Being versus Doing: Conflating Identity with Occupation

MINDFUL VOICE

Imagine I'm standing in line and strike up a conversation with the stranger next to me. When the conversation progresses to the point of introducing myself, what is the first thing I say? My name? OK, then what? I'd make a pretty confident bet that the next thing out of my mouth is something along the lines of "and I'm a singing teacher." In our society, our profession is nearly inseparable from our identity. We say things such as, "I am a singing teacher," instead of "I teach singing lessons." Setting aside the possible argument that I am merely choosing simpler language, it seems more likely that it is indicative of a condition in which my profession is who I am, not just what I do.

This condition is pervasive, at least in Western cultures, and certainly not unique to our profession. But, our profession was uniquely positioned to suffer the consequences of this condition over the past year and a half as what we do, and therein who we are was brought to a screeching halt by the SARS CoV-2 virus. The tremendous efforts to move online notwithstanding, we had to grapple with being told that we could not do what had been doing. It was up to us to adapt, or not. For those of us who are singing teachers, that message was akin to being told to change our identity, or stop being. It presented nothing short of an existential crisis.

To its great credit, NATS has reacted impressively to support teachers and students through this period. Similarly, individuals have selflessly committed countless hours to developing and sharing strategies for adapting studios in a truly remarkable show of cooperative compassion. Nonetheless, the pandemic-related disruption in employment and occupation has taken a significant toll on mental health in the United States. Indeed, nearly 4 in 10 adults in the United States have reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression during the pandemic.¹ That is a four-fold increase over those reporting similar symptoms in the first half of 2019.² Nationwide, our correlation of self-identity and occupation predisposed us to greater mental health impacts when our occupations were disrupted. While industry specific data are not available for teachers of singing, we are certainly not immune to these conditions.

ENMESHMENT

As it has done in countless arenas, in this regard the pandemic only exacerbated an already existing condition. A 2019 study investigating workplace burnout among millennials found that nearly 70% of the 2,059 respondents identified themselves only through their job.³ That is, those respondents were unable to conceive of a selfidentity outside of their occupation. Entire psychology practices are now being devoted solely to helping individuals navigate the mental health impacts of career/life balance. A psychologist at one such practice, Janna Koretz, has drawn a parallel between our relationship with our jobs and our relationships with other people, borrowing the term enmeshment.⁴

In family and relationship psychology, enmeshment refers to an unhealthy condition in which boundaries between two or more individuals become blurred, causing individuals in these relationship to lose sight of their own identity.⁵ They can exist only within the context of that relationship. It isn't a stretch to see how this concept can apply to how we interact with our careers. If we identify solely as our occupation, if we are enmeshed with our career, we risk relinquishing balance in our personal psychological well-being. Koretz suggests the following questions to help investigate your own degree of enmeshment with your career:

1. 1. How much do you think about your job outside of the office? Is your mind frequently consumed with workrelated thoughts? Is it difficult to participate in conversations with others that are not about your work?

2. 2. How do you describe yourself? How much of this description is tied up in your job, title, or company? Are there any other ways you would describe yourself? How quickly do you tell people you've just met about your job?

3. 3. Where do you spend most of your...