In an ever more connected world it helps to know the intentions, feelings, requirements and priorities of others. Finding solutions to problems that concern different cultures and religions requires a kind of cooperation we are not familiar with. It is not easy to put yourself in the shoes of people who are running away from their country as refugees, or understand issues from the perspective of people we don’t know, or maybe do know because they are our children, parents, wives or husbands. Studies say that the more we know ourselves, the more we understand others. Furthermore, the skills this kind of knowledge require can be taught and learned. With adequate training we can get to know ourselves rather well from the emotional, cognitive and behavioral points of view. Automatically we start to recognize these mental states in those around us whether, we know them or not. Once we ‘understand’ others, it is much easier to work with them, particularly when this understanding is reciprocal. A strategy that might be useful to contrast social phenomena (violence, misconduct of various nature, misunderstandings), or to deal with tensions between countries could be to create ‘understanding oneself’ classes at school. Adequately prepared teachers who ‘know themselves’ would teach students how to get to know themselves better. Pausing to think about one’s various mental states would help recognize and respect these states in others when we encounter them.