How to deal with it, when seeing someone running into misery?

...one of the most tricky aspects of having relationships

This one is difficult. I have encountered it several times in my life and needed to learn how to deal with it; it was, and still is, not always easy.

First of all: we can never know what truly will happen in someone else’s life, neither do we have the right to point it out. Well, unless I feel it is a life-threatening situation, then I will say something for sure.

And yet, I came across several situations in different relationships where a certain feeling of unease came up. It usually would happen after a time of interactions, observations and what I call “data-point-collections”.

What I mean with that is: getting to know someone else, seeing them interact, speak, act and react, experiencing them and within time and situations spent together and getting to know each other, this feeling of “Uh-oh, this might end up badly” came up.

The first thing to do for me is, to simply notice it. Observe my reaction to it, my bodily awareness.

The second thing is, to keep on observing the development of the feeling, in accordance to the other persons behavior, words and interactions.

While all this sounds very analytical, or logical, it is not. It is not super conscious as well, at least not initially. It is more paying attention on a subconscious level and observing my bodily response to all that.

The third thing, a very difficult thing to do is…