Transition

Transition

Posted by Ashley Hoover

One of the things we talked about at SPLICE was transition; it's different stages and how we go through it. Transition is:  

"The experience of the gradual, psychological reorientation process that happens inside us as we respond and adapt to the external change. Transition often results from a change, but it may also be triggered by the news that a change is imminent and, so, start before the change actually takes place. (William Bridges)

Our instructors used a bridge to help illustrate the different stages of transition all of the feelings, emotions and personal reactions we can experience as we go through each stage.

The words are emotions we might feel

The Settled Stage:
This is normal life as we've always known it. Here we are comfortable, we feel like we belong and fit in with our group of friends and are committed to those relationships. We feel very safe and secure in this stage.

The Unsettling Stage:
In this stage we are beginning to pull up roots. This includes many things, goodbye's, packing up, etc. Many emotions begin to surface such as sadness, even grief over what will be left behind, stress, some confusion, we can begin to pull away from relationships trying to protect ourselves from the hurt we know will come with saying goodbye, and many others.

The Chaos Stage:
Undoubtedly this is the one most people might think would be the hardest. You have no roots anywhere, might not know exactly what is happening around you, you might feel alone and like no one understands. I won't deny that this is not a hard stage but for me personally I think maybe the Unsettled Stage is even harder because I'm also dealing with the anticipation of what Chaos will be and everything that goes along with it. Probably right now in my life I'm somewhere between Unsettled and Chaos. I'm not really sure where the line is drawn between the two.


The Re-settling Stage:
Here we begin to put roots back down in the new location. (could be another State, country, culture, etc.) Some thing we might feel are insecurity, thinking of missions and me personally, insecurity in my own ability to function "normally" in a new place. We can still feel isolated and alone not having yet formed solid relationships with new people. Somewhat clueless about how things are done and just how to live in a foreign place.


The Newly Settled Stage:
Eventually we get to what I suppose is the new "normal" as we are newly settled in another place.We have real friendships, understand how life works, we feel secure in our ability to get around, communicate, etc.










In each of these stages also affects how we view God, His presence, help, comfort, guidance, love and probably countless other things. As we wrestle with different emotions that come with transition and cry out to God to help us through it we can learn to grow through the hard times and understand Him in a deeper way.

"The transitional experience begins with the encounter of another culture and evolves into the encounter with self." (Peter Adler)

Another way to illustrate transition.