Five Steps to Embracing your Identity

Our identities are constantly evolving. Some identities we hold onto, while others are transformed into another version of what we use to be. Creating and maintaining an identity takes time and self-awareness and the willingness to share what it is we truly believe about the world. Our identities can be self-proclaimed, while others are given to us. We can let our professions and gender rule the majority of who we are to the outside world, however, it is the personal identity we give ourselves that may transform our lives.

                     Here are five steps to understand and embracing your identity

1)      Recognize the identity: Understand what it is that you are identifying with. Is it a personal choice? Is it what has been assigned to you? Do your research-how are others dealing with it? 

2)      Acknowledge the stage you are at: How do you feel about this identity? Is it a new change in your life? For instance, are you a new parent? Have you had a career change? Have you been diagnosed with a severe illness? Or, has it always been there and you are now coming to terms with it?

 

3)      Identify your emotions: Some identities can make us feel proud, such as being a new parent or holding a prestigious position that you now identify with. Other identities may have been hidden due to negative reactions from others, or even how it is perceived to society. It is important to identify how you feel so you can overcome any difficulties that you may associate with it. You have to encourage yourself to feel what it is your are feeling, rather than what others expect you to feel. 

4)      Create your own label(s) for your identity: Once you understand what it is your identifying with, don’t feel the need to give it a name. If you must, create your own label that makes sense to you. It is about how you feel about the label you give yourself, not what others label you.

5)      Embrace your identity to the fullest: Creating identities helps us to know one another so that we may get to understand each other better, not despise. Love who you are and what you are becoming.

 

Identities help shape our world around us. With self-awareness and mindfulness, we can co-exist peacefully and accept ourselves and each other for who we are.