INDEX

1. IMPORTANCE OF LIFE SKILL

2. TEN LIFE SKILLS

3. JOHARI WINDOW

4. SELF-AWARENESS

5. EMPATHY

6. CRITICAL THINKING

7. CREATIVE THINKING

8. DECISION MAKING

9. PROBLEM SOLVING

10. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

11. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

12. COPING WITH STRESS

13. COPING WITH EMOTIONS

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter
his life by altering his attitudes” -William James (Psychologist)

(You can change the way you think and feel by changing what you say when you talk to the
mind.)
The importance of life skills

In a constantly changing environment, having life skills is an essential part of being able to meet
the challenges of everyday life. The dramatic changes in global economies over the past five
years have been matched with the transformation in technology and these are all impacting on
education, the workplace and our home life. To cope with the increasing pace and change of
modern life, students need new life skills such as the ability to deal with stress and frustration.
Today’s students will have many new jobs over the course of their lives, with associated
pressures and the need for flexibility.

Benefits for the individual

In everyday life, the development of life skills helps students to:

 Find new ways of thinking and problem solving

 Recognise the impact of their actions and teaches them to take responsibility for what
they do rather than blame others

 Build confidence both in spoken skills and for group collaboration and cooperation

 Analyse options, make decisions and understand why they make certain choices outside
the classroom

 Develop a greater sense of self-awareness and appreciation for others

Benefits for employment

While students work hard to get good grades, many still struggle to gain employment. According
to research by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) in 2011 employers were looking not
just for academic success but key employability skills including:

 The ability to self-manage, solve problems and understand the business environment
  Working well as part of a team

 Time and people management

 Agility and adaptability to different roles and flexible working environments

 The potential to lead by influence

Benefits for society

The more we develop life skills individually, the more these affect and benefit the world in
which we live:

 Recognising cultural awareness and citizenship makes international cooperation easier

 Respecting diversity allows creativity and imagination to flourish developing a more

tolerant society

 Developing negotiation skills, the ability to network and empathise can help to build
resolutions rather than resentments

10 life skills

Life skills are behaviors that enable individuals to adapt and deal effectively with the demands
and challenges of life. There are many such skills, but core life skills include the ability to: The
Ten core Life Skills as laid down by WHO are:

14. Self-awareness
15. Empathy
16. Critical thinking
17. Creative thinking
18. Decision making
19. Problem Solving
20. Effective communication
21. Interpersonal relationship
22. Coping with stress
23. Coping with emotions

The Johari window is a technique[1] that helps people better understand their relationship
with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and
Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, and is used primarily in self-helpgroups and
corporate settings as a heuristic exercise[2][3] . Luft and Ingham called their Johari Window
model 'Johari' after combining their first names, Jo and Harrington.The philosopher Charles
Handy calls this concept the Johari House with four rooms. Room one is the part of ourselves
that we and others see. Room two contains aspects that others see but we are unaware of.
 Room three is the private space we know but hide from others. Room four is
the unconscious part of us that neither ourselves nor others see.

The four quadrants

Open, or Arena
Adjectives that both the subject and peers select go in this cell (or quadrant) of the grid.
These are traits that subject and peers perceive.
Hidden, or Façade
Adjectives selected by the subject, but not by any of their peers, go in this quadrant.
These are things the peers are either unaware of, or that are untrue but for the subject's
claim.
Blind Spot
Adjectives not selected by subjects, but only by their peers go here. These represent what
others perceive but the subject does not.
Unknown
Adjectives that neither subject nor peers selected go here. They represent subject's
behaviors or motives that no one participating recognizes—either because they do not
apply or because of collective ignorance of these traits.

Johari adjectives
A Johari window uses the following 56 adjectives as possible descriptions of the participant. [6]

 able
 accepting
 adaptable
 bold
 brave
 calm
 caring
 cheerful
 clever
 complex
 confident
 dependable
 dignified
 empathetic
 energetic
 extroverted
 friendly
 giving
 happy
 helpful
 idealistic
 independent
 ingenious
 intelligent
 introverted
 kind
 knowledgeable
 logical
 loving
 mature
 modest
 nervous
 observant
 organized
 patient
 powerful
 proud
 quiet
 reflective
 relaxed
 religious
 responsive
 searching
 self-assertive
 self-conscious
 sensible
 sentimental
 shy
 silly
 spontaneous
 sympathetic
 tense
 trustworthy
 warm
 wise
 witty
Self-awareness

includes recognition of ‘self’, our character, our strengths and weaknesses, desires and dislikes.
Developing self-awareness can help us to recognize when we are stressed or feel under pressure.
It is often a prerequisite to effective communication and interpersonal relations, as well as for
developing empathy with others.

Empathy

To have a successful relationship with our loved ones and society at large, we need to understand
and care about other peoples’ needs, desires and feelings. Empathy is the ability to imagine what
life is like for another person. Without empathy, our communication with others will amount to
one-way traffic. Worst, we will be acting and behaving according to our self-interest and are
bound to run into problems. No man is an island, no woman either! We grow up in relationships
with many people – parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, classmates, friends
and neighbors’. When we understand ourselves as well as others, we are better prepared to
communicate our needs and desires. We will be more equipped to say what we want people to
know, present our thoughts and ideas and tackle delicate issues without offending other people.
At the same time, we will be able to elicit support from others, and win their understanding.

Empathy can help us to accept others, who may be very different from ourselves. This can
improve social interactions, especially, in situations of ethnic or cultural diversity. Empathy can
also help to encourage nurturing behaviour towards people in need of care and assistance, or
tolerance, as is the case with AIDS sufferers, or people with mental disorders, who may be
stigmatized and ostracized by the very people they depend upon for support.

Critical thinking

is an ability to analyze information and experiences in an objective manner. Critical thinking can
contribute to health by helping us to recognize and assess the factors that influence attitudes and
behaviour, such as values, peer pressure and the media.

Creative thinking
is a novel way of seeing or doing things that is characteristic of four components – fluency
(generating new ideas), flexibility (shifting perspective easily), originality (conceiving of
something new), and elaboration (building on other ideas).

Decision making
 helps us to deal constructively with decisions about our lives. This can have consequences for
health. It can teach people how to actively make decisions about their actions in relation to
healthy assessment of different options and, what effects these different decisions are likely to
have.

Problem solving helps us to deal constructively with problems in our lives. Significant problems
that are left unresolved can cause mental stress and give rise to accompanying physical strain.

Interpersonal relationship

skills help us to relate in positive ways with the people we interact with. This may mean being
able to make and keep friendly relationships, which can be of great importance to our mental and
social well-being. It may mean keeping, good relations with family members, which are an
important source of social support. It may also mean being able to end relationships
constructively.

Effective communication
means that we are able to express ourselves, both verbally and non-verbally, in ways that are
appropriate to our cultures and situations. This means being able to express opinions and desires,
and also needs and fears. And it may mean being able to ask for advice and help in a time of
need. Coping with stress means recognizing the sources of stress in our lives, recognizing how
this affects us, and acting in ways that help us control our levels of stress, by changing our
environment or lifestyle and learning how to relax. Coping with emotions means involving
recognizing emotions within us and others, being aware of how emotions influence behaviour
and being able to respond to emotions appropriately. Intense emotions like anger or sadness can
have negative effects on our health if we do not respond appropriately.

Coping with stress

95% of all the diseases are created by stress. Wrong beliefs like “I’m not good enough” or
"Something is wrong with me" cause up to 95% of all illness and disease. The membrane of the
cell is the brain of the cell, not the nucleus. Our beliefs are stored in the membrane of our cells.
Unless we are fully aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it at every moment, we
are always acting on our unconscious programming stored as beliefs in our cells. Scientific
research has established that stress is the core factor in physical, mental, and emotional disease.
Discovering how unconscious physical, mental and emotional habits create stress, aging,
addiction and disease, through awareness and simple lifestyle changes reclaiming youthful
vitality, joy and well being.