Bump and Noise
April 8, 2026
Laura’s Liminal Bump
May 13, 2026
Lower case liminal change is the process after you have managed a bump in your life and are ready to move on except that there is a lingering “noise” that you can’t ignore. After reflection, you decide to address it by taking a few steps. These actions might be quick adjustments to get back on track, stopping or starting something in your life, or a major overhaul. Changes, even small ones, alter the flow of energy in your life. These steps might be minor revisions or the start of a whole new path on your journey. It is hard to know what the full impact will be until you can look back on the process.
The noise is a feeling or thought that just won’t leave you alone. Listening to it gives you a chance to decide what steps you want to take. You may want to find ways to prevent a similar bump in the future. It could be the impact it had on your relationships or projects. Perhaps dealing with the distraction gave you enough distance from your day-to-day life to realize that you want to follow a different path. Whatever the reason, you decide to take some steps.
Quick Adjustments
These are tiny changes that will allow you to avoid this kind of bump in the future, or respond to it more easily if it happens again. It can be as simple as storing information on your phone or teaching others in your life how they can help. You could clearly communicate to a friend, spouse, or colleague how their actions were, or were not, helpful. Buying or packing a few back-up items might be all you need to do. These quick adjustments to your normal way of functioning may be enough to respond to the noise left over from this bump.
Stop or Start
Reflecting on the noise may urge you to make a more definitive change. You decide to stop or start something to free-up or refill your energy. You may or may not let others know. There are so many ways to start or stop: no more phone calls with a toxic “friend”, the start of walking, deleting an app or adding a new one, throwing out things that don’t serve you or obtaining new ones. Some actions signal big change, others are experiments in living. Beginnings and endings allow you to shift your energy to a new focus.
Cascading Changes
Occasionally a bump results in a wholesale change in your life. You make an adjustment or stop/start a behavior to address the noise. Your energy is focused in a way that allows you to see opportunities. Step by step you begin a new journey. This was not your plan, those first few steps lead to more until you find yourself making a cascade of changes. This can start in one area of life then overflow into other areas. You send out resumes, which leads to moving and building new connections. You decide to address a health challenge which ends up impacting your routines and relationships. You take on a major quest which requires you to level up your skills, knowledge, and strategies changing how you see life. A small bump might result in major shifts in how you use your energy.
The noise left over from a bump that you managed just fine can lead to steps that impact how you manage your energy. The steps can be short and small, a definitive stop or start, or the beginning of a new journey. As you reflect on the noise, you can best decide what level of response makes sense for you. Take the steps you need to manage your journey in a way that makes sense for you at this time in your life.
