Liminal period
uncertainty is shitty but important
““It’s all part of the process.””
Whenever she says this, a part of me wants to punch a wall or at least roll my eyes. Unfortunately though, uncertainty is part of the process, even though I wish I could just skip through the shitty parts like a Youtube video.
When I first came across a concept called a ‘liminal period’, I felt relieved. Why? Because it finally gave me a way to describe what I’m feeling. (Still feeling…)
The root of the word comes from the latin word ‘threshold’, describing the in-between space between one phase to another. So like the airports and train stations of your life.
First coined in the early 1900s by Arnold Van Gennep, a French anthropologist and ethnographer, as a way to describe rites of passage. He separated it into three main phases[1]:
Rites of Separation
Rights of Transition or margin; limen
Rites of Incorporation
If you’re reading in chronological order from the first post in this blog, then you’ll know that the first phase, separation, is where we are currently. It’s kind after the “oh shit why do I hate the thing I’ve been working so hard to get to” and then like the void after.
There’s a lot of emotional floundering, angst and freaking out about what to do now that you’re thrashing in the void. The past few posts about may help systematically sort through that.
Stepping out and seriously exploring possible careers was my way of trying to push myself from separation into transition.
I’m putting this reminder here because frankly, I need it all the time because I’m a complete asshole to myself.
Don’t beat yourself up if it takes a long time.
I’ve tried and failed to speed up this process (and is still firmly stuck in the second phase). But we’ll get there.
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-S
References:
[1] B.A. Babcock, Liminality, Editor(s): Neil J. Smelser, Paul B. Baltes, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Pergamon, 2001, Pages 8862-8864, ISBN 9780080430768.
[2] Interesting article on career uncertainty during COVID-19 that also touches on the liminal period.
[3] The Rites of Passage by Arnold Van Gennep; access via Internet Archive. Disclaimer, I did not read this.
Image credit: Pixabay - user ID 12659751