ACT: Self-As-Context
Last Updated on September 27, 2023 by admin
In acceptance and commitment therapy, one of its core tenets is self-as-context or the noticing self. Its dictionary definition is: “that transcendent aspect of a human being that does all the mindful noticing of one’s inner and outer world”. I know, this doesn’t help at all. As a concept, self-as-context is extremely meta and can be really difficult to grasp, but it’s a very important process in ACT that begs understanding.
Essentially, self-as-context is the part of you that does all the noticing. Another term for it is “pure awareness” because it’s an experience that happens when you are aware of your own awareness. For example, if you notice that you start feeling some anxiety, the process of self-as-context would be you becoming aware of the fact that you’re noticing your anxiety. You might be wondering, what purpose does this serve? And that’s a valid question! In ACT, it’s generally used to facilitate both defusion and acceptance. You may still be wondering – how? Allow me to break it down for you.
As we learned in a previous blog post, being fused to something means that you are unable to disconnect yourself from whatever it is that you are fused with. For example, oftentimes people will say “I’m anxious” rather than “I’m feeling anxiety”, and this is due to a fusion with the feeling of anxiety. This in a sense becomes our self-concept, in that we begin to identify with anxiety – it becomes a part of us. Self-as-context would help facilitating de-fusing from that self-concept, because it gives us an opportunity to step back and observe ourselves and our lives as greater than one negative feeling. It gives us flexibility to see ourselves from different perspectives, and this effectively slows our rapid negative downward spiral before it even happens.
In the same stroke, it facilitates acceptance as well, because it disconnects us from our own negative inner experiences, making it easier for us to accept them, letting them ebb and flow as they please. This acceptance allows you to experience a stable sense of self in the midst of constant change – a self that transcends your body and mind. This assumption works from the position that “if you can notice your thoughts, you cannot be your thoughts”.
Although your thoughts are a part of you, there’s still so much more to you, and this realization can be incredibly freeing and comforting for many people.
Self-as-context is the hub from which we notice things. It’s what notices whatever is being noticed, and that hub is essentially stagnant throughout our lives. The things that we are noticing are continually changing as we grow up and experience different things, but the perspective from which we notice never changes. It’s always from the perspective of I/here/now, and this unchanging position is what self-as-context really is.
The key to self-as-context, as is the key for most aspects of ACT, is mindfulness. Generally, you want to enhance mindfulness exercises by actively and intentionally noticing your own noticing, and you can do so simply by stepping back and asking yourself – am I aware of what I am noticing?
A simple way of introducing self-as-context into any mindfulness exercise is to slip in a prompt along the lines of “As you notice X (your breath/thoughts/physical feelings), be aware that you’re noticing. There is X and there’s a part of you noticing X”. This helps you realize that there’s a “you” who is experiencing all of those sensations, thoughts, and emotions, and there is another “you” in the background that is noticing everything.
Once you develop this general understanding that there is so much more to you than your mind and your body, the world opens up. You’re more able to disconnect yourself from your negative thoughts and emotions, and it also gives you space to accept them as part of you, not as all of you. This is ultimately the goal of acceptance and commitment therapy, although it does require a lot of intentional mindfulness that with practice, can easily become a part of your daily life.