Being tolerant and understanding of others isn't just about being okay with someone's religion or nationality, it's relevant in all walks of life down to even the smallest, simplest of opinion.

You don’t need to change who you are and what you believe in to live happily alongside others.

See if any of the following ideas relate to your life, just trying to do one of them can make a positive difference!

* If an argument arises try to understand the other person’s view. It can be hard to be calm when someone disagrees with you strongly but understanding why the other person feels the way they do can make things easier to deal with. Ultimately you don’t have to argue at all but it takes a strong will to rise above a confrontation and turn away.

* Don’t assume that someone of a different religion to your own is a bad person. Millions of people belong to the faiths of Islam, Christianity, Judaism & many others; for many of these people their religion is an integral part of life. If religion teaches understanding why do so many of us have such a strong dislike of people who follow different teachings when we don’t even know them?

There is a saying that “Many things are done in the name of Christendom that Christ would never have done himself” and that is not only true but the sentiment can be applied across most religions. If we could just learn to accept differences between ourselves wouldn’t our existence as a species be so much less destructive than it is?

* Learn about those around you instead of assuming the worst. Have you ever seen a youth clad in black clothes with pierced ears, nose or lip and thought what an unpleasant person they must be? Have you ever read an opinion-piece in a magazine and formed an immediate dislike of the author? Have you ever seen a foreigner on the news and thought along the lines of “You should go home!”? Why do we do these things? It’s a sad truth that despite the old saying of “Don’t judge a book by a cover” most of us do form our perception of someone from an initial glance or conversation.

Sometimes this proves accurate, sometimes an article in a magazine really is an indication of the author’s unpleasantness but should we make these assumptions automatically? Would it not make more sense to bear such an assumption in mind but just take a few minutes to build up a better picture? Why does a pierced lip make someone a bad person? Why does someone’s nationality mean they shouldn’t be respected? Take the time to find out about those around you, friendships can be found in the most unlikely of places after all.

* Take a few minutes to help someone, no matter how trivial. Whether you’re as fit as an athlete or disabled there is always an avenue to help someone somehow, especially in the age of the internet. Writing from personal experience, it can be frustrating to be physically unable to help someone but people need help with other things too. Got an interest in photography? Gardening? Astronomy? Why not take a little time browsing the internet - especially forums - and see if you can offer any advice to people. You’d be surprised just how appreciative many people will be if you take even just a couple of minutes to provide some information. It will leave you with a nice feeling from having helped and leave them with helpful information.

Let’s be honest, how hard are any of those? Simple actions can have a big - and positive - impact on people’s lives and if we’d all just take a few moments to think about the things we say and do wouldn’t the world be a much happier place to live?