Being able to connect with your authentic self helps you stop focusing on “values” based on wanting to please others or to conform to social pressures. For example, someone might claim a value of constantly challenging himself to learn new things, because there’s a cultural message that we should, when he really values consistently applying skills he’s already mastered to help others. Acceptance skills help us cope with the emotional difficulty of the work, while presence helps us assess how we’re actually aligning, or not, with our values in our daily living.