On my first day of a new job about 15 years ago, I walked right into the glass door of a conference room in front of all my new colleagues.

Did I play it cool? No. I did the most awkward thing imaginable. I yelled, “OUCH!” — interrupting a presentation and causing everyone to rush over and fuss over me. I wanted to hide under the table until the meeting was over.

Whenever I experience something embarrassing, I somehow make the situation worse. Being quick on my feet has never been my strong suit.

There are, however, a few go-to tactics you can deploy to handle cringe-inducing moments with ease and grace, say experts. As I’ve learned from this story, I should have just quickly assured everyone I was OK, apologized for disrupting and sat down without giving it another thought.

Uncomfortable things are bound to happen in life, and that’s OK. The key is to know how to manage them.

“The goal is not to eliminate awkwardness from your life,” said Ali Mattu, a clinical psychologist, in a Life Kit episode about social anxiety. “The goal is to navigate awkwardness, because every connection you want — the friends you want to make, the work opportunities you want to gain — are all on the other side.”

Here are five real-life awkward situations you might find yourself in, and how to respond in the moment.

The situation: You’ve been talking with spinach in your teeth

The fix: Acknowledge it and move on

Reported by Andee Tagle 

If you run face-first into an embarrassing situation, just face the thing head-on. Put it all right out on the table.

You might say, “Oh, wow, I am so sorry you’ve had to look at that spinach between my teeth. That was awkward,” says Ty Tashiro, a psychologist and a social scientist.

“It shows the other person that you understand what the social expectation is and that you don’t intend to continue being awkward in that way,” he says. “And it allows you to move on from the moment.”

If you don’t put the awkwardness on the table, he says, “it has this weird way of lingering through the rest of the conversation.” For tips on how to stop cringing about an awkward moment, read our comic. 

The situation: You hate compliments, and someone just gave you one

The fix: Just say thank you

Reported by Andee Tagle 

Many of us are bad at taking compliments. We deflect, negate, freeze up and sometimes visibly cringe. When there’s a disconnect between how we see ourselves and how others see us, that can be uncomfortable, says Erica Boothby, a social psychologist.