“The remembering self does more than remember & tell stories, it is the one that makes decisions. If you have a patient who is deciding which repeated surgical experience to choose, then, the one he chooses is the one that has the memory that is less bad.

The experiencing self has no voice in this choice. We actually don’t choose between experiences we choose between memories of experiences. And even when we think about the future we don’t think about the future as experiences. We think about the future as anticipated memories.” –Daniel Kahneman

The agenda of Somatic practice often, if not always, involves challenging divisive thinking about the self. Truly an individual is only one self, so the question this talk introduces is how to bring the experiencing and remembering ‘selves’ closer together? Pay attention. Pay attention to daily life and its mundanity. Designating attention intentionally makes moments count and doesn’t allow us discount them by turning them into memories that recall them as they were not. I’m no empirical research analyst, but I wonder if intentionally paying greater attention to the details of present experiences might allow memory to maintain their integrity. If the “remembering self” records experiences in a more truthful manner afforded by enhanced attention, the “experiencing self” has more authority and voice in decision-making process about future events and we can conceptualize these two “selves” as not-so-distinct.