Focus our thoughts skills cluster

This includes tasks we engage in a lot of the time, such as weekly food shopping. This might involve focussing on what meals we want to cook so we can write a shopping list, deciding what to buy, choosing an alternative if what you want has sold out – and stopping yourself from buying only ice cream. It also includes much more complex tasks such as taking exams, managing a large work project, moving home, or coping with the practical aspects of a loved one’s death.

These skills are:

• Focus our attention
• Be aware of and direct our thoughts
• Weigh up information
• Make decisions that are right for ourselves and others
• Solve problems
• Pause before we act
• Be flexible
• Keep going
• Bounce back