January 29, 2009
Transitions
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges
(Revised 25th Anniversary Edition)
The Career Transitions group at my church was working with this book and I found it very helpful. Bridges distinguishes between changes- a shift in one’s situation- moving, new job, marriage, divorce, death of family member etc. and transition- the psychological reactions one goes through as a result of the change. He studied how various traditional cultures structure rites of passage to help people move through transitions, and notes that they are often much better at dealing with these things than our seemingly advanced modern culture. He explains how we go through a 3 stage of transition process- Ending, Neutral Zone in which you are in neither one stage or another and feeling lost, and Beginning. This book is relevant to people in many different life situations and so you can return to it again when going through another transition for more insight. It really helped me make sense of many of my experiences and feel less lost and confused.
-On a another note, I find it rather apt that the author is named “Bridges”. Coincidence or no?
