4 Ways Embracing Your Identity Can Find Your Freedom
“4 Ways Embracing Your Identity Can Find Your Freedom” on a pink background with the bottom half of a gradient ring coming into the center. “Can Find Your Freedom” is in cursive font.
Identity is hard. It is a phrase to sum up all your lived experience so that people know your unique position in society. Many times, it is given to you. Someone looks at you and determines who you are. Sometimes, nobody knows your identity because there is no representation of it through their interaction with you. It is complex when you consider all the social, economical, political, historical, and cultural narrative that influence the conversation. And there are so many perspectives.
While people can try to determine your identity, how you decided to identify yourself is yours. It is a constant learning process but it is yours to take. You only have the information you know, you may identify one way and learn something that sparked that shift, whether it is positive like learning about a label that is more aligned or realizing that the label you once chose may not be the identity you move forward with due to word choice.
There is some freedom in finally feeling like you can put a name to a feeling. I remember what it was like to learn about the definition of asexual and the romantic spectrum that finally explains my confusion on how I was feeling since junior high. Saying that I identify as asexual and pans-romantic as my sexuality was liberating. Identity can provide a path to self-acceptance and confidence, especially if the feelings have been swimming around you for so long.
Finding and embracing your identity can
Help you find what you need for YOU. Whether it is assistance with disability or meeting emotional needs, it can guide you in determining what you need from yourself and others.
Find connections and your communities. While your experience is unique, there is also the collective experience that can make the experience less isolating. You can exist in more than one since intersectionality exists.
Learn more about yourself. The journey to learning and accepting your identity also comes with learning about your options, the people you surround yourself with, where you are in the society we live in. It can also take you to resources and activities to guide that process as well.
Have the confidence to move forward. There is a certain level of confidence that comes with “Hi, this is my name and I identify as…” It may not seem like it but if you made the decision by embracing your identities, there is confidence there, especially if it is difficult to embrace certain identities in different societies.
I am a deaf and disabled woman who experiences absolutely no sexual attraction (so far, I could be demi) but romantic attraction is 100% there. The journey and confidence for me to say that took quite a bit of my life so far.
I respect Deaf Culture too much to not identify as Deaf but I cannot hear enough to comfortably mention hard of hearing so deaf was the answer. Disabled was accepted once I realized the chronic pain was here to stay. I could say I have a disability, but reclaiming disabled identity fits perfectly for me. While I may only feel like this due to having a menstrual cycle, I do identify as a woman. And my sexuality was found through a friend telling me the definition sparking relief and realization of how I have been feeling about it.
This was a journey and I now have the confidence to say my identity and feel happy and excited on what to come. I have found communities and recognize how my intersectionality impacts how I experience and interact in this world. Now, I can just be me and keep learning about myself. Identity is a powerful thing. Let’s move it into a positive direction where it is liberating to embrace and feel the identity.
Amanda