Identity Politics? Who Cares…!
Today, it all kicks off.
As world leaders gather in Brazil to set priorities for the planet, and the impacts of climate change reach ever closer to home, it feels like a good time to ask who we think we need to be to feel safe in an increasingly chaotic world.
Who do you think you need to be?
I once read online that I was an activist. My response was light-hearted: “I don’t wear the right type of sandals.”
But deep down, the word unsettled me. I cared deeply about the planet, but protest never felt like my place. I thought it was something I had to be, not something that truly fit.
Many of us inherit stories about who we should be to make a difference. Often these are idealised versions of people that don’t quite sit right within ourselves.
Why should we need to navigate identity politics simply to make choices about what we eat, how we travel, or how we spend our free time?
Identities can help us belong, yet they can also weigh us down. The nervous system knows the difference between authenticity and expectation.
This week, notice how you have been showing up.
Are you acting from alignment, or from a story about who you think you need to be?
Awareness itself begins to shift the pattern.
Over-identification drains energy. Psychologists describe over-identification as the process of merging too tightly with a role, belief, or identity. Research in self-determination theory shows that when our actions come from external pressure rather than intrinsic motivation, wellbeing and resilience decline.
As George Marshall writes in Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change,
“We scan the people around us for social clues to guide our own response.”
This instinct once kept us safe but can now lead us to mirror stress or urgency instead of acting from authenticity.
Recommended reading:
When we release the pressure to live up to an idealised version of who we think we should be, our energy returns.
Authenticity is not self-indulgence; it is efficiency.
