Why liminal spaces are your brain’s secret laboratory
- Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes that liminal spaces — those uncertain and disorienting “in-between” stages of life — can open up powerful opportunities for growth.
- They can heighten learning, creativity, self-discovery, and resilience by pushing the brain beyond routine patterns.
- The key is flipping from anxiety to curiosity through reframing, questioning, and small experiments.
When I was finishing university, I was so anxious about what came next that I started applying for jobs an entire year before graduation. When I left a big tech job, I threw myself straight into a startup. I rushed into new relationships after breakups, or into the next project as soon as the previous one ended.
I’ve often filled the gaps too quickly, because the in-between felt impossible to sit with. And I know I’m not the only one.
Maybe you’ve left a job without knowing what’s next, moved to a new city, or found yourself in that strange territory after a relationship ends.
These moments are destabilizing. You’re standing in the hallway between who you were and who you’re becoming. Your brain screams for certainty, for solid ground, for the familiar rhythms of a life you understand.
What if I told you that this discomfort isn’t a bug in your psychology, but a feature?
These uncomfortable in-between spaces have a name in anthropology: liminal spaces. And they’re not just inevitable parts of life. They can be a laboratory for transformation, creativity, and growth.
The uncomfortable in-between
The word “liminal” comes from the Latin limen, which means “threshold.” Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep first described liminal spaces in 1909 as the middle phase of rites of passage, that ambiguous period when we leave an old identity behind but haven’t yet stepped into a new one.
Liminal spaces change how the brain processes information. The anterior cingulate cortex, your brain’s conflict detector, becomes hyperactive in ambiguous situations. Meanwhile, your amygdala starts firing warning signals about potential threats lurking in the unknown.
This neurological response evolved to keep our ancestors alive in genuinely dangerous situations. But in modern liminal spaces, it often backfires, creating anxiety about changes that could actually be opportunities for growth.
The key insight is that uncertainty itself isn’t inherently negative — it’s simply ambiguous information that our brains need to process — and that liminal spaces offer unique cognitive benefits that aren’t available during periods of stability:
- Learning: Your brain pays intense attention to new information when it can’t predict what’s coming next, making liminal spaces ideal for learning.
- Creativity and problem-solving: When your usual assumptions are suspended, your brain makes novel connections you’d normally miss.
- Self-discovery: Escaping the constraints of your usual self-concept when you’re between roles or life phases allows you to experiment with aspects of your identity that might have remained dormant in more stable times.
- Resilience: Each time you successfully navigate a liminal space, you develop uncertainty tolerance, the ability to remain functional even when you can’t predict outcomes.
But these benefits aren’t automatic. You need to actively shift how you respond to uncertainty.
How to flip the switch
The key to leveraging liminal spaces lies in what I call the anxiety-curiosity switch. Both anxiety and curiosity are responses to uncertainty, but they lead to very different outcomes.
Anxiety narrows your focus to eliminate uncertainty as quickly as possible. Curiosity expands it to explore what the uncertainty might reveal.
Research shows that curiosity and anxiety activate similar brain regions, with an important difference: In anxiety, these regions prioritize threat detection; in curiosity, they support exploration and learning.
And flipping the switch is a learnable skill. Here are three evidence-based practices that can help you transform uncertainty from threat into opportunity:
1. Cognitive reappraisal: Reframe the narrative. Instead of viewing liminal spaces as something to escape, practice reframing them as a laboratory for discovery. When you catch yourself thinking “I hate not knowing what’s next,” try “I wonder what this transition might teach me.” This form of cognitive reappraisal will reduce activity in the amygdala while increasing activity in prefrontal regions associated with executive control.
2. Generative questioning: Become a detective. Transform uncertainty from something that happens to you into something you actively investigate. Instead of asking “Why is this happening to me?” try “What possibilities am I not seeing yet?” Switching to generative questions shifts your brain toward discovery rather than threat detection.
3. Personal experimentation: Conduct tiny experiments. Try a new habit or activity for a short trial period – a week of morning writing, or solo lunch somewhere new every Tuesday. This experimental mindset satisfies your brain’s need for action while keeping your approach to uncertainty exploratory.
In a world where skills, relationships, and even identities change faster than ever, the ability to thrive in liminal spaces is essential.
So the next time you find yourself in that uncomfortable hallway between what was and what might be, remember: You’re not lost. You’re standing at the threshold of transformation, in a space designed by evolution to help you grow.
Your brain is already equipped with everything it needs for this transformation. All that’s required is the courage to flip the switch.
