Understanding others

Put yourself in their position for a few minutes

June 17th 2025

Human beings are not used to putting themselves in other people’s shoes, and this is the source of so many errors of judgement, so much thoughtlessness, cruelty and injustice. If you do not know someone’s situation, try to put yourself in their position for at least five minutes, before accusing them of something. Often, you will realize that if you had been in their situation, you would have done ten times worse.
Just a few minutes of this exercise, and you will begin to acquire qualities of nobility, patience, tolerance and gentleness. So do this exercise: take a few minutes to put yourself in the shoes of all the people you find so unpleasant and difficult to put up with. You will then find it impossible not to understand and love them.*
* Related reading:

While it is right and healthy to have faith and defend it, trying to impose it on others is a form of fanaticism. In order to avoid such a situation one must never separate faith from love. If it is very difficult to know what love is, we can see its manifestations such as tolerance, gentleness,...