The Dog Who Taught Me to Stop Hovering Over Life
Last week, I hovered my mouse over the “Join Meeting” button on a Zoom call like it was a detonator.
It was just a check-in.
Nothing high-stakes.
And yet. Right before I clicked, that familiar surge hit.
The kind that shows up right before something begins.
The threshold moment.
My heart sped up.
My mind started rehearsing every possible awkward thing I might say.
And I sat there, frozen, cursor trembling over a blue button.
So I tried something I have been working with lately.
I leaned back.
I took my hand off the mouse.
Then I asked the question out loud, not in my head.
“What is the first sign the world gives me?”
The strangest part was how fast it answered.
My dog, who had been asleep for an hour, lifted his head.
Looked at me.
And let out a single, dramatic sigh.
The kind that says, “You’re fine. Relax.”
And I actually laughed.
Because it was not about “meaning” in some mystical, poetic way.
It was a reply.
A first sign.
Something outside my head, meeting me in the middle of the moment.
So yeah, I clicked “Join.”
Not because the dog delivered a lecture.
But because the world answered back, and I was not alone in the moment anymore.
The Liminal Question: How to Turn Transition Anxiety Into Participation
Here is a special kind of anxiety that spikes right at transitions.
Right before something starts.
It feels like standing at the edge of an in-between, knowing you cannot stay there.
The fix is not more thinking.
The fix is a different kind of reply.
This is a practice you can do at a threshold.
A doorway. A window.
The edge of your bed.
The moment right before a task begins.
Think liminal space.
Step 1: Go to the threshold.
Step 2: Ask, out loud or silently, “What is the world trying to show me right now?”
Step 3: Let the first symbol, sound, or sensation be the answer.
A bird call.
A car horn.
A flicker of light.
A feeling in your chest.
Do not analyze it.
Just receive it.
Step 4: Take one tiny action based on that sign.
A breath.
A word written down.
A gesture.
A single step forward.
That’s it.
This practice dissolves anxiety by restoring the sense that the world is responsive.
You are not shouting into a void.
You are in a conversation.
And when you treat the world like it can reply, your nervous system changes the channel.
It stops treating the in-between as danger.
It starts treating it as a place where participation is possible.
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