BODY
POSITIONING
The
way our body faces when we are speaking to someone can easily be interpreted.
Speaking face to face to someone or having our body facing towards someone
is a sign of intimacy, or a sign that the person does not want to be
disturbed.
When
you are positioned facing someone, but slightly to one side, you can
allow your eyes to wonder. If the positioning of the body is quite to
one side, this can be a sign of coldness, and showing lack of interest
in maintaining a conversation. However, in a party context, or in a
meeting, the fact that two people are positioned forming an angle or
more than 90 degrees, is a sign of inviting other people to join the
conversation.
GESTURES
/ BODY MOVEMENTS
A
gesture is defined as a brief non verbal action carried out by a person
(for example, placing your index finger on your lips) so that it can
be perceived by one or more of the speakers, and doing this you are
trying to provide some type of information (in this case, we want there
to be silence).
The
most common daily communication gestures are carried out by the hands
and with the face. These are linked to your culture, although some are
shared in many countries.
Some
types of movement we do when speaking do not have any concrete meaning,
as sometimes they are involuntary movements; one example is moving our
ring whilst we are speaking.
Words
and gestures can be linked, like in the previous example, or they can
provide contrary information. Like when we say that we are calm, but
at the same time we are bitting our nails.
Generally
experts usually recommend using non excessive gestures that match our
verbal content, as they provide better expresivity, a characteristic
that people usually value positively.
Some
gestures are easier to control than others. In general, when we speak,
we pay more attention to our facial expression and we are less conscious
of other movements. This means that the movements and posture of these
distant areas, like the feet, are what we can consider as the true emotions
of someone when they are speaking.
Involuntary and self-governing signals: these are things that
are very difficult to control, like for example, body tremors or the
trembling of your legs.
Legs and feet signals: the movement of the legs and
feet in many ocassion show exactly what our speaker is feeling. Do
you think that someone is calm and having a good time if they don't
stop moving there legs up and down?
Body Posture, which we have spoken about previously.
Gestures with your hands which are not known: moving your ring,
rubbing your hands against your clothes, playing with a small object
between your fingers.
Hand gestures, like moving your thumb upwards, or making a
circle with your thumb and index funger. These gestures are easily
controled in a voluntary way.
Facial Expressions , of which we have spoken about previously.
It is easy to fake a facial expression according to the verbal message,
although good observers can notice small signs in the face that deny
the first impression, like a small movement of the eye brows or lips,
for example.
Verbalizations: the last place in the scale of sincereity
is occupied by words.