Transcription
When we talk about the self-enact, what do we mean? And what about self is context? For those familiar with the HexaFlex model or the Hexagon model, we know that the self is context is down here at the very bottom of the HexaFlex. The ACT matrix 2 can be used to illuminate this core concept. Of course, there is no one true definition of the self, and this isn't an attempt to find one. Rather, this video will aim to explore the ACT concept of the self using the matrix.
Enact the self is split into three separate concepts. Those three concepts are self-as-content, self-as-process, and self-as-context. Self-as-content is often referred to in terms of fusion and diffusion, though it also accounts for every piece of content in our experience. All that our senses pick up, as well as every thought, feeling, and sensation, is content.
Self-as-process refers to the ongoing flow of the content of our experience. Our senses are constantly receiving new information. Our thoughts and feelings are constantly changing. Yet, there are times when we can feel as though we are stuck on a particular piece of content. When we are stuck on a piece of content or highly identified with particular content, we call this self-as-content. In other words, our self is the content in our lives.
In the diagram of the matrix, you can see here the self in the center with a gap in the circle in one of the quadrants, allowing the content to rush in. Content, of course, exists in all four quadrants as content is everywhere, all the time. It's everything. This gap here could be anywhere, allowing that content to rush in and essentially become the self. This is a metaphor, of course, but a handy way of looking at self-as-content. The gap can be on any of the quadrants, and indeed, you will see clients who conceptualize their self-identity that's primarily one area or the other. They may highly identify, for example, as their inner content or their thoughts and feelings that they don't want. That may be who they are to them. Others may define themselves by who and what are important to them in their life. Others still may define themselves through their actions.
Self-as-process then is the understanding that the self is an ongoing process, a continuous unfolding of experience, that the self is a shifting thing across all of these areas. Self-as-context then is the full picture in context, content feeding into an ever-shifting process, and in context of the present moment.