Life Transitions: The Space Between What Was and What’s Next

Transitions

Some transitions are easy to name: a promotion, moving for a job, getting a mortgage, getting married.

That’s not to say they’re without challenge. But the path is usually laid out—and often chosen.

Planned. Prepared for. Executed.

They’re enjoyable, celebrated, recognised by society as a natural progression.

Then there are transitions that are messier.

Some come with an acknowledged sense of hardship: divorce, losing your job, losing your home.

And then there are those that aren’t as widely acknowledged but are just as confusing and difficult: losing meaning after success, changing careers, becoming a mother.

Across all transitions—those that are celebrated and fluid, those marked by recognised hardship, and those that carry invisible hardship—there are different levels of challenge, shame, and social acknowledgement.

Sometimes people don’t even realise they’re in transition. They know something has ended, but the next step isn’t clear. It can feel like no man’s land.

You may cross paths with someone who has experienced something similar, yet the disorientation and uncertainty remain unacknowledged and unritualised. Without language or recognition, it’s harder to locate yourself in the experience.

The “get on with it” attitude, and the lack of recognition of vulnerability, can be dangerous.

Because in this period, it’s not only life that changes or is lost—but identity too.

This space takes time.

It can be scary.

It’s unsettling.

And rebuilding isn’t linear.

Take time. Take space.

There is no clock on becoming—only movement, when it’s ready.