Self as Context

This step helps you think of and understand your “self” in a new and different way.

How you “define” yourself is not who you are.

• You may typically describe or define yourself by your roles (teacher, spouse, etc.) or certain attributes (kind, social, strong, etc.), but these are limited definitions of yourself and they may change over time.

YOU do not change with changing roles and attributes.

• Because your roles and attributes may change throughout your life, if you are rigidly attached to them or use them to define yourself, you may feel that you are losing yourself if and when they do change. Having a concrete and inflexible definition of yourself makes it difficult to adjust to changing circumstances – such as changes in functioning due to a spinal cord injury or chronic pain.

The unchanging, inner YOU observes the changing world.

• We invite you to recognize yourself as the place, or the container, in which all the things about you exist – all your experiences, feelings, thoughts, physical sensations. This is the part of you that has always been and always will be unchanged, and can observe the thoughts, physical and emotional experiences – including pain - as an “observer self”.