15+ Psychological Tricks People Used to Save Themselves From Life’s Worst Moments

Life doesn’t come with a manual — but your mind might be hiding the cheat codes. When something goes wrong — relationships, careers, your own mental peace — some people crumble.

But others? They tap into something deeper. Smarter. Sharper. Psychological tricks that don’t just cope — they cut through the chaos.

We’re not talking about toxic positivity or vague self-help fluff. These are raw, real-life tactics people used to crawl out of unpleasant, irritating situations, sidestep disasters, and protect their sanity when life tried to puzzle them. Want in? These 15+ mind moves just might change everything for you, too.

• (Edited by Bright Side) Don’t look at the new baby when visiting at the hospital until you’ve greeted the older sibling. Everyone FLOCKS to the new baby, and it creates automatic jealousy. Instead, pretend that you don’t even know about the new baby’s existence.
  Bringing the older sibling a small gift is nice, but not necessary. For the first 30 seconds of the interaction, just be very excited to see the older sibling, greet him/her with warmth, love, and genuine excitement, and pretend the new baby doesn’t even exist.
  This also works great for greeting the existing dog when the family just got a new puppy. © jvanderh / Reddit

• When you sign up for anything online, put the website’s name as your middle name. That way, when you receive spam/advert emails, you will know who sold your info. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Keep your mouth shut, and don’t volunteer information. I had a phone interview scheduled this morning, but accidentally slept through it. When I got up and saw that I missed it, I had the desperate urge to call and offer up excuses, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they’d be understanding and give me another chance.
  Instead, all I did was apologize and ask if we could reschedule. That’s it, one sentence, no additional information, no explanation or excuse as to why I missed the first interview. They replied within 20 minutes, apologizing to ME, saying it was probably their fault, that they’d been having trouble with their computer system for days, and of course I could reschedule, was I available that afternoon?
  Don’t ever volunteer information, kids. You never know what information the other party has, and you can always give information if asked for it later. © w2555 / Reddit

• If you want a smarter kid, teach your child to read as early as possible and instill in them a love for books. Because as soon as they can read, they can teach themselves. And that will be a life-long advantage over their peers who don’t have that same ability. © Moonripple616 / Reddit

• Don’t be fooled by the “working for a dream company” ideology. You’ll be much better off with an amazing boss at an average company who champions your work, allows you to develop mastery in your field, and gives you autonomy. © WrongKielbasa / Reddit

• When you don’t have all the facts, try to give people the most generous reason you can for their behavior. Annoyingly slow driver? Maybe it’s a mom with a birthday cake in the back. This mindset will gradually make you less reactive, more compassionate, and more forgiving of your own bad days. © ContributionNarrow88 / Reddit

• I’m 43. By your late 20s/early 30s, make sure physical fitness becomes an absolute top priority. I started a dedicated fitness regimen when I was 28 to improve my odds with a girl. Didn’t work on the girl.
  What did work was that the routine stuck. Now pushing my mid-forties, I can’t believe where I am physically compared to many others my age.
  Also, scary is how they regard physical deterioration as an inevitability. It isn’t. Get started now. It will be one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever give yourself. © Jdubs101111 / Reddit

• If a friend or a family member gets diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer, in the early stages, try to find out what their favorite songs of all time are. In this way, you would be able to create a playlist for them that could be of great benefit in the later stages of the disease.
  Music helps a dementia patient recall memories and emotions. Especially when specific songs are connected to previous parts of their lives. © socrat** / Reddit

• Don’t use your child’s embarrassing stories as dinner party talk. They are your child’s personal memories, and humiliating them for a laugh isn’t cool.
  I’ve probably listened to my mum tell one particularly cringe worthy story dozens of times, and I think everyone she knows has been told it. Every time she tells it, most of the time in front of me, I just want to crawl under the table and hide. However, that would give her another humiliating story to tell.
  Just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean you have a right to humiliate them for a laugh. I do think that telling about something cute they once did (pronouncing something wrong, for example) is different to an embarrassing story. But if your child doesn’t like you telling about it, then you should still find something else to talk about. © Unknown author / Reddit

• When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else, “Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?” This is honestly one of the best things you can do for an upset friend. I use it all the time and people respond very well to it.
  Sometimes people come to you because they need to vent. Comfort them first, then follow up with “Do you want advice or do you want me to just listen?” But other times, they just need to let someone outside of the conflict know what happened, and then they want to talk about something else.
  Talk about your own day, show them the latest funny thing you saw, go do something fun together. This question sets boundaries and builds trust. It shows you can be there in any way they need. © dykejoon / Reddit

• If someone slights/insults you publicly during a meeting, pretend like you didn’t hear them the first time and politely ask them to repeat themselves. They’ll either double-down & repeat the insult again, making them look rude & unprofessional. Or they’ll realize their mistake & apologize to you. © brandonmcgritle / Reddit

• Pay attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip — that’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it. © ProfessorLiftoff / Reddit

• For people starting a new job. If a task typically takes someone ~3.5 hours, and you can get it done in 1 hour, don’t turn your task in right away — wait about an hour. If your manager(s) discover how productive you really are, they will quickly overwork you without proper compensation. © Unknown author / Reddit

• When a job interviewer asks, “What’s your biggest weakness?”, interpret the question in practical terms rather than in terms of personality faults. “Sometimes I let people take advantage of me” or “I take criticism personally” are bad answers. “I’m too honest” or “I work too hard” even if they believe you, make you sound like you’ll be irritating to be around, or you’ll burn out.
  Instead, say something like, “My biggest weakness with regard to this job is, I have no experience with [the company’s database platform]” or “I don’t have much knowledge about [a single specific aspect of the job] yet, so it would take me some time to learn.”
  These are real weaknesses that are relevant to the job, but they’re also fixable things that you’ll correct soon after being hired. Personality flaws are not (and they’re also none of the interviewer’s business). © Iron_Rod_Stewart / Reddit

• A marriage proposal should NOT come as a big surprise, despite what you may have seen in the movies. The topic of marriage should be thoroughly discussed well before you propose.
  Lots of TV and films depict a proposal as this dramatic, surprising moment where someone finally realizes their true feelings. While it may make for good entertainment, in real life your significant other should be well aware of where the relationship is heading. © intelligentiam / Reddit

• Many problems in marriage are really just problems with being a bad roommate. Learn how to be a good roommate, and it will solve many of the main issues that plague marriages. This includes communicating about something bothering you before you get too angry to communicate properly. © Unknown author / Reddit

• If you feel tired and want to sleep with kids in the house, tell them to wake you up in about 30 minutes so you can start cleaning the house. And they will do literally anything to avoid waking you up. © eljuan1161 / Reddit

• Ask yourself, “What does it matter to me” the next time you find yourself judging someone for their clothing, interests or hobbies. The more you train yourself to not care about the personal preferences of other people, the more relaxed and nicer you become as a person. © AshleyVille77 / Reddit

• If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of just hanging up. The other person will see “call failed” instead of “call ended”. © fifa_god_786 / Reddit

Life isn’t as scary as the news and social media make it seem—there’s a lot of fun, laughter, and good vibes out there. But when things do go wrong (even if it’s rare), they hit hard, so it’s always smart to be ready. Here you can find a whole bunch of cool and interesting facts that might actually save your life one day.

Check out some important and thoroughly checked facts that may potentially help you stay safe and sound even in the most disastrous situation.