What would our written world be today without the spacebar? Rather confusing and meaningless I would guess. Look at this sentence: Itisdifficulttounderstanditandyougettiredofreadin gverysoon.Youdoofcoursemanagetocomprehend,buttherearesomanylettersthatmakeyuconfused.

Transitional Space

The same principle applies for all our actions and reactions in our daily life. We need enough space to make life really meaningful. This psychological form of space separates the chain of events from each other. It gives us an opportunity to anchor our different chores in ourselves, and overview the situation we find ourselves in.

– When Space disappears

Most of us have days with few spaces to breathe in. Very easily the day becomes too narrow, already from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to bed, answering the last emails, or updating us on facebook in bed. It’s almost as if we are forced into a sweater, blouse or shirt that is too small for our bodies, and that simply does not give room for us.

Is this how our daily life feels like?

We try to push and pull slightly in the sweater, while running off, but with no effect at all. It’s impossible to stretch time! We must get out of bed, into the bathroom, grab our kids, take our teen out of sleep, making breakfast, preparing packed lunches. Responding mother’s call about the old man who has fallen down the stairs again. Then it’s dropping in the cat, and out walking the dog.

– The unstoppable chain of events

Everybody forward on the starting line now; Up on the bike, out in the car. We must catch the bus, train, ferry, boat, plane, kindergarten, work, school university – we must catch life itself. Even those who have lost their jobs, feel this,- working full time to acquire new, or must have four odd jobs, to get food and pay the rent for living.

– Emptyness

When everything stops and we get home, – on sick pay, social security, or nothing, the entire life’s a space. This time gap feels just useless, empty and lonely. Too big for us really. Yet too cramped. It seems that everything of any value happens out there!

– Action and rest

If you are a top athlete, or only want to get fit, you must “lie down on the bench” after a long workout to rest. If not, the exercises will not work. Exercise is supposed to build muscles and strength. But without resting afterwards monomaniac intense exercise will break your body down. Soon she must put down her weight dumbells and rest on the bench

The catabolic processes, that valiant effort, must be compensated with anabolic processes, which rebuilds cells and expands muscle tissue.

A bridge in “the forbidden city” of Bejing.

Transitional Space, Potential Space and Psychological Space

Psychological space, is neither in the exercise activity, the action or in the rest! It is a third form of state between the two opposites forms of activity. Psychological Space can appear as a possibility on the  bridge between  two opposites.

An imaginary fantasy bridge in Amsterdam

 Psychological space is the difference. The difference between action and inaction, effort and rest, wakefulness and sleep, habit acts and originality. A bridge of awareness of being present in our life. A bridge where you can sense, think and reflect on what’s going on.

The collapse of time

Without transitional spaces, time itself changes. It seems to shrink as well, until it somewhat disappears, without making us able to be present in it. Then also our psychological universe contracts. There is no room, to sense and to know how we are. Or to listen to life that buzzes in and outside us.

Those who meditate creates a space in the queue of tasks. Those who sit on the bus and just close their eyes, or let the landscape be gliding past, without being online on any gadgets, also creates a space. Not necessarily a psychological space, but a transitional space, or potential space for psychological awareness.

The ride on the ferry provides transitional Space.

The same applies for the train or ferry. The picture above shows a ferry that glides quietly out from the pier. The ferry can stand as an image of the space, often between home and work in the morning, and job and home in the afternoon.

On the ferry, or the train you can take your morning coffee with waffles, maybe read the newspaper in peace and quiet, just enjoying the view, or you can stroll on the deck and smell the ocean, sea or the boat’s oily metal. Meanwhile knowing that right now, and for twenty minutes, it’s only here on the ferry you should be.

On the Shinkhansen bullet train i Japan

The universe is mostly space

The universe from micro to macro cosmos consists mostly of space. It’s an awesome distance between the nuclei of protons and neutrons, and the electrons floating around. The same applies to objects in the solar system and the stars and galaxies in outer space.

But even what we call the empty space is not completely empty. There is always something there, if only slight variations in the weak background radiation of the universe’s birth.

Of course, it’s not completely empty psychologically either, in the space we create for ourselves on the ferry, bus, train. or on the couch after work.

Body sensations, mind feelings, fleeting thoughts, images and associations cannot be removed without special meditative techniques. In this connection, I don’t think that we need to remove them either. We can let them have our inner attention almost like our children, eager to eventually receive our attention after a long time’s absence.

Winnicotts concept of potential space

Psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott, used the concept “potential space” as a name on the gap between a child’s inner world and the established reality outside the child. In this space, the child has the opportunity to build a bridge between itself and the outside world. Therefore, the phenomenon was given the concept “potential space”.

Potential Space is a  Psychological Space that enables the child to build a relatively smooth psychological bridge between inner life and the environment. The span of the bridge is so to speak held up by the child’s play and imagination.

It is necessary for the safe development of the child to have this psychological space. It functions not unlike the teddy bear(by Winnicott called “transitional object”). That is, it makes the child’s transition to the more intrusive external physical and cultural reality, more sliding and smooth. This external world implies a certain non-negotiable imperative, that the child eventually must subordinate itself.

For the philosopher Martin Buber, this gap was interpreted as the interpersonal space crucial for developing humans into responsible and moral individuals in the society.

To summon up this rather complex concept: Transitional Space and potential space is derived from Winnicott thinking that we live in three worlds; – the inner, the outer and the transition and space between them.

Smooth transitions.

I often think about how it is when we are born. Then we are commuting between deep sleep, light sleep, mindful alertness, motor active wakefulness, and weep.

In the first period of our lives, it is vital that we are piloted or helped carefully and gently through these transitions in consciousness. Otherwise, we easily get troubled, stressed and overwhelmed. This is so because we do not yet have the older child’s more established and balanced nervous system. Therefore abrupt transitions will trigger too many stress hormones, that affects the entire psyche and body negatively.

For grown ups these transitions are still important to pay attention to. Primarily when we are in our daily commuting between sleep and wakefulness, activity and rest. Likewise when we go from action inside, to action outside, making movements here and there, from meeting to meeting, from rural to city, – from effort to rest. Actually when we are in constant transit.

It’s also important to pause, and “seize the moment”,  when we are typing or keying along on our Macs and pc-s, iPhones, and Smartphones. Click click click click click. -> Send!

Lack of Transitonal and Psychological Space makes us stressed.

According to APA, the American Psychological Association 24% of Americans are experiencing extreme stress daily.75% of Americans experience moderate to high stress. And for one of every 75 Americans there is a person with panic attacks.

Lunch break has always been a diversion, a recess, or a space for resetting ourselves. But in Norway 44% of Norwegian workers feel stress during lunch break.

Lunch is not always free from stress.

Think of the spacebar next time you write something at work, or home or send an e-mail or sms to somebody. Your life is like letters in the words of a sentence. It needs the space between chains of events to be meaningful.

Psychological space that enables you to see and to sense yourself in the chains of events of your daily life, – is the only way to give you the possibility to choose your own life!

That is, by the way, – a main trait that separates a pre-programmed robot, from a reflecting human being!