BODY
POSTURE
When
we communicate our body posture , can be as or more communicative as
the verbal contents. If we concentrate on this emotional communicative
value we can differentiate various types of postures and their meaning.
Some of them are:
•
Leaning forward
: inclining the body forwards is a sign that we are paying
attention and that we are interested in what the other person is saying.
It is also important that you do not cross your arms or legs but extend
them towards the speaker.
• Remote:
when a communicative situation does not interest us, we move our body
backwards, and sometimes withdraw it.
•
Expansion: the body is upright, the torso
is straight, perhaps slightly tilted backwards, shoulders lifted and
head upright; this is the posture you adapt when you are proud, or
arrogant. This posture can be seen to be re-inforced when you see
the person's hands clasped behind their neck.
•
Contraction: the body is retracted (sunken
shoulders, head bent down, sunken chest, arms that just hang down...)
this is a posture typical of depression, low self esteem, shyness
and/or insecurity.
•
Anger: when we are furious we tend to
bend our bodies forward and to clench our fists.
Many
experts have tried to classify the different postures according to their
communicative value. In each case, the conclusions always take into
consideration a range of information, verbal, non verbal, like the context
where the communicative episode is taking palce.
Besides,
using a correct body posture can help us to be more convincing and communicate
better if we are speaking. A change in posture can attract attention
of the person listening or indicate that we are going to change the
topic of the conversation, or that we want to emphasize what we are
saying, or to let someone else speak.
