Life skills:
Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour, that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
Reference: Life skills education in schools. WHO, Geneva, 1993
Life skills consist of personal, inter-personal, cognitive and physical skills which enable people to control and direct their lives, and to develop the capacity to live with and produce change in their environment. Examples of individual life skills include decision making and problem solving, creative thinking and critical thinking, self-awareness and empathy, communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills, coping with emotions and managing stress. Life skills as described above are fundamental building blocks for the development of personal skills for health promotion described as one of the key action areas in the Ottawa Charter.