Understanding VS Relating: What’s the Difference

Understanding someone versus relating to someone. These are terms that I often hear people using interchangeably in conversation, but in my opinion, are 2 different concepts. In the world of mindset, the language that we use is something that is very important in getting to truly know ourselves, and those around us. Today I wanted to take the time to dive into this a little further, to a) give you a potential new understanding of the way we use these words, and b) show you how simply changing the language we use can change the perspective we have on situations in our lives.

When you say that you can relate to someone, that’s saying that you yourself been in a situation similar to theirs. If you’ve lost a parent, and are talking to a someone who also had that happen, that is a situation where you can relate to the other party. They may not need to go into explaining the hard feelings that they’re having, because you have gone through that yourself. If you’ve travelled in your life, and talking to someone about a recent trip they’ve taken, you can probably relate to some of the things they experienced while they were away, because you’ve been in that situation before yourself.

Where as when you are understanding someone, that means that you might not have necessarily been in a situation even close to what they’ve experienced, but through…