You’ll see this when you’re in between phases of life (then never again)

🌙 Between phases of life? That liminal space where you're not who you were but not who you're becoming yet. If you're feeling lost in life or going through a quarter life crisis, this is for you.

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TIMESTAMP
0:00 - Introduction
2:14 - “You're NOT broken"
3:48 - "Every major life transition"
5:55 - "You can't set goals for a destination you can't see yet"
6:50 - “Discipline treats the neutral zone as an enemy"
9:50 - “The body often knows before the mind"
12:07 - “Progress in the neutral zone isn't linear”
12:44 - “First: micro-crafts"
14:54 - “There are things visible from where you're standing"
16:52 - “Once you've arrived in your new life"
19:09 - “You don't have to be okay right now"

💡📚 Here's a curated list of books and research papers that delve deeper into the ideas explored in this video. Some of the links are affiliate links, which help support the channel if you decide to make a purchase.

BOOKS
1/ Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges
https://amzn.to/4jw6QdO
Shows the three‑phase model of transitions—Endings, the Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings.

2/ Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges
https://amzn.to/49mhUXT
Explains why the neutral zone is a confusing yet essential in‑between space.

3/ Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler
https://amzn.to/4ptWFYQ
Explores nonlinear “lifequakes” and shows that change is episodic, messy, and non‑linear.
​
4/ Liminal Thinking by Dave Gray
https://amzn.to/4qPK2Zj
Introduces liminality and thresholds as spaces where assumptions dissolve and new perspectives emerge.
​
5/ Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine by Susan Merrill Squier
https://amzn.to/4pqkDnF
Discusses liminal states and the betwixt‑and‑between nature of identities.
​
6/ Emotional Agility by Susan David
https://amzn.to/4pvqhoG
Argues that turning toward difficult emotions with acceptance and curiosity is key to growth.
​

7/ When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
https://amzn.to/4qaqTRz
Describes groundlessness, uncertainty, and identity collapse as fertile ground for transformation when met with mindful, compassionate attention.

8/ The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments by William Bridges
https://amzn.to/45Hf1hK
Focuses specifically on inhabiting the painful in‑between after loss.

9/ The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
https://amzn.to/4borlqU
Presents small, regular creative practices (like morning pages and artist dates) as tools for recovery and identity renewal.

10/ The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
https://amzn.to/49xEnA0
Shows how the body signals and stores emotional realities and how embodied awareness can guide healing.
​

RESEARCH PAPERS
1/ Adaptive Changes in the Self-Concept During a Life Transition by Brent W. Roberts and Daniel Mroczek
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1...
Examines how self‑concept reorganizes across domains during major life transitions.
​
2/ Negotiating liminality following life transitions: Reflexive bricolage and liminal hotspots by Kathy Hamilton et al.
https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/files/...
Analyzes how people inhabit liminal phases after life transitions.

3/ Neural, genetic, and cognitive signatures of creativity by Roger E. Beaty et al.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4200...
Explores how dopamine‑related and fronto‑striatal systems support flexible, creative cognition.

4/ How Creativity Gently Helps Us Cope With Big Life Transitions by Kelly Lambert et al.
https://originally-southern.com/how-c...
Synthesizes findings that brief hands‑on creative activities reduce stress and support emotional regulation during difficult periods.

5/ What Happens When You No Longer Know Who You Are? Exploring Existential Liminality
by R. J. Starr
https://profrjstarr.com/research-and-...
Conceptualizes existential liminality as a non‑pathological state of suspended selfhood.