subject: What Your Body Language Is Saying [print this page] In the beginning, when people still lived in caves, something happened that changes their lives forever. They learned to decipher grunts and to create words and convey messages. Before there was verbal communication people relied on their bodies to communicate. With their simple brains they were only able to with their faces, torsos, and limbs. They knew that all the emotions that they felt required different attitudes, and different attitudes require different gestures.
Over time speech developed. Speech is a relatively to the communication process and is mainly used to convey facts, information, or data. On the flip side, body language has been, and always will be around. You do not have to hear someone say with confirmation what he or she are feeling. You can also tell someone's attitudes and emotions from body language. Whether you like it or not, your non-verbal behavior, or body language, reveals to everyone your attitudes, moods, and your emotions. The majority of the time this is more than you want to reveal.
Professor Albert Mehrabian of the University of California conducted numerous experiments about communication. He found that 55 percent of the emotional message in face-to-face communication results in body language. Your body language is a lot more powerful than anything you could ever say.
Stop and think for a minute, what message are you communicating with your body language? If you are quiet for a moment and take the time to pay attention to what you are communication, you can cue in on gestures that convey feelings and transmit thought. If you stop and pay close attention you can spot gestures that you can automatically associate with other people and reminds you of them. If you can do this you can definitely notice other types of gestures that reveal a person's inner thoughts at any moment. For example, have you ever experienced any of the following situations?
- Someone pointing a finger at you
- A warm hug from a friend
- Someone waving a finger in your face
- A lover's frown
- A smile stretched from cheek to cheek
- Placing your hand over your heart
- A crying child
- A parent's look of disapproval
Now that you have been given a brief overview of body language and what you are possibly saying to other people, how are you going to modify what you are saying through your body language? Make sure that you are saying what you want to with your body language.
