The Liminal Space: How to Live When You're Between Two Lives
One of the most disorienting experiences in life is the space between worlds.
The place you find yourself when your old life has fallen away, but the new one hasn’t yet taken shape. No longer who you were, but not yet who you are becoming.
This is what we often call the liminal space.
It can feel like waiting in the darkness. Not in a dramatic or frightening way, but just in a void, a nothingness… where nothing seems clear and there is no obvious direction forward.
If you’re here, you’ll likely feel stuck, frustrated, or restless. You may keep asking yourself how long this is going to go on for, or what the hell you’re supposed to do next. You might look around at other people who seem to be confidently moving ahead while you feel suspended in place like a fly trapped in amber.
We live in a culture that values speed and productivity. We’re taught to solve problems quickly, make plans, keep moving. So when life slows us down, or leaves us in a period of uncertainty, it can feel powerfully uncomfortable.
But the liminal space doesn’t follow a timetable.
You cannot rush it, or force clarity to arrive before it is ready. Because when we do, when we try to rebuild our lives too quickly without allowing the time for reflection and change, the foundations often feel shaky later on. And they’re much more likely to crumble.
Where’s the good news?!
This stage is not wasted time.
It’s where identities begin to shift. It’s where old assumptions loosen their grip. New understanding slowly and subtly starts to form, even if you can’t see it yet.
The work of this stage is not to figure everything out - the work is to stay present with yourself whilst things are unfolding.
That might mean listening more closely to your own needs. Paying attention to small signals. Allowing space for rest, reflection, and curiosity, even when you feel impatient to move forward.
You might notice small hints of what is coming next. A new interest, a different perspective on life. A gentle pull in a direction you hadn’t considered before.
These signals often arrive slowly, and they need time to grow.
If you’re in this space right now, be kind to yourself. Speak to yourself with patience rather than pressure. Trust that this period, however uncomfortable it feels, is part of a larger process of change.
You are not stuck - you are in the middle of becoming.
And although it may not feel like it today, this stage will pass.
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This is one stage within what I call the life transition spiral, a way of mapping the different phases we often move through when something in our life is shifting.
If you want to understand how this stage fits into the wider process, you might find it helpful to read the earlier stage, the Descent:
The next stage in this series, the Threshold, explores what begins to emerge when the in-between starts to shift.