Liminal Emotions

Professor and economist Herminia Ibarra observes that “The in-between period is the crucible in which people and organizations forge new possibilities.”

There are times in our lives when we all feel we are in an “in-between” place. Between relationships, jobs, sickness and health, and places to call home.

Another word for those kinds of situations is “liminal.”

A liminal space is similar to when we’re in a terminal of an airport – we find ourselves between departure and arrival.

Bruce Feiler is a researcher and author of New York Times bestselling books. In 2008 he was diagnosed with a very rare type of bone cancer that doctors believed would most likely take his life. Miraculously, Bruce fully recovered.

Feeler wrote a book about overcoming cancer and then studied people who enter liminal spaces and times in their lives. He discovered these liminal times, or disruptors and transitions as he called them, usually occur every 12–18 months and that 90% of us emerge successfully and in the process discover new aspects about ourselves and new possibilities in our lives.

Liminal spaces can be disorienting, frustrating, and even scary. We wonder how long they will last and where they will take us. But Feiler helpfully reminds us 9 out of 10 times we emerge successfully. Maybe we can embrace those overwhelmingly positive odds and trust the liminal space, waiting in hope and expectation for what waits at the other side of the threshold.