In this dynamic conversation, Dani and Erin interview author, artist, and content creator Chuck Copenspire about the collective, and fluid, experience of identity. Chuck shares his wisdom as a creative thinker, as queer trans man, as a parent, as a person who has held many identities in career and otherwise - and is currently going through multiple major life and identity transitions. We dive into so many facets of what it means to both claim certain identities as acts of reclamation in self-discovery, and also accept how they can (and most often do) change throughout our lives. Touching on elements of ego, the survival self, queer identity, spirituality, gender identity, sexual identity, identity in career as entrepreneurs and employees, as parents, as people with mental illness, disabilities, and neurodivergence (with mis-diagnoses and late diagnoses), we also explore how all of these can be fluid. We provide examples, context, and supportive resources for anyone grappling with identity in any form, or for those curious about what it means to embrace, or shift, pieces of identity with trust, self-acceptance, and empowerment.

Key highlights:

• Regulation and self-validation are key pieces to accessing different parts of identity, and being receptive and open to shifting identities, while recognizing that it can serve us to unwaveringly identify with true core parts of ourselves as a part of integration

• External perception and conditioning often drive identity until we decide to influence and discover for ourselves what pieces of identity feel true for us, which can be a lifelong unfolding process

• Accepting and embracing changes in identity often comes with reckoning with grief, resistance, shame, fear, and the versions of ourselves we thought we would be - and why we deserve support for processing these pieces

• Impermanence and fluidity are a part of our reality because we are humans, and part of reconciling with non-attachment and identity is supported by reconnecting with the cycles of Earth and the natural world

• Endings or changes in identity don’t have to be perceived as failures, because they are just transitions, and new beginnings

How to reach Chuck Copenspire: https://magicalweirdo.com and @magicalwierdochuck 

Find episode resources on our website: https://beinginpracticepodcast.com/