By Lee Wulff
Life Coaching & Personal Development

Extreme self-care is putting your own care first so that you are able to lead and care for others. Your personal standards of physical health, grooming, safety, relationships, finances, environment, mental health and your spiritual well-being must be kept very high.

Eliminate roadblocks in your personal life so that nothing prevents you from excelling in all areas of life. (Eliminating tolerations from daily life will be addressed more fully in an upcoming article.)

Five Self-Care Exercises to Eliminate One or More Struggles From Your Life This Week

1. First identify how much you experience struggle(s) in your day-to-day living.

Action: Make a list of at least 10 daily struggles you face in your life.

2. Identify the source of your struggles. Are the origins other people, your life roles, the expectations of others, your own "should's and ought to's" or other sources that you can think of? Were old labels given to you in your childhood that no longer or never did apply and still causing your actions in the present?

Action: Make a list of each source -- give the source a value from one to five with one being, not too much of a struggle and five, being a big or constant source of struggle

3. Now decide, are you making or allowing things to be harder than they need to be because of sources outside of your own goals and needs? Do you need to say "no" more often to the requests of others?

Action: Write down which items really do not need to be difficult.

4. Decide on the first thing that you will make your life struggle-free this week. What are the three steps you are going to take to make so that this situation is no longer a struggle for you?

Action: Write them down and start taking action today.

The Emotional Freedom Technique on Dr. Mercola's Web site can greatly speed the process of eliminating struggle from your life. Take a look at the procedure, which Dr. Mercola describes in detail. This powerful technique is easy to use anytime and anywhere once you learn the simple steps.

5. Action: Finally, make a list of 10 delicious daily habits you will include in your day-to-day routine that make your life more enjoyable and happier.

Here are some suggestions for your own list of 10 Delicious Daily Habits:

Journaling Prayer Listening to favorite music Light a candle(s) Bubble bath Play with a pet

Get a massage Go for a walk Meditation Lunch with a friend Have something wonderful you are looking forward to at day's end

Making a significant life change is easier when you have the support and accountability that a close friend, family member or a life coach can give. Even after graduating from years of study and training as a life coach, I continue to work with a coach myself. With her weekly support, I stay on track with my goals and get results much more quickly than if I worked alone.

Lee Wulff is a graduate of Coach University and has been working as a personal life coach since 2000. She has extensive background in parent education, family counseling, drug rehabilitation counseling and social work with families and children. Wulff coaches with warmth, a sense of humor and a belief that everyone can live a more effortless, joy-filled life. She resides and practices in Phoenix, Ariz. You can contact Wulff by sending an e-mail to keycoaching@msn.com or calling her at (480) 539-6063.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

As life coach Lee Wulff points out most people spend so much of their lives thinking about or taking care of others that they forget to take care of themselves. Making these simple lifestyle changes could make all the difference between good physical and emotional health and lifetime of chronic illnesses. The process of changing long-held attitudes and beliefs can go a long way toward bringing you happiness. Of course, this is easy to say and not so easy to put into practice in reality because so many of us are blocked by conscious or subconscious negative emotions. Having a coach can really help in this area, especially if you incorporate EFT into your sessions. EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles. If you are not familiar with EFT you can review my free training program and for more detailed instructions you can purchase my DVD videos or Gary Craig's (the founder of EFT) videos. Related Articles: Setting Boundaries for Growth and Protection of Self Meditation’s Real Effects on Health Social Ties May Be Key to Long and Healthy Life The Six Foundations of Healing, Part II Optimism Can Ward Off Stress Positive Thoughts Work as Well as Drugs