There are people who have a certain mental rigidity that makes it difficult for them to be more tolerant with life options that differ from their mental schemes. This attitude generates conflicts and separation and, in its most extreme manifestations, leads to absurd and senseless wars between populations and countries. Tolerance, therefore, becomes a fundamental value to develop in the education of the human being as it allows cordial, peaceful and calm coexistence between people.
However, tolerance does not imply accepting everything since there are thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that give rise to harmful results for the human being, so no, not everything is tolerable. After this clarification and taking into account the need to work on respect in our societies where aggressiveness, violence and usurpation abound, then we will present 12 advice on how to be more tolerant.
Index
- Be open to hearing opinions other than your own
- Do not judge different opinions
- Accept the validity of these other looks
- Being self-critical with the errors of our approaches
- Count to 10 as an impulse control technique
- Accept other views even if, initially, we do not share them
- Be patient with others and with yourself
- Understand that all our visions, even our own, are biased
- Nourish one's vision with good elements from other understandings
- Discard the negative and prejudiced elements of our own look
- Adopt an attitude of open and active listening
- Understand that truth is the union of all knowledge
Be open to hearing opinions other than your own.
As a first step to becoming more tolerant people is to be open to listening to opinions that are different from your own. In many cases, intolerant people are unable to hear different arguments to their own. That is why adopting this attitude will open the way for possible changes in our level of tolerance towards others.
Do not judge different opinions.
Along with hearing opinions that are different from your own, it is important to make a decision not to judge. Judgment is precisely the main characteristic of intolerant people, so we must strive not to judge.
Although it is difficult for us at first, it will allow us to open ourselves more to receive new glances and observe them already with a little curiosity, in the face of the initial instant rejection. In this way we learn to be more tolerant with ourselves and with others.
To progress in this aspect, in this post we tell you How to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes.
Accept the validity of these other looks.
How to work intolerance? An important step in learning to be more tolerant is to be objective and accept the good contributions that perspectives other than one's own bring to specific issues. It is a very difficult step for very intolerant people, but if our real will lies in change our prejudiced attitude, performing this step will allow us to go a long way down the road.
Being self-critical with the errors of our approaches.
In the same way, after accepting the positive aspects of other perspectives, in order to be more tolerant, it will be essential to be self-critical with our own approach, making us aware of our mistakes and imperfections of vision that, until now, we considered immovable.
Count to 10 as an impulse control technique.
If the process is complex for us, which it is, and we feel within us the aggressive impulse to impose our criteria rejecting any other, the classic relaxation technique of "counting to 10" can be very useful to stop imprints that, in hindsight, we might regret.
On Effective emotional control techniques You will find exercises that will help you to be more tolerant with others, controlling your impulses, and to grow as a person.
Accept other views even if, initially, we do not share them.
Another example of tolerant attitudes is accepting the other person's point of view even if it is not the same as ours. If, advancing in the process of accepting other views, our reasoning tries to convince us that only our point of view is the correct, as we already know that this is not the case, it will help us to accept, without further ado, other views even if at first we neither understand them nor let's share.
Subsequently and gradually we will find ourselves at the moment of select those aspects that nourish us and discard those that do not.
Be patient with others and with yourself.
The process of becoming a more tolerant person is by no means easy. Therefore, being patient with oneself will help us not to die trying.
On the other hand, be patient with others it will help us, although at first we do not understand certain ways of understanding different from our own as we have just commented, work on empathy and understand people, at least, why they have their concrete reasoning.
Understand that all our visions, even our own, are biased.
On the path of learning to be more tolerant, one must understand that all visions, even one's own, are biased. itself, a tolerant attitude since it abandons the idea that someone in particular is in possession of the truth in the face of others who do not. have.
Our visions are never objective but they are modulated by our experiences and personal shortcomings. That is why, in all cases, any argument exposed will be subjective and will be subject to certain errors of truth.
Nourish one's own vision with good elements from other understandings.
The next psychological advice to be more tolerant is that, understanding that nobody, at least Today, no one is the possessor of the truth, since each one has a biased perspective of the truth. reality; It is highly recommended to accept nourishing one's own vision with the good elements of other ways of understanding reality. This will bring us closer to authentic knowledge.
Discard the negative and prejudiced elements of our own look.
In the same way, being more tolerant implies discarding all the negative and prejudiced elements of our own way of seeing the world. This exercise will cost us, but it will help us to be more tolerant in adopting a closer look at reality and away from unjust intolerance.
Adopt an attitude of open and active listening.
For this entire process to be carried out satisfactorily, it is essential that we adopt an attitude of open and active listening that brings us closer, in a real and sincere way, to other points of view, making possible, only in this way, its possible acceptance and integration.
Understand that the truth is the union of all knowledge.
The last of the psychological advice on how to be more tolerant involves understanding that the truth does not lie in understanding itself, but in the union of the best of each of the understandings of the whole humanity.
This becomes the highest degree of tolerance, after which the search for truth becomes a process of union, conciliarity and mutual respect from which the construction of a more real, authentic and true knowledge.
If you found this article useful on how to be more tolerant, we recommend you read our post How to be more humble and simple to keep improving as a person.
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 more tolerant, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
References
- Cervantes Campo, Guillermo, & Escudero Trujillo, Rafael, & Martínez Solano, Rafael (2009). Tolerance in education. Near Zone, (11), 210-213. [Consultation date March 3, 2022]. ISSN: 1657-2416. Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa? id=85313003015
