There are people who have a certain mental rigidity that makes it difficult for them to be more tolerant of life choices that differ from their mental schemas. This attitude generates conflict 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 human beings as it allows cordial, peaceful and calm coexistence between people.
However, tolerance does not mean accepting everything since there are thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that give rise to harmful results for human beings, so, no, not everything is tolerable. After this clarification and taking into account the need to work on respect in our current societies where aggressiveness, violence and usurpation abound, below we will present 12 tips on how to be more tolerant.
Be open to listening to opinions different from your own
The first step to becoming more tolerant people is to open ourselves to listening to opinions different from our own. In many cases, intolerant people are incapable of power listen to different arguments to their own. That is why adopting this attitude will open the way to possible changes in our level of tolerance towards our neighbors.
Do not judge different opinions
Along with listening to opinions different from your own, it is important to make the decision not to judge. Judgment is precisely the main characteristic of intolerant people, so we strive not to judge.
Although it costs us at first, it will allow us to open ourselves more to receive new looks and observe them already with a little curiosity, compared to 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.
Accept the validity of these other views
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 your own bring to specific topics. It is a very difficult step for very intolerant people, but if our real will lies in change our prejudiced attitudecarrying out this step will allow us to advance a lot along the way.
Be self-critical with the errors of our approaches
In the same way, after accepting the positive aspects of other perspectives, to be more tolerant it will be essential to be self-critical with one’s own approach, making ourselves aware of our mistakes and imperfections of vision that, until now, we considered immovable.
Counting to 10 as an impulse control technique
If the process seems complex to us, which it is, and we feel within us the aggressive impulse of impose our criteria rejecting any other, the classic relaxation technique of “counting to 10” can be very useful to stop imprints that, later on, we could regret.
In you will find exercises that will help you be more tolerant of others, controlling your impulses, and growing as a person.
Accept other views even if, at first, 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, moving forward in the process of accepting other views, our reasoning tries to convince us that only our point of view is 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 share them.
Later 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 not at all easy. Therefore, being patient with ourselves will help us not die trying.
On the other hand, with others it will help us, even if at first we do not understand certain ways of understanding different from our own as we have just mentioned, and understand peopleAt least, why they have their specific reasoning.
Understand that all our visions, even our own, are biased
On the path of learning to be more tolerant, we must understand that all visions, even our own, are biased. This is, in itself, a tolerant attitude since it abandons the idea that someone in particular is the possessor of the truth compared to others. others who don’t have it.
Our visions are never objective but rather they are modulated by our personal experiences and shortcomings. That is why, in all cases, any argument presented will be subjective and will be subject to certain errors of veracity.
Nurture your own vision with good elements of other understandings
The next psychological advice to be more tolerant is that, understanding that no one, at least today, no one is the possessor of the truth, since each one has a biased perspective of reality; It is highly advisable to agree to nourish your 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 view
Likewise, being more tolerant means 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 when adopting a closer look at reality and away from unjust intolerance.
Adopt an open and active listening attitude
For this entire process to be carried out satisfactorily, it is essential that we adopt an attitude that brings us closer, in a real and sincere way, to other points of view, enabling, only in this way, their possible acceptance and integration.
Understand that truth is the union of all knowledge
The last of the psychological tips on how to be more tolerant involves understanding that the truth does not lie in one’s own understanding, but in the union of the best of each of the understandings of all 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 on how to be more tolerant useful, we recommend reading our post to continue improving as a person.
This article is merely informative, at 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.
References
- Cervantes Campo, Guillermo, & Escudero Trujillo, Rafael, & Martínez Solano, Rafael (2009). Tolerance in education. Zona Próxima, (11),210-213.. ISSN: 1657-2416. Available at: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=85313003015