The Liminal Experience of Moving Past Mid-Life
“Liminal” is a word I have to look up whenever I contemplate using it, which seems to happen more and more frequently as I age, now in my sixties. I’ve Googled pictures of “liminal spaces.” Empty lots, elevators, stairways, airports, terminals, and doorways often represent them.
Merriam-Webster defines “liminal” as “of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold: barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response. liminal visual stimuli. 2. : of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition: in-between, transitional.”
I read the book Liminal Thinking by Dave Gray and understood–with some difficulty– that liminal thinking is the in-between spaces where we can change our beliefs. But I still have trouble getting the word's meaning to stick in my head.
Unlocking Life's Transition Zones
I probably have trouble understanding the word because it is a word about subtleties. Faint. Invisible. Slight. Those are synonyms.
I was even tempted at one point to name my coaching business “Liminal” something. I decided against that. If I didn’t feel comfortable with the word “liminal” or fully understand its meaning, you might not either
What attracts me to the word is precisely that intangible flavor. And, of course, that sense of “in-between” closely matches how I feel about life in my sixties. I am clearly no longer mid-life (no matter what age I reasonably estimate my death to occur), and yet the idea of being an “elder” or “elderly” doesn’t seem appropriate either. Yet.
Embrace Change: Thriving in the Liminal Spaces of Your Sixties
This liminal living sometimes seems daunting in the way of following a steep path up a mountain without a clear understanding of where it leads makes me feel. AND it seems exciting because I have followed very well-traveled paths of education, career, and family for most of my life.
This in-between state seems like my best shot at doing what I want instead of what is expected of me, even if the way forward is uncertain. Sometimes, I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place.
Embracing the In-Between
Liminal space feels more vulnerable. AND change seems more possible in that intermediate state.
How do liminal spaces make you feel? How does this lifetime feel like “liminal living” to you?
#LiminalLiving #NavigatingYourSixties #EmbraceChange #agingwell