Understand - The Misunderstanding

Misunderstandings are perhaps the single greatest source of our arguments and fights with each other. They occur for many reasons. Understanding where they come from and how to avoid them will go a long way to strengthen relationships and avoid fights. It is important to understand what constitutes a  misunderstanding. We've all experienced someone confusing our intentions with what we said. We've all had someone misquote what we said. It's frustrating. Interestingly enough, the majority of arguments begin with a misunderstanding. I'd say that close to 90% of our relationship problems with people are the result of misunderstandings.

A misunderstanding could be the result of several things or some combination thereof:

1. Hearing something that wasn't said.
2. Not hearing something that was said.
3. Not understanding what was said.
4. Not knowing how to say something.
5. Thinking you said something that you really didn't.
6. Misreading body-language.

We've all been there. We've struggled with explaining something in words that is more felt or abstract. We've all thought we heard someone say something that they did not, and we've all fallen victim to someone else's twisted interpretation of what we've said. It is so easy to fall into a misunderstanding. In fact, there will undoubtedly be folk who misunderstand portions of this article. There are many reasons for that, but they can all lead to communication problems.

A small misunderstanding can easily ruin relations for years. It is thus necessary to prevent it from occurring in your precious relationship as misunderstanding is like a slow poison which can slowly ruin your long term relationship and may turn you, stranger. The best way to deal with a misunderstanding is by preventing it from occurring itself. Your relationship should be strong enough to withstand any such storm of adversity. Every relation is good until it has transparency and which everything is crystal clear between each other, misunderstanding can not sow its poisonous seeds in it. If you find anything wrong, you should openly discuss it and avoid the formation of any misunderstanding. Keep the ego aside and talk about the problem, take the views instead of assuming things. One had rightly quoted, "I don't mind being hated, but I hate being misunderstood."

The best way to deal with a misunderstanding is to talk it out. Talk it out over food, or go to the favorite hang out place to openly discuss and sort the matter. If you find other behaving differently than usual, then you must try to find out the reason behind it. Many times there are small things that trouble us and which may be caused by some gap in communication. As Being, one should try out to sort such minor differences so as to avoid a small gap in relation forming the major misunderstanding that disrupts the relation.

Take the first step and don't wait for the other one to react first. You should not have EGO issues in true elation. Every relation is precious and one must not lose them because of misunderstanding. Trust is the basis of any relationship and you should not let your trust waiver amidst the storm of misunderstanding.