“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” the Bible (KJV) says in Matthew 22:39. Unless your clone is living next door, be intentional about learning what your neighbor appreciates and stop acting as if your train of thought is the only existing mindset. 
When my little brother started running his mouth, I fought his battles. When my parents ostracized my older brother, I consoled him the best I could. When my parents got into it with each other, I mediated, if I could give myself that much credit.
Spending much of my childhood being there for others, I naturally became effective in supplying people with a space where they feel in control. If I cannot claim to be an expert on anything else, reducing myself to be present with another person is the one thing I can do 99 times out of 100. 
“Always check in on your friends,” people say. Is this phrase popular due to genuine curiosity, or does it also involve the quest for cognitive dissonance after confirming someone is seemingly okay?
After all, it is human nature for people to perceive themselves as the main character with everyone else featuring in their story.
In doing so, we forget to take ourselves out of the action of being there for another person. We try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes or give them what we think they need. Both ways of inserting ourselves.
There is no way to know what another person is thinking beyond what they tell you. Even if they tell you, people do not perceive things the same way.
Recognize that there are moments that don’t actively require you. 
The best thing you can do to make someone feel important is to be a passenger in their story. It may seem fake to exclude yourself when involved with another person, but being a reflection gives you a real insight to a person that is otherwise unattainable. 
In order to hear external voices, turn off the internal voice. A lesson articulated by Robin Kimmerer in “Learning the Grammar of Animacy.”
Allow someone to ramble incessantly without adding your “that reminds me of when I” spiel. Listen and limit your vocabulary to words of understanding instead of explaining. If you want to give someone what they desire, let them tell you what they wish. You learn much more about people like this, and you learn that the amount of things you do not know is even more astounding.
Practice passivity in some interactions. Make yourself the supporting cast. Be more interested in someone other than yourself.
You may find it wildly rewarding to give your entire self to providing someone else with story material when you have enough. Occasionally playing second fiddle to others has helped me to wholly present with myself when I am alone, reducing feelings of loneliness and eradicating the fear of missing out. 

By completely committing to others, the rest of the world becomes more available to you, and you become more available to yourself.

Gideon Fortune is a 21-year-old mass communication major from New York, NY, and entertainment editor for The Reveille.