Last week I wrote about three ways to separate self from thought and in including Defusion and Expansion from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) ended with “Committing to move forward and act in line with the values we hold.”  Therefore in ACT , the goal becomes being able to accept the past, pain, stray thoughts, etc. and moving forward according to your values. This begs the question, do you know what your values are? In one of our groups where we explored this, we were given a list of over 100 values and asked to underline the thirty we thought are important to us.  Here’s the list; go for it.

The second step, was to circle half of those that are the more important than the others…  Some of these seem to overlap like spirituality and faith or learning and education, so that shouldn’t be too bad.

Of those fifteen, cross out five. Wow, how to decide?!

Last of all, take your top ten values and narrow it down to three to five values that are the most important to you. When you come to the place of accepting the past, pain, stray thoughts, etc., you now have a direction to go that brings peace. When we live according to our values, our minds can rest. We feel whole. When we don’t live according to our values, we experience guilt and shame. We start to feel bad about ourselves. We think we can’t do anything right. We seem to keep making mistakes. But turn that around, embody the values you feel are important, and wholeness returns.

Now, admittedly, my values are going to include God, so I’m of the opinion that when we’re living God’s will there will be peace. God is the one that makes us whole.