2. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “BODY LANGUAGE”
Body language is the use of physical behavior, expressions, and mannerisms to communicate
nonverbally, often done instinctively rather than consciously.
Whether you’re aware of it or not, when you interact with others, you’re continuously giving
and receiving wordless signals.
All of your nonverbal behaviors—the gestures you make, your posture, your tone of voice,
how much eye contact you make—send strong messages.
They can put people at ease, build trust, and draw others towards you, or they can offend,
confuse, and undermine what you’re trying to convey.
These messages don’t stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you’re silent, you’re
still communicating nonverbally.
3. Since body language is a natural, unconscious language that broadcasts your true feelings
and intentions, they’ll likely choose the nonverbal message.
However, by improving how you understand and use nonverbal communication, you can
express what you really mean, connect better with others, and build stronger, more
rewarding relationships.
By Definition, “Body language is the science of nonverbal signals such as gestures, facial
expressions, and eye gaze that communicate a person’s emotions and intentions. In total,
there are 11 types of body language that we use to communicate. Unlike words, body
language is often done subconsciously and constitutes a large part of our
communication.”
4.
5. TYPES OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
The many different types of nonverbal communication or body language include:
Facial expressions. The human face is extremely expressive, able to convey
countless emotions without saying a word. And unlike some forms of nonverbal
communication, facial expressions are universal. The facial expressions for
happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust are the same across cultures.
Gestures. Gestures are woven into the fabric of our daily lives. You may wave,
point, beckon, or use your hands when arguing or speaking animatedly, often
expressing yourself with gestures without thinking. However, the meaning of
some gestures can be very different across cultures. While the “OK” sign made
with the hand, for example, usually conveys a positive message in English-
speaking countries, it's considered offensive in countries such as Germany, Russia,
and Brazil. So, it's important to be careful of how you use gestures to avoid
misinterpretation.
6. Eye contact. Since the visual sense is dominant for most people, eye contact is an
especially important type of nonverbal communication. The way you look at
someone can communicate many things, including interest, affection, hostility, or
attraction. Eye contact is also important in maintaining the flow of conversation
and for gauging the other person's interest and response.
Touch. We communicate a great deal through touch. Think about the very
different messages given by a weak handshake, a warm bear hug, a patronizing
pat on the head, or a controlling grip on the arm, for example.
Space. Have you ever felt uncomfortable during a conversation because the other
person was standing too close and invading your space? We all have a need for
physical space, although that need differs depending on the culture, the situation,
and the closeness of the relationship. You can use physical space to communicate
many different nonverbal messages, including signals of intimacy and affection,
aggression or dominance.
7. Voice. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. When you speak, other people
“read” your voice in addition to listening to your words. Things they pay attention
to include your timing and pace, how loud you speak, your tone and inflection,
and sounds that convey understanding, such as “ahh” and “uh-huh.” Think about
how your tone of voice can indicate sarcasm, anger, affection, or confidence.
Body movement and posture. Consider how your perceptions of people are
affected by the way they sit, walk, stand, or hold their head. The way you move
and carry yourself communicates a wealth of information to the world.
10. PARALANGUAGE
Paralanguage is the nonverbal communications of your
voice, such as pitch, tone, and cadence. In literal term, it
means the non-lexical component of communication by
speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of
speaking, hesitation noises, gesture, and facial
expression.
Often, we can hear how confident or anxious one feels by
simply listening to their voice.
By learning paralanguage, we can even master our own
voices and give power to our words.
11. GESTURES
The most common gestures are hand gestures. We often use our
hands to express our emotions, tell a story, or comfort ourselves. A
hand gesture is whenever you move your hand or head to express
or emphasize an idea.
• Hand gestures can help you describe what you’re talking
about, both literally (e.g. when you talk about drawing a
circle, you can motion a circle with your hand) and
metaphorically (e.g. you could motion a circle with your hand
to say “everybody”)
• Hand gestures can help you point to people and things in
your surroundings (e.g. pointing at an object while you say
“look at that”)
• Hand gestures can help you add emphasis and structure
when you talk (e.g. showing numbers when you count, “1, 2,
3…”)
• Hand gestures give clues about your emotional state. These
gestures are not always connected to what you’re saying (e.g.
are you confident?, are you lying?, are you anxious?)
12. EMBLEMS
Emblems, or symbolic cues, represent messages that are
consciously understood by others, and are often used in
place of words.
Emblems, a term first used by researcher, David Efron,
describe gestures that have very precise meanings known
within an ethnic, cultural, or sub-cultural group.
There are over 800 emblems, from your “OK” sign and
“thumbs up,” and they are heavily dependent on a
person’s culture and geographic location.
Emblems are used as deliberately and consciously as
spoken words, and are unique in that they can be used in
conjunction with or in place of words.
Emblems can be still or in motion; for example, circling the
index finger around at the side of your head says “He or she is
crazy,” or rolling your hands over and over in front of you says
“Move on.”
13. BLOCKING
Blocking cues are performed to magically “vanish” the
cause of people’s stress or anxiety.
Like the three wise monkeys—“see no evil, hear no evil,
speak no evil”—these cues consist of barriers like
touching the mouth or crossing the arms to block out the
environment.
Whenever someone feels disengaged, uncomfortable, or
closed off, their body shows it with what's called
blocking behavior. This is micronegative. Blocking is
when we cover or block a part of our body as a barrier
between us and someone else.
14. BODY PROXEMICS
Proxemics is a term for how our body moves in space.
Proxemics refers to the study of how space and distance
influence communication. We only need look at the
ways in which space shows up in common metaphors
to see that space, communication, and relationships are
closely related.
We are constantly looking at how someone is moving—
are they gesturing? Leaning?
Moving toward or away from us? Body movements tell
us a lot about preferences and nervousness.
For example, when we are content with and attracted to
someone, we say we are “close” to him or her. When we
lose connection with someone, we may say he or she is
“distant.” In general, space influences how people
communicate and behave.
15. INTEREST
Interest cues can be signs of attraction or general
interest that usually don’t involve touch.
From obvious cues like winking and smiling, to
more subtle ones like a flick of the hair or displaying
the wrist, knowing which cues to give and
recognizing them is key to building rapport.
16. FACIAL EXPRESSION
Did you know there are over 20 muscles in the face that
make up over 10,000 facial expressions?
Think for a moment about how much a person is able to
convey with just a facial expression. A smile can indicate
approval or happiness. A frown can signal disapproval
or unhappiness.
The expression on a person's face can even help
determine if we trust or believe what the individual is
saying.
Facial expressions are also among the most universal
forms of body language. The expressions used to convey
fear, anger, sadness, and happiness are similar
throughout the world.
17. PACIFYING
Pacifying behaviors consist of a wide range of self-
soothing behaviors that serve to calm us down after
experiencing something unpleasant. This can be seen with
fidgeting, bouncing feet, and arm rubbing. As a general
rule of thumb, any repetitive behavior is likely pacifying.
The mouth and lips are full of nerve endings which, when
stimulated, provides tactile gratification and comfort.
However, anytime the fingers go to the mouth such as
playing with the side of the mouth or lip, it’s a
retrogressive action indicating insecurity.
These types of gestures are called “pacifying behaviours”
because they are designed to reduce anxiety when
someone is exposed to something distressing.
Pacifying language tells us that the mind is not at ease,
and it is attempting to restore the body’ natural state.
18. HAPTICS
Haptics refers to body language cues that involve touch.
These include handshakes, touching another’s arm, hugs,
a pat on the shoulder, and kissing.
Since we interact with the world through touch, we can
observe how others touch us to get an insight on their
preferences.
Communicating through non-verbal haptics involves
handshake, pat, slap, hug, massage, hit, kick, embrace,
tickle etc. Each touch communicates a unique message
like fear, disgust, love, encouragement, gratitude,
sympathy, anger, sex, pain, violence etc. Moreover, haptic
communication depends on environment and
interpretations such as on who, why, when and differs
with setting and purpose as professional, friendship,
guide, punishment, sympathy, arousal, attention,
greeting, seeking, etc.
19. EYE GAZE
Gazing is simply the act of looking intently. It is a
powerful nonverbal signal which concerns the act, the
duration, and the manner of looking
Eye movements and changes tell us a lot about others’
intentions.
During an interaction, we can often see changes such as
longer eye gaze, sideways glances, and blocked eyes.
These cues can indicate emotions like attraction,
skepticism, or stress. Real communication takes place
when the partners gaze at each other ‘eye-to-eye’.
There are different reactions to gazing. There are people
who feel uncomfortable when they are looked at in the
eye; they become self-conscious while there are others
whose eyes communicate comfort. All these reactions
are gathered from the amount of time one person looks
at another.
20. ORNAMENTS
Clothes, jewelry, sunglasses, and hairstyles are all
extensions of our body language. Artefacts, i.e. clothing,
jewellery, sartorial accessories transmit information
regarding gender, age, economical, social and
professional status.
Not only do certain colors and styles send signals to
others, how we interact with our ornaments is also
telling.
Is someone a fidgeter with their watch or ring?
