If you want to know in detail this important value, consult our post What is empathy in psychology, so you will better understand why it is good to be understanding.
In addition, you can also make our Empathic Knowledge Test to know from what point you start to work on this virtue that will make you a better person.
Not judge.
Judging others prevents us from trying understand the reasons for their behavior. In this way, it is impossible to be understanding with any person, since we are not able to understand the causes that have led him to act in the way. Avoiding judgment is a huge step in developing understanding.
Don't question the other person.
Not questioning the other person's word accept it and not judge it, understanding that his conduct has been justified by the previous conditions that occurred. When we question the words or arguments of the other person, we place ourselves in a non-understanding attitude that distances us from them, making it difficult to understand their situation. And this is the opposite of what the value of understanding is.
Eliminate prejudices and preconceived ideas.
We are all full of previous beliefs, preconceived ideas and prejudices that are automatically activated, composing a good part of our new thoughts and deductions. These preconceived mental schemes they skew realitycurrent providing nuances that do not correspond to the present situation.
Adopting the attitude of eliminating all kinds of prejudices will help us have a clearer and purer view of others, without frames or fissures. Therefore, we help you to be more understanding with our post How to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes.
Reproduce in oneself the experience of the other person.
In the event that it is difficult for us to understand the situation experienced by the person and, therefore, be understanding with it, can help us reproduce in oneself (as far as possible) the experience lived by the person in question. This will help us"put on your shoes", understand her situation and, with it, adopt an understanding attitude towards her.
Develop patience.
develop patience with oneself and with others It is fundamental when it comes to developing understanding towards others since, on many occasions, it will be difficult for us to be understanding of what happened at first.
Being understanding and patient with ourselves and with others, stopping possible defensive or hostile attitudes, will help establish this great virtue. For this, we recommend you read our article How to have more patience.
Work on active listening.
Being understanding is a virtue and, in order to develop it, it is essential to listen actively, which means listen more than talk, attend seriously to the exposed content and try to empathize with the people who communicate the message to us.
Active listening is one of the factors that favors empathy and, therefore, an understanding attitude towards others. For more details, see our article Active listening: characteristics, exercises and examples.
Develop a kind look.
Being understanding meanssee with good eyes"to our neighbors. Our mind is contaminated by our own emotional shortcomings and by the direction taken in our life trajectory. In this way, fears, distrust, prejudices, etc. daily feed our gaze towards ourselves, towards others and towards life.
Developing a kind look will be the only way to be understanding with the rest. For this, it will be necessary to carry out an arduous but fruitful introspection work, on the basis of which we can get rid of all the internal rubbish so that, once purified, we look kindly at our neighbors and show ourselves understanding with them.
Accept unconditionally.
The ability to be understanding contains, in itself, the unconditional acceptance of others. Only the absence of judgment and prejudice, the development of empathy, prioritizing the needs of the other over one's own, being patient, taking an interest in the other and showing a kind look about him, supposes the unconditional acceptance of the other and, only in this way, will it be possible for us to be given the ability to understand others.
If you found these tips to be understanding useful, you will find our post equally interesting. How to be a good person every day.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to be understanding with others, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
