Topic outline

  • Welcome!

    Welcome to our exercises for a kinder, more accepting attitude towards life

    You have come to the right place if:

    • You notice that you often get tired under the pressures of your environment or you are having mentally hard time
    • You thoughts about yourself are judgemental or hypercritical
    • You drive yourself to ever more difficult accomplishments and demand more of yourself than of any other person
    • You are otherwise just dissatisfied with your life or you have a hard time connecting with your feelings
    • You want to find out what self-compassion really means


    Self-compassion is one of the most beneficial skills you can learn in life

    When you are kind to yourself, you can live fully, without fear and without exhaustion. Kindness towards yourself can serve as a path to success, for it helps you to move forward after confronting barriers or obstacles. It gives you a better ability to face your emotions or difficult feedback, or to find the power within you to try again.

    Sympathy helps more than criticism, though you may be used to thinking that you perform best when you are strict with yourself. A lack of sympathy may manifest as perfectionism, making you postpone tasks or belittle the achievements you have accomplished, and thereby keep you from realising your possibilities.

    This course consists of mindfulness exercises that help us to nurture an accepting and sympathetic relationship with ourselves.

    Mindfulness refers to an conscious acceptance of the present. It helps us to perceive the environment around us as well as our own thoughts, feelings and bodily senses just the way they are. Mindfulness exercises help us to develop an accepting and friendly relationship with ourselves.

    The course material was produced by the Aalto study psychologists. The students in the video are portrayed by actors Ida Tiilikainen and Eero Tiilikainen.

    Are you ready to start?


  • Weekly Practices

    In this folder you will find the weekly exercises, which you can do at home. If you want to obtain the demonstrated benefits of mindfulness, these exercises should be performed for about half an hour every day. You may, however, plan the exercises according to your own goals.  We recommend performing the exercises in the order given.

    We wish you many engaging moments with your exercises!