7 Ways to Be More Understanding in Life

One of the best qualities you can possess as you progress through life is to be more understanding – towards people, things, situations, and everything else.

When you’re someone who’s categorized as naturally understanding, you have a different perspective and you tend to see things others don’t. This doesn’t mean that you settle for life, but you just understand things from different points of view.

This is also why understanding people also tend to have the purest intentions. In this article, we’ll be talking about 7 ways to be more understanding in life.

What It Means To Be An Understanding Person

An understanding person knows that there are different perspectives of things and that what they see isn’t the exact story. Even when it isn’t always easiest for them, understanding people find it in their heart to see someone’s side of things.

It means that you’re sympathetic to what someone is going through and you’re trying to both feel and see things from their point of view. When someone is understanding, they also find it easy to connect with people as it’s in their nature to do so.

An understanding person also makes it a habit to be considerate of everyone’s feelings as they don’t want anyone feeling misunderstood or left out. The most selfless thing an understanding person can do is to be everything to everyone to make their feelings validated.

7 Ways To Be More Understanding in Life

1. Don’t always assume things

One of the worst mistakes you can make is to just assume things, even without concrete evidence. This is how people feel misunderstood in the first place and when this happens, your relationship or friendship will be negatively affected.

To be more understanding, you shouldn’t assume but be open to all kinds of suggestions. You need to have an open perspective and personality when trying to be an understanding person.

2. Be a good listener

Unfortunately, it’s rare to be a good listener in today’s world because the majority would listen to respond but not to actually hear what someone is saying.

Not feeling heard is what causes someone to feel extremely misunderstood so your listening skills are key to understanding someone on what they’re trying to tell you. You can’t understand them if the only reason you’re listening is to come up with the perfect response because that’s not what listening is all about.

Learn to hear between the lines on both what they’re saying and what they aren’t saying and that’s how you’ll get better at understanding someone.

3. Understand yourself better

When it comes down to it, sometimes your lack of abilities in understanding others comes from your lack of understanding yourself. You can’t expect to understand other people’s certain perspectives, feelings, and points of view when you can barely understand and explain your own.

You need to work on understanding yourself wholeheartedly before you can even attempt to give others that same level of understanding. Otherwise, there’s always going to be this wall holding you back from understanding others.

If you’re always hesitant to express yourself, be kind to yourself, or feel anything in general, then how can you expect others to do the same for you?

4. Remember it’s not a weakness

Everyone has several reasons for refusing not to understand someone, whether it’s the perception that it’s a weakness or just not having the knowledge to do so.

Since understanding people requires a certain level of empathy and compassion, it’s often seen as a weakness rather than a strength.

However, you must remind yourself that we live in an already harsh world and you don’t need to be another addition to a world that sees emotions as a weakness. Understanding people will always be a strength as you can make people feel heard when it’s easy to feel alone and misunderstood.

5. You get back what you ask for

If you’re having difficulty understanding others, realize that you always get back what you ask for, one way or another. If you’ve felt a lack of understanding lately, maybe it’s because you haven’t been understanding in return.

They say you get back what you give to the world and this statement is accurate. You can’t expect to have something when you rob others of that very thing you want. Instead, show others what it feels like to be understood, even when you yourself don’t feel it.

6. Be present in listening

This sounds like a piece of very mundane advice, but it’s much more challenging than you think. You think you’re listening, but your mind is actually elsewhere.

This is quite similar to the point of being better at listening, but it’s a bit of more specific advice. Avoid drifting elsewhere when you’re trying to validate someone’s feelings and thoughts because that’s the fastest way to lose someone.

7. Ask good questions

When someone goes to you for advice or even to just vent what they feel, asking questions is a great way to make them feel heard, understood, and noticed.

When you ask questions, it shows that you’re interested and you’re genuine about understanding their perspective of things. You may not be in the same place as they are, but it shows that you’re trying, which is what matters when trying to understand someone.

The Importance of Being Understanding of Others

Not only will you build strong friendships and relationships, but you also show others that not everyone is stiff in sticking to just one point of view.

In a world where it’s easy to feel alone and isolated in what you’re dealing with, understanding others can act as the saving grace they need to get through it. Without realizing it, all people ever really need is to feel heard and understand for their feelings and thoughts, no matter how unusual or mundane it may seem.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article was able to shed insight on everything you needed to know on how to be more understanding. When you try and understand people better, it’s a great reflection of your character that will leave a lasting impression on others.

If there’s anything people can remember you by, let it be your understanding character.