Cultivating Self-Worth in a Capitalist System

There’s a big conversation brewing in our communities, a topic to describe the feeling of inadequacy regardless of rest or productivity: internalized capitalism. Internalized capitalism links self-worth with productivity, creating an inescapable and damaging hyper-focus on individual optimization, deliverables over wellbeing, and overemphasis on career advancement as a measure of success.

The internalization of capitalist values means that individuals accept capitalist values as their own, often without realizing it, despite valuing things such as wellbeing, belonging, and equity over profit, productivity, and competition. Capitalism is the water we swim in, touching all aspects of our lives, and creating environments to ensure we–the fish–go with the flow, so it’s no surprise if you’ve experienced internalized capitalism. Like internalized sexism, internalized homophobia, and a whole bunch of other terms to describe oppressive systems we live in, these systems can be difficult to recognize unless we examine our biases.

We know (because we’ve seen) that internalized capitalism deeply impacts the creative community. Choosing to pursue a path that both fuels your passions and your bank account can bring up conflicting experiences and challenging beliefs in a capitalist system. We’re here to show you what we’ve learned about how to prioritize your self-worth within the context of capitalism. We’ll bust some internalized beliefs, help you set new and healthy expectations, and start to build the future we want to see together. Ready? Let’s dig in.

1. We can’t self-optimize or self-help ourselves out of oppressive systems.

Blaming ourselves for experiencing the real effects of burnout, putting profits over people, and idealization of overconsumption is simply gaslighting and capitalism in effect, especially for marginalized communities who bear an inequitable weight of the impact. Self-optimization, the belief that focusing on habits and productivity alone leads to success, is trending, but an overemphasis on ‘healthy habits’ and individualism puts the weight of an entire system back on each individual, further oppressing those who do not have access to abundant resources due to the privatization of goods in a capitalist system. This kind of overemphasis on individual responsibility can lead us to feel worthless when we experience the effects of capitalism, blaming ourselves for not being able to be productive, self-optimized, or perfect.

Instead, learn to practice community care. Dismantling capitalist beliefs and systems requires our interdependence and the decentralization of goods and resources. By recognizing and honoring the humanity in all of us, we can witness our inherent worth. Share and give to mutual aid efforts, donate goods and resources when you can, and spend time familiarizing yourself with the people in your own communities. Receive from these resources when needed. Isolation only serves to divide us, and there is magic in gathering with your communities (safely, and in accordance with COVID-19 protocols). Check out You Belong Here’s calendar of events if you’re not sure where to get started!

2. Leave room for self-care and rest.

While self-optimization isn’t the answer to capitalism, it is important to hold space for you and your community to be well-resourced and well-rested as much as you can. As Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Capitalist values trace back to the Calvinist belief that hard work leads to salvation. As a creative, it’s likely your creativity is a form of salvation. In reality, an overemphasis on hard work often leads to deliverables (or more often burnout), not wellness or care.

You can be both ‘productive’ and well, but perhaps consider what life would look like if your productivity and your wellness didn’t have to compete. Your self-worth can come from an internal place, one of knowing yourself–your likes, your values, your joys, your needs–rather than an external creation. We suggest taking time to reimagine what you would like your wellness to look like, feel like, sound like, and make decisions from there. How can you take a step toward that future today? Let us know if we can help you bring an event or project to life!

3. Understand valuing yourself is the greatest wealth.

Living in a capitalist system can lead to us experiencing the urge to monetize every hobby, interest, or idea as a way to feel valued by our communities and/or just to make ends meet in a system that has privatized resources for populations with privilege. On the other hand, some folks on their anti-capitalist journey may experience the urge to demonetize every good or service they produce as a way to assert themselves against our exploitative economic system and/or because of the capitalist system historically devaluing their labor. Overmonetizing can lead to mounting expectations of productivity and burnout, while undercharging can lead to financial insecurity.

Though these are the most common mindsets around value and monetiziation, there can be a healthy intersection somewhere in the middle that feels comfortable to you. You don’t have to fall into this binary all-or-nothing mindset. In fact, doing so misrepresents the depths of your true value.
Let’s start here: You have inherent value. Not because of your creations, not because of your labor, not because of your contributions… You just do because you are.

western cultures believe we must be alive for a purpose. to work, to make money. some indigenous cultures believe we're alive just as nature is alive: to be here, to be beautiful & strange. we don't need to achieve anything to be valid in our humanness. https://t.co/xzv821b0UN
— lanie (@melatoninlau) July 26, 2021

We’d like to think our community members know their inherent worth, but we realize that the systems we live in can lead us each to question just what that value is at times, ping-ponging between over-monetization and undercharging, all to land in a space of financial insecurity.

We deserve better, and You Belong Here is here to help. We frequently host business development events with sliding scale or scholarship options and community healing events with similar options or with a donation-based model. All of our events are created with the intention of empowering our community to understand their worth and move forward with whatever they’re moving through confidently without setting them back financially.

Consider implementing some of these flexible payment options–sliding scale, scholarship, or donation-based–with your own work, if possible, both to increase the accessibility of your products or services and ensure you can be well-resourced at the end of the day. You can schedule a session with Nic Roc, owner and Program Director at You Belong Here, with our sliding scale options to discuss these business models by clicking here.

There are all kinds of ways to feel valued by your community, but there is only one way to find true internal peace when it comes to your self-worth: understanding your inherent value from an internal compassion. While the capitalist system we live in can challenge this understanding of our value, it is possible to disrupt your internalized capitalist beliefs and implement flexible payment options that provide accessibility to your community and provide you with the resources you need to thrive.

Your self-worth isn’t linked to your productivity.

Unlearning internalized capitalism–or any other oppressive belief–is a lifelong journey, and it’s important to give yourself time to unlearn and cultivate your self-worth on your own path. It is not a one-and-done kind of accomplishment, and even your favorite activists or organizers are still actively on their own unlearning journeys as much as you are. There’s no ‘winning’ or the ‘best’ way, and no proverbial to-do list to check off, but our collective and continued commitment to unlearning does create a better community and society overall. Each of us creates ripples just in how we show up, and this is how the future emerges. We each contribute to the future we all will live in, and as creatives, there’s even a special opportunity to communicate that future through what and how we create. Go forth, and disrupt.