The term life skills refers to a large group of psychosocial and interpersonal skills which can help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively and develop coping and self-management skills that may help them lead a healthy and productive life. Life skills may be directed towards personal actions or actions towards others as well as actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health. For many decades, instruction about health and healthy behaviors was described as "health education." Within that broad term, health education took many forms. Health education has been defined as any combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behavior conducive to health. Life skills development has always been included in health education.