Use the following healthy lifestyle tips to discover how to become calmer, stronger and healthier.

One piece of advice experts love to give to anyone contemplating a major life change is: "Take baby steps." They know that trying to improve your life in one go makes it difficult to succeed -- and any minor slip-up, be it a decadent dessert, a week of skipping the gym or a friend's forgotten birthday, can send you into a spiral of self-flagellation. By focusing instead on meeting one simple goal at a time, you might find that you've dropped a size, deepened your relationships, improved your 5k time -- or that you simply smile more often.

More healthy lifestyle tips include:

Become a health tips ambassador. Reach out to others -- your mother, aunts, sisters and friends -- who might not be proactive about getting necessary screening tests like mammograms, colonoscopies and Pap smears. Log on to the National Women's Health Information Center at 4woman.gov/screeningcharts for a list of tests and when to get them.

Organize a soup exchange. Get together with a group of friends and swap your favorite winter warmers. "Soup is simple to prepare and can easily metamorphose -- just serve it over brown rice on another day," says Lori Reamer, director of nutrition at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires Health Resort in Lenox, Mass. What's more, soup's flavors often improve over a couple of days, so when you reheat the leftovers, your concoction may taste even more delicious.

Follow the two-bite principle, suggests Linda Spangle, M.A., R.N., author of Life is Hard, Food is Easy (LifeLine Press, 2003). "Have two bites of anything you want [that's unhealthful] and then pass on it." Those first nibbles have the most flavor and give you the most pleasure -- and you'll often find they're enough to satisfy a craving.

Practice aromatherapeutic breathing techniques. Take five minutes to energize yourself with simple aromatherapeutic breathing techniques from Maria and Kent Burden, co-authors of Yin Yang Fitness: The Whole Package of Health (Amberwood Press, 2003): Hold your favorite tea bag (dry, not brewed) near your nose (try autumnal flavors like cinnamon, apple spice, ginger or a peppermint blend), then inhale through your nose for a count of four, holding your breath for a count of eight, and finally exhaling for a count of four. Repeat 10 times. By following these simple health tips, you'll feel instantly more revved.

Learn more healthy lifestyle tips, such as how to perform creative visualization techniques, by reading the following page.