Finding the Fertile Void
Transition tests all of us differently. However capable or composed we might normally feel, moving from something familiar towards something not yet known can be disorientating – not because anything has gone wrong, but simply because we are in-between: no longer quite where we were, not yet where we're headed to.
That in-between space often gets rushed through. We paper over it with busyness, or resolve it too quickly with decisions made before we're really ready, keen to feel settled again. Yet there's a case, I think, for staying with it a little longer than feels comfortable.
The Fertile Void
Several years ago, I came across the term "the fertile void" in a newspaper column, and it stopped me in my tracks. It felt timely, echoing conversations I'd been having with coaching colleagues about the value of reflexivity and of doing less during periods of transition.
The fertile void is a term first coined by Fritz Perls* to describe a space in which we accept and enter 'nothingness', or as he put it, 'no-thingness'. The closer we come to simply being, without needing to know or control what happens next, the closer we come to creativity and possibility, finding fresh opportunities within constraints we didn't choose. This is often where genuine innovation and creativity emerge: not despite the discomfort of not-knowing, but because of it.
The newspaper column also referred to the work of psychotherapist Julia Samuel, who writes about the importance of giving ourselves space between our old and new selves. In her book This Too Shall Pass**, she describes the fertile void as "a neutral zone of uncertainty that is uncomfortable or even crazy-making." I like this description, because it doesn't ask us to sit in a zen-like state, or in denial, but instead invites us to notice the discomfort and adapt around it.
As Gestalt practitioners*** often remind us, change is constant. What we resist tends to persist; what we allow tends to move.
I recently spoke with someone navigating a significant period of change at work. Rather than rushing to resolve the uncertainty or reach for an immediate answer, he described consciously choosing to sit with it a little longer – to notice what was still unresolved, without needing to fix it straight away. It struck me as a small, deliberate act of staying in the fertile void, much as Julia Samuel describes above.
Over time, as they move through transition, many of the people I speak with settle into a new equilibrium. They set clearer boundaries – around work, rest, and the things that matter most – and often reflect, with real gratitude, on a renewed awareness of their own fragility, and of the value in continuing to step into the fertile void when change asks it of us.
*'Gestalt Therapy Verbatim' – Frederick S. Perls
**'This Too Shall Pass' - Julia Samuel
***'The Fertile Void – Gestalt Coaching at Work' – John Leary-Joyce